How do you disown a creator from their work and why?

[YUPPIE]

i don't really care too much if an author or mind behind some media I like turns out to be an asshole or just slightly politically wayward. But a decent amount of people that made things I like turned out as sexual predators, which pretty much leads me to disowning their work from memory altogether.

certain people claim you can enjoy the works of fallen idols regardless. I'm wondering what YOUR own limits are to this and why you would think like this to begin with. Like if an author pens a narrative with certain themes and morals but thinks the other way in reality, what he made is just a bag of lies. Or alternatively, if they turn out evil and write such a tale, it's still hard to stomach because a work of art is representative of its creator's spirit.

[eschatological]

i don't really care too much if an author or mind behind some media I like turns out to be an asshole or just slightly politically wayward. But a decent amount of people that made things I like turned out as sexual predators, which pretty much leads me to disowning their work from memory altogether.

certain people claim you can enjoy the works of fallen idols regardless. I'm wondering what YOUR own limits are to this and why you would think like this to begin with. Like if an author pens a narrative with certain themes and morals but thinks the other way in reality, what he made is just a bag of lies. Or alternatively, if they turn out evil and write such a tale, it's still hard to stomach because a work of art is representative of its creator's spirit.

Depends on the quality of work and how important it was to me, and to some extent how personally connected I was to the person.

I still listen to and appreciate Michael Jackson's music. It is legendary, and to me, discounting it for the rest of time because the man himself was (could possibly have been?) a piece of shit seems like a disservice to the actual songs. They've taken on importance of their own. He is the one exception to the rule where I wholly separate the music from the man, because that's how important the music is.

A random YouTuber grooms underage girls whose videos I've seen before, like what happened this weekend with Cryaotic? I don't care, I'll toss him and his content into the trash bin for the rest of eternity.

The inbetween cases are the hard ones. I stopped watching Louis C.K.'s stuff, but I don't rule out the idea that he may be able to redeem himself. Chris D'Elia, on the other hand? Nope. In these two cases, it seems to make a difference to me that at least Louis C.K.'s stuff wasn't with underage women, and he truly seems to be repentant.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Why is it such a big deal to you?

I enjoy Rurouni Kenshin just as much as I do now as I did back then.

[Qstall]

If Hitler wrote the script, directed and produced Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter while being an extra in every of these movies, I'd still enjoy the shiet out of the books, movies and upcoming series

[cparle87]

Because small-minded people can't separate appreciating someone's work from supporting their ideologies and actions.

If you like someone's work then you MUST agree with their ideas and support their actions, even if criminal. There's no other possible explanation, right? /s

[fatgunn]

I just ignore it. 99% of the time I know nothing about the person who made something before I enjoy it and it usually stays that way. The Xanth novels were some of my favorite books as a teenager, turns out the author, Piers Anthony, is a creep. I still enjoy the books.

I tend to think of it along the same lines that if I had a painting hanging in my living room for a few years. I really like this painting. Then somebody tells me it was painted by Hitler, my opinion of the painting wouldn't change. To me it's just a painting I enjoy.

[Powerogue]

If I like the work but despise the human being who made it, that's what piracy is for. Yarr.

[EyeOculus]

This sounds like punishing yourself to look/feel PC. Not going with any political or other relevant topics, because i prefer to keep those out of gaming forums where they shouldnt belong.

A few music artists i really like listening to picked up new sounds and genres over the years, something i really don't like. Some produce completely different music that i don't like under a another name. I am still listening to the old ones and still would buy his stuff again if his music changes again.

[Frogguh]

If I found out the creator of a product I like is human garbage, that would not even remotely affect my enjoyment of the product.

That said, once I found out, I would not buy any more of it. They would receive no more of my money. I liked Pearl Jam until I found out how much of a bunch of left wing nutjob jackasses they were, but while I will not buy their music any longer, I will still enjoy the album Ten.

[sylenna]

i enjoy some work of burzum but i really don't like vikernes' views on the world.
i really like kevin spacey and danny masterson but the public wants me to crucify them, even before anything is said and done in the courtroom.
i like michael jackson very much and i can even get into the context of how he might have conducted child abuse and hadn't thought of himself as an adult.

it is hard. normally you should be able to enjoy the body of work and view the person and their beliefs on another page. but especially for music it isn't that easy.

[Volatilis]

Imagine all the horrible things your favourite artists have done that you will never know!!!!

Spooky!

.....people are not saints, theres good and bad in everyone. You can still enjoy thriller even if Michael did a hehe on some boys.

[Saltysquidoon]

It's literally irrelevant unless knowing the undesirable trait in someway directly changes the meaning of the text to be explicitly and obviously about that undesirable trait in which case just stop consuming it.

[LordVargK]

I absolutely don't care at all. More often than not I don't even know the author. But even if I do, as long as the author writes good, coherent stories he/she can do whatever he/she wants in their free time.

If it starts to influence their work however, insofar that the quality of the story suffers (for example to drive a political agenda of some sort), meaning contradictions and uncoherence, then I simply stop caring.
I have no problem not to watch/read/play something, of which I liked the predecessors but not the current iteration. For example, I stopped caring for the GoT TV series in Season... 5? At the point where it overtakes the books entirely. Because I liked the books and I liked the TV series adaptation of them. But at that point it became too different from the books and I found myself not enjoying it anymore. So I wait for the next book.

But back to topic:

Why is it important for you who created the work? If you liked a story, then like the story.
Authors write good books. Authors write bad books. Authors some books you like, some you don't like. In most cases you like the story, not the author. So no need to stop reading if the Author falls from grace.

[Mask]

I very rarely care. The only times I might care is if learning something about an artist makes me see their work in a different light that I didn't notice before and also that I don't care for. It rarely happens. I don't hate Hitlers paintings of nature and buildings just because they were done by Hitler. They are just paintings. As far as I can tell they have no political or social agenda to them, so I can appreciate them (or not) on their own merit. Same with music by assholes like Chris Brown or R Kelly. I don't know if I believe the sexual assault accusations against Michael Jackson, but even if the shit he may have done in the 90's and 2000's is true does that really discredit an album he made in 1982? The art stands on it's own, imo.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I still consider Kevin Spacey one of my all-time favourites, and I always will. And yes, I'm angry that House Of Cards ended the way it did, but due to HIS actions and nothing else. I only watched the final season this month for the first time, and yeah... Frank was the backbone.

I mean, where does it end? Should I start boycotting Monty Python skits because John Cleese hates dogs? Do I need to stop reading anything at all with the assumption that everyone's done dumb shit in their lives that might clash with my views and values? Sounds exhausting.

In conclusion: I don't disown the works of people if I enjoy said works. Same as how I don't have to avert my gaze anytime I see a Ford on the roads or pay mind to J.K Rowling's idiocies on social media.

[oplawlz]

I strongly disagree with "cancel culture". If someone is good at what they do, and that thing isn't in itself offensive, I can appreciate their work without issue.
If someone has committed a crime I leave it to the justice system to prove that crime and assign the proper punishment.

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

Buy their stuff second hand if its books or music. If its something else maybe have a Priest bless it? That's what they did with the Toys for Tits in Tampa.

[Grokk]

i enjoy some work of burzum but i really don't like vikernes' views on the world.

Same man. Huge metal head here, black metal in particular. I can't and will never stop listening to Burzum, to me that music is critical to the foundation of the Norwegian scene in the early 90's. Outside of the music, well let's just say I probably wouldn't hang out with Varg. I'll never turn my back on the art he created though, I can separate it and will continue to support it.

[Garymorilix]

There are two different aspects to this in actuality but OP seems to connect by default.
You can enjoy something that a horrible person made (maybe they were not even horrible at the time of making it) but here's the spicy part:
You cannot endorse the person while doing so.

The reason why you find yourself ditching these pieces of art is because we, as humans, are incapable of liking something that was made by someone we don't like.
All the people here saying "I wouldn't care even if Hitler made it" just don't care and make up a fake scenario that sounds bad but reality they have no emotional connection to it.
Would you still listen to the music from the guy that murdered your child? I don't think so.
OP can find an emotional connection to the victims of these artists and that makes him unable to appreciate their art. Pretty normal.

People like Michael Jackson should not be praised until the end of times like some saint just cuz his family had enough money to wash his past clean.

[YUPPIE]

there's a difference between "idiot" and "slightly assholish" as illustrated in the post to EVIL, posters.

Like if a Nazi had interesting philosophies and text, you wouldn't dare think "he has a point" would you?