Can an artist's opinions be set aside from his work?

[justalurkr]

Well, yeah. They can. Should they? I don't know that it even depends on the opinion. I just know that when I read the lowest key interview of Orson Scott Card possible sometime between reading Songmaster and considering Alvin Maker, and he said he didn't have anything against individual homosexuals, just that the Bible said homosexuality is wrong and he (Card) was a Christian, so...homosexuality was wrong to him, I couldn't read any more of Card's stuff.

Couldn't have told you why then. Today, it's somewhere between "not gonna put money in his pocket, seriously, why even answer a question like that. sci fi author?" and "I can't break faith with myself by enjoying something written by a hate-filled lunatic." Because that's what I thought he was, then...a lunatic. I had a pretty strong feeling I wasn't the only reader who wouldn't be able to enjoy his work knowing he held an opinion I found hateful, and he was nuts for being willing to live without that revenue instead of keeping his mouth shut.

Then, I found out that Ender's Game is going to be a movie released November 1 and based on this incident involving a Superman comic, people were already worried that Card's "views" might cut back on the box office. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my lunatic (seriously, why stir the pot in an interview about your work like that? Oh, right. Because he doesn't mean anything with all that homosexual subtext and he was making sure everyone knew it;) has become an anti-gay activist to the point of calling for armed insurrection should gay marriage become legal.

At least I feel a little more comfortable calling him a lunatic now.

That Harrison Ford is in a movie adaptation of a story I loved as a kid does not make this any easier, but I still have no plans to see the film.

Comments

[nialla]

Him joining up with the National Organization for Marriage moved him up from "hate-filled lunatic" to "hate-filled lunatic with a platform and a budget".

I've also enjoyed the irony of his insurrection quote being framed by saying that when government is the enemy of marriage, then those "creating successful marriages" should overthrow the government. Shall we let him in on the roughly 50% divorce rate amongst the straights?

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I just wish we knew the adultery rate. Even the consensual swinging rate would be handy. Marriage of one man and one woman for the purposes of procreation per "God's plan" hasn't ever happened as broadly as its proponents would hope.

Quotes because while not an atheist, I maintain it's highly unlikely any mortal really gets God's plan. And that's on my optimistic days. On my cynical days, I'm always amazed, just gob-smacked at how closely "God's plan" coincides with the interests of the local powers that be.

edited to add: Oh, and how many not-so-straight people are either enduring horrible marriages to fit in, or how many beards are enduring fake marriages so their gay spouse can hide. I understand that Card had a character (gay, married for duty) in one of his books, so that probably wouldn't bother him. I wonder if gay adultery (impossible as that is under the strict definition of adultery) is all right with him?

[nialla]

The one man and one woman completely monogamous concept is relatively modern from what I've read. For centuries, it was accepted that men and women would marry to have children, but men could keep a mistress or five, and in some cultures, carry on with other men, as long as they kept it relatively quiet and produced legitimate heirs. Of course women didn't have as much freedom, due to the whole "legitimate heirs" things.

There's actually a thing in China of gay men and lesbians essentially entering into a marriage of convenience due to family and society expectations. It's called xinghun. The article is interesting, but it reminds me of the religious wingnuts in the US who say of of course gay people can get married... as long as it's someone of the opposite sex.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

First, icon love.

Then...I had a bad feeling about some of the places the one child policy would go, but this one never crossed my mind.

[nialla]

Sinfest is an excellent source of icon inspiration.

The one child policy resulted in many families choosing to have a boy to carry on the family name, not realizing that without enough girls, there's not going to be a wife and child for their son.

Add in that some of these only children are gay or lesbian, and it gets even more complicated. At least with xinghun there's not a straight person being deceived and a gay person being unhappily married in order to meet society's expectations. Both parties go in knowing the deal.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Having been raised an only child (though with an impressive arrays of halfs and a step,) I can tell you there are a lot more problems with having one than just what we were looking at. ;) Little Emperors, indeed.

I'm pretty sure that if anyone thought of the "where the wives gonna come from?" at all, the answer was "not at the end of my family tree, twig, branch...whatever."

Xinghun sounds like a much better deal than what went on before Stonewall in the West, but the mess around marriage equality wherever one finds it still says a lot about the people making it. For China, sounds like ol' Mencius has a some to answer for.