Makes it easier to feel inspired or invigorated by works by people who are later revealed to have done awful things. The work served you once—but it’s merely a single brick in your foundation.
Been reflecting on the mistake of recognising people as geniuses as opposed to recognising something they did as a work of genius.
Even if someone is brilliant, their work will ebb and flow, and putting the genius stamp on them is deeply unhelpful. Particularly when they talk outside of their field.
and the calculus is different and personal for everyone. your library can be who you are now and who you want to be. It can also be a history of who you were. Or a reminder of who you must not become.
Brand New was hard because the new context gave the work darker meaning. But I think for everyone there’s a personal line in the sand that poisons the work, and I can’t tell you where the line is.
Yeah that one remains the hardest I’ve had to deal with yet, it was potent stuff about wrestling with darkness, but learning what some of that darkness was…no thanks
Losing that one song you turned to because it reflected your experiences, because the guy who wrote it was also on the other side of that equation multiple times 🙃
people talk a lot about “separating the art from the artist” but if the only alternative is converting every artist into a public brand, disentangling the two is the only way to keep people from using success to hurt people and it’s also the only way to stay sane
Sometimes the art and the artist is inseparable because the art is about the artist in a very on the surface way! Sometimes….. you have to accept that someone who wrote a book that helped you also hurt other people.
I also think about Greil Marcus on Van Morrison. Art happens between people, and while you can't erase either end of that connection, something happens in that can't be narrowed down to the sum of both of them www.theguardian.com/books/2010/j...
I’ve always been kind of glad I unwittingly, in my youth, gravitated to some artists who were absolute scumbags in their personal lives so I could learn early to get attached to the meal & not the chef. There are some where it still ruined the meal for good but that’s a personal call for everyone.
