A writer whose work you admire A LOT turns out to be a disgusting pervert. Do you stop reading their work? Do you hold your nose with one hand as you turn the pages with the other? Do you refuse to be on a panel with them?
"Perversion" is an odd word, isn't it? I mean, there are loads of areas in life where I do think there's "one true path" to lose sight of and end up perverted. Children should be safe and warm and fed. That's an easy one. All people are created equal. Thanks, America - you nailed it there.
But we're rarely thinking of sociopaths and supremacists when the word "pervert" comes up.
In the usual meaning of the word - hissed through pursed lips while pearls grind from all the clutching, I don't really care if someone else's enthusiasms disgust me as long as I'm not expected to take part in them and they're the freely-made choice of everyone who does take part in them.
There's the rub. If "pervert" is taken to mean "predator" then, as Eric said, I'm happy for the freed-up shelf space. Roman "but it was years ago" Polanski - no thanks. Woody "she's not my *biological* daughter" Allan - nope. Alice "I'm just the enabler" Munro - still no. Brendan Dubois - I didn't own anything to throw out but take a guess.
Same goes for bullies and "bully" includes, for me, all racists, sexists, homophobes, transphobes, Islamophobes, Antisemites, ableists and eugenicists. It doesn't matter if they're bullying me. In fact, I tend to be fiercer when it's someone else getting it. And I get really angry whenever some fellow straight white assumes they can relax and put down the burden of pretending to care about others because it's just us and I'm one of them. Surprise!
Then, OMG the whining. No one whines like a straight white who thought they could take a rest from the endless weight of having to be . . . a halfway decent human being. Waaah. And bringing it up is so divisive! Sob.
I'm a huge fan of divisiveness. Some people are Nazis. If we weren't divided, it'd be Nazis all the way down.
Cx
p.s. You'd think I'd be in a better mood today what with the Anthony nominations coming out and we at Criminal Minds racking up five between us. Two for Gabriel, two for me and one for Eric!
18 comments:
Amen, sister. Also, Brendan was my neighbor. I'd had lunch with him in my town a few months earlier. I liked him. O.M.G. How do people lead these double lives? Yes, I have tossed the book he gave me in the trash.
I was on the Edgars Best Short Story committee the year BD debuted and argued hard (though unsuccessfully) to get him the Fish award for Best First. We’ve been friends ever since. Not any more. I am ashamed of myself for not having seen through the façade — though I understand that people like him are better at keeping the sickness hidden than I am at seeing through the layers of artifice. He contributed to several of my anthologies that are being reissued this year … with his stories either cut or replaced. There is no place left for him in my life.
Sorry, that was me.
Brendan Dubois? O. M. G. This is the first I’ve heard. Guess I should crawl out from under a rock once in a while.
Catriona, congrats on your Anthony nominations And keep on standing on your principles. XO
I was, like many others around here, stunned. I kept replaying the messages we had exchanged about our respective animals and thoughts on books, looking for indications of this well-hidden kink. I found none that I could recognize, even in retrospect. I don't think I own any of his books and I don't feel the need to buy any now or ever. I am so very sorry for his wife and his family.
@Aubrey,@Edith,@Josh - please don't for one second assume any guilt about not knowing or guessing - every paedophile (or other predator) operates in secret, trading on lies, gaslighting their victims and everyone else. That's the second punch - the one that makes you crazy as well as hurt.
Not sure I’d classify Alice Waters as a predator. Bully, sure, it seems to be common to the food world. But yes, distaste for a person’s actions and words have cleared a lot of names from my “must-read” and “Must-see” lists.
Thanks, Ann! And sorry to be the one breaking this news to you.
OMG - I said "Alice Waters" instead of "Alice Munro" - I've fixed it.
There are so many books out there to read, that I want to read. It’s pretty easy for me to write off people who turn out to be nasty specimens of any type. I haven’t been truly tested, though. Alice Munro hurt a bit. I recycled a couple of books.
@Lori, I wonder if fiction is particularly prone to becoming toxic if the author unzips the human suit. Music and paintings . . . aren't so much like spending time inside someone's head. For me, anyway.
I met a fair number of sexual predators during my legal career, and most truly did appear normal. As Josh says, they're better at hiding their secret lives than we are at detecting them. After the truth comes out, we know what to do about the person and the books in the present. But what do we do with our past admiration for the work? That's the hard part. DuBois's short story about the arsonist still sticks with me; it was brilliant. So were Munro's stories, and when I read Marion Zimmer Bradley in my 20s, I was blown away. We can't unread them, or undo the influence they might have had on our own work.
@Leslie, I think what we do is - okay, what I do - is leave the responsibility where it belongs, including the responsibility for tricking and then disgusting all of us they lied to.
I feel like Ann, that I've been under a rock, not having heard anything about this until today. I wasn't friends with him, maybe FB friends but not one I communicated with. When people have a dark side to them that you were totally not expecting, it gives you pause as to what others' true self might be. But, of course, we still have to operate on a basis of trust, or the bad ones win. I was heartbroken when I found out about Neil Gaiman, whom I had so admired for years.
Also, congratulations to all who have Anthony nominations!
I'm with you - but I can't even claim it's a moral judgment. I just lose my taste for them (I mean, Mel Gibson? Ick. But back in the day...). And CONGRATS to both you and Gabriel! Yay!
Boy, am I clueless, or at least not piped into the right news source. Will search. Sounds ugly, though. Better news: Congratulations to you and Gabe!
Ah, I wondered. Thanks. (This is Laurie King, by the way, hiding under the Anonymous label…)
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