Author Topic: Artist's personality changing your views on their work  (Read 7157 times)

Gamercow

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on: September 01, 2010, 03:07:17 PM
It's con season, and many of us go to cons to meet authors, actors, and others whose work we admire.  Inevitably, we will come across someone that is a jerk.This could be from having a bad day, bad lunch, con tiredness, or even the simple fact that they are a jerk.  When you come across someone like this, does it affect how you view their work?  I've seen stories of people meeting various artists of all kinds, having a bad experience, and then proclaiming "XYZ was a dick!  I'll never read their stories/watch their show/read their webcomic AGAIN!"  Even I admit my experiences of reading one author's work diminished when I found out on multiple occasions that he was an arrogant toad in person. 

Have any of you experienced this? 

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Scattercat

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Reply #1 on: September 01, 2010, 04:36:33 PM
Oh, undoubtedly.  I can still say, of their work, that it is impressive and requires tremendous skill, but given that I know how much of myself I put into my own writing, I can no longer consume media put out by someone I know to be a butthead.  Likewise, there are lots of things that can be ambiguous or uncertain in meaning which, if one knows the artist to be a butthead, one then realizes that they meant the OTHER meaning, not the one you'd thought a sensible person would have.



Talia

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Reply #2 on: September 01, 2010, 06:54:17 PM
I've only come across this maaaybe once or twice, and in those instances I assumed it was something stupid I did or said.

I am happy to report that all my favorites who I've had the pleasure to meet were pretty cool IRL too.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #3 on: September 01, 2010, 07:08:08 PM
Like Talia, most artists that I've admired in art have been pretty neat IRL. Neil Gaiman, for example, was a total (ly exhausted) gentleman, even when my wife and I got our gush all over his dignity. Amber Benson was funny, clever, and patient with her audience's goobery questions and odd comments about her work on Buffy. R. A. Salvatore was extremely friendly and took the time to give me writing advice... I must have been ten at the time.

On the other hand, I honestly never liked most of Orson Scott Card's work. Ender's Game is all right, but I find the rest of it somewhere between cracked and half-baked.

There's probably a bit of confirmation bias here, probably also a weird effect based on the fact that I like most people and most books. In general, though, I find that I just don't like the way assholes write, and most writers I like turn out to be neat people.

You'll note that I've drifted into writers, rather than actors or musicians, which is probably part of it. I think writers, who are always creating their own material, put more of themselves into the work that I already seem to know them through. It make sense that I tend to like writers that I... well... like. I'm not sure the same is true of actors, especially screen actors, which might explain my attitude.

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Zorag

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Reply #4 on: September 01, 2010, 07:21:19 PM
Unless it affects their craft, I don't care.  I am not much of a fanboy, the Maleficent Orator aside.  I

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Listener

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Reply #5 on: September 03, 2010, 09:51:54 PM
I strongly disagree with the politics of many authors and musicians and filmmakers (actors/directors/writers) I enjoy the creative work of, and what I've learned from all my time working in the media is that one's politics tends to inform one's personality.

That said, my dislike of the politics of Counting Crows doesn't keep me from going to their concerts and buying their music. Same with China Mieville. And even though Tom Cruise is clearly crazy, he's still in some pretty good movies that I'm not going to stop enjoying just because he's crazy.

Just be glad it's him, and not you.

All that said, I've heard a few stories of other authors I really like who are kind of dickish at cons. I'm not going to mention any names, but I'm sure you've met some of them too.

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kibitzer

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Reply #6 on: September 07, 2010, 04:45:55 AM
Whilst at AussieCon I saw many authors and artists. I don't think anyone was a dick (well, I thought Stross was being a smart-arse on one panel, although not unlikeably so) but in the main, it's vastly improved my opinions. For example, Scalzi was simply scintillating the times I saw him. He moderated one panel and was firm, fair and kept things moving along at a great pace, whilst providing hugely entertaining comments. I've read little of his; that will change.

I was similarly impressed by Mur, Cory Doctorow, Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaun Tan, Alistair Reynolds, Terry Dowling and many others.


Millenium_King

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Reply #7 on: September 07, 2010, 05:18:10 AM
Lady Gaga.

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wakela

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Reply #8 on: September 09, 2010, 06:09:53 AM
If I know and disagree with an author's politics, I'll roll my eyes annoyedly when I come across grandstanding in his work.  But if I don't know them I may blow by the grandstanding without noticing.  And of course if I agree, then it's not as annoying.



Gamercow

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Reply #9 on: September 09, 2010, 05:41:10 PM
There are also times where I have clearly said or done something wrong.  My encounter with William Gibson was one such case.  I asked him about a rumored script for Neuromancer, and he basically told me to f off.  I had no idea he was in a legal battle about that rumored script.   :-X

And I understand the politics/personal beliefs thing.  The first post was mainly about pure arrogance, rudeness and/or dickishness.

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stePH

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Reply #10 on: September 12, 2010, 03:29:19 PM
If I avoided the works of writers I knew to be poor excuses for human beings, I could never read and enjoy L. Ron Hubbard's stuff.

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deflective

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Reply #11 on: September 12, 2010, 05:24:10 PM
but Hubbard pretty much infuses his stuff with his beliefs.  i couldn't read his stuff even before i knew about his link to scientology or his personal beliefs because the same stuff is represented in his work.

say what you will about Card's essays on homosexuality, his homosexual characters are human; sometimes even protagonists.  on the other hand, an impressionable friend of mine suddenly started condemning all homosexuals as twisted using a strange vocabulary (such as the word catamite).  later i found out he was in the middle of the mission earth series.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #12 on: September 12, 2010, 05:30:18 PM
I'd just like to throw out there - only barely apropos of anything - that I spoke to Brandon Sanderson at a signing yesterday, and he is awesome, and it made me like his work even more. So, while it's not true that a dickish author drives me away from his work, an awesome writer certainly draws me towards his work.

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MCWagner

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Reply #13 on: September 12, 2010, 06:08:57 PM
My love of various dead authors (upon whom the verdict of time has already been passed) got me used to the conflict of "wonderful artist, terrible person" very early, to the point that I experience a bit of guilty shadenfreude when people discover that their own living idols are very much flawed human beings like the rest of us.  I've commented on the difficulties with HPL elsewhere, but in the converse every interview and con-encounter I've ever heard of has painted Uwe Boll in the most positive light ever... he comes off as the enthusiastic half-crazed German offspring of Ed Wood and William Castle.  Which, of course, has nothing to do with the fact he makes some of the worst movies in memory.

But at the same time, as much as I'd like to separate the author and his work to pass judgement on either individually, they are always irrevocably intertwined.  While Uwe's enthusiasm drives me to try to find something worthwhile in his films (...still looking...), HPL's unfortunate character flaws creep into his works when you examine them closely (...I am still conflicted about my realization of what "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was really about...).

It's a somewhat unresolvable conflict.  Like a lot of analysis, once you delve into it, it can be hard to back out again to simple enjoyment.  'Fraid I've no solid advice for you, other than to say just take each work on a case-by-case basis.



stePH

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Reply #14 on: September 13, 2010, 08:46:55 PM
but Hubbard pretty much infuses his stuff with his beliefs.  i couldn't read his stuff even before i knew about his link to scientology or his personal beliefs because the same stuff is represented in his work.

say what you will about Card's essays on homosexuality, his homosexual characters are human; sometimes even protagonists.  on the other hand, an impressionable friend of mine suddenly started condemning all homosexuals as twisted using a strange vocabulary (such as the word catamite).  later i found out he was in the middle of the mission earth series.

Mission Earth is frakin' hilarious! At least up to book 8, (as long as Soltan Gris is the narrator). And the Scientology elements are very subdued in Battlefield Earth, and most of his earlier stuff has none of it (Ole Doc Methuselah being a notable exception)

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