Today’s presentation will be a Hybrid meeting with online and in-person options.
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/971381033
Join us in-person at The 519, 519 Church Street, Rm 301
“When Good Art is Made by Bad People”
Presented by Tanya Long
Sometime in the late 1990s I heard a review of the CD Handel Arias by countertenor David Daniels. I was smitten. Daniels was fantastic: powerful, expressive, with masterful vocal technique. I thought he had the most beautiful voice on the planet. I bought a number of his CDs and developed an interest in Baroque opera, which frequently stars countertenors. Much more recently, while researching Daniels for a presentation, I learned that he and his partner had pled guilty to the charge of sexual assault of a graduate student. I cried.
My "guilty pleasure" is crime fiction. If I didn't belong to a couple of book clubs, chances are I wouldn't read anything else. I particularly enjoy the CB Strike books by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. JK Rowling). I've read all seven in the series, watched the TV shows, and look forward to more. But I struggle with my pleasure, feeling like a hypocrite. My sister was a transgender woman (she died in 2019); Rowling's views about transgender women are malicious and fear-mongering. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, cast members of the Harry Potter series, have all spoken out against Rowling for her views.
The literary community in Canada and around the world has been rocked by news that Alice Munro’s youngest daughter, Andrea, had been sexually abused by Munro’s second husband, Gerald Fremlin, when she was nine. When Munro finally found out about it, she said it had nothing to do with her and she continued to live with Fremlin until his death. Munro is the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and has been universally acclaimed for her short stories. She has been called "Canada’s Chekhov."
So, did I throw out my collection of Daniels' CDs, destroy my Alice Munro books and vow never to read another CB Strike novel? No, I did not.
The issue of what do you do about good art by bad people is not a new one. There are so many examples: Richard Wagner; Roman Polanski; Picasso; Miles Davis; Bill Cosby; Michael Jackson; Woody Allen; Doris Lessing (it's not all men). I'm sure you can add to the list. For many, Woody Allen represents the line they will not cross.
Questions to consider:
1. Do you have examples of finding out your idol has clay feet?
2. If yes, how did you react?
3. Does the quality of the art make a difference?
4. Can we, should we, differentiate between the art and the artist?
5. Does historical context make a difference, i.e. are we applying contemporary values to historical situations?
6. Is being monstrous in some way (selfish, putting one's art above everything else, egotistical) necessary for the creation of great art?
Resources:
"What do we do with the Art of Monstrous Men," by Claire Dederer. The Paris Review, November 20, 2017. This is an excellent article, funny, self reflective and very insightful. Worth a read.
“It’s time to talk about Alice” in the Globe & Mail