Do you (or should you) separate the artist from the art pt. II: What if the art IS part of the vices?

This was a topic I wanted to revisit again, but I want to cover a certain aspect of it. If you don’t know about my thoughts on whether artists and art should be separated, then you can check out that previous post here.

Now let’s get to the subject at hand.

Some of you already know that I have a very hard time separating the art from the artist especially if they do really bad things. It was interesting seeing people respectfully disagreeing with me for most of my comments. This brings up a question for you: What if the art IS part of the vices? Would you still separate the two from each other?

How could the art be involved in an author’s misdeeds or sins? Here are a few ways that could happen.

I guess one way would be the artist incorporating their deeds in their work or making a message that’s antithetical to their actions. It would be like if some creator had some villains murdering people, yet the author murders someone. That would be far harsher in hindsight. Or maybe they have a message against wars, but they end up howling for blood against another country. Those would be some examples on how that could be the case.

Another case would be if the work is plagiarized. Okay, some of you have seen this coming. Don’t worry, I won’t mention the obvious examples of cinematic plundering done by Disney, Christopher Nolan, or Suzanne Collins since you should already know those examples. I’ll use different examples. Look at Led Zeppelin. They made a career ripping off blues and folk songs. Eventually they got sued and were forced to give royalties and writing credits to most of the songs they stole from. I also pray that Spirit wins that appeal and sues Zeppelin’s pants off for them stealing “Taurus” to make “Stairway to Heaven”. I hate how that band gets a free pass for thievery. If any older person (or at the very least a classic rock purist) says that newer music just rips things off, show them the songs that band stole from to shut them up. Anyways, I need to get back on topic. Art theft gets tricky because those bad things are in their stolen creations. You could even go to those rock artists ripping off Black blues and original rock artists (**cough** Elvis **cough**) without paying dues to who they stole from. You have patents stolen like how Edison totally ripped off Nikola Tesla, Lewis Howard Latimer (there would be no efficient light bulbs had it not have been for his carbon filament!), and Granville T. Woods to name a few for his technological empire. At least Woods sued Edison twice and WON when he proved he made those patents instead of that overrated thief of an inventor. I have no respect for people who steal other people’s creative works. It’s lazy, intellectually insulting, and it shows how they are lesser beings because they stole from someone else. I can’t separate the art from the artist if it’s stolen.

What I wonder is why horrible people get free rides for their creations while others are obscured or demonized? How is it that an originator get crapped on for daring to sue the person or people who stole from them? For those who separate the art from the artists, what would cause you to stop or rather at what point can you not forgive the artist? Hey, I’m just staying in the question lane here.

Feel free to leave your comments on this matter.

Do you (or should you) separate the artist from the art?

I’ve been thinking about this recently after conversing with some bloggers on WordPress. Without going into too much detail, I had some dialogue where I mentioned how some creators have done bad things that have been documented. Two different bloggers in separate conversations told me that they separate the art from the artist like how the creation is independent of the actions of the creator(s). They were both civil in their discussions even when we talked about heavy things.

For me, I can’t separate the two.

Whenever I hear something true about a creator or company doing bad things, I distance myself from the creation. The biggest one for me in recent memory was Rurouni Kenshin. That is an anime series that I enjoyed when I was in middle school and high school. I thought the action was great, had strong dramatic elements, and the Trust & Betrayal OVA was one of the best prequels ever. Just a couple of years ago, it call came crashing down when creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was caught with child porn in his house. Not only that, but all he had to do was pay a 200k Yen fine (roughly $1848 USD in current currency terms), got no jail time, and his Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc got to continue after being on hiatus with the news about this crime. When I heard about Watsuki being found dead to rights for his unspeakable crimes, I washed my hands of anything involving that manga-ka monster. I could name other examples of things I stopped liking because of controversies proven true, and you know what some of them are.

On the flipside, I wonder how selective people are when they talk about separating art from the artists. If someone wants to stop listening to Chris Brown because of him beating Rihanna, would they have to stop listening to anything from Phil Spector who straight up MURDERED his girlfriend? Trust me, you won’t be looking at “Let It Be” by The Beatles the same again (he engineered that song). If people don’t want anything to do with Bill Cosby, then would they have to stop watching anything from Roman Polanski who was found guilty (yet fled the country) of drugging and raping a minor? Also, you know he’s still making movies and won awards long after the fact? That’s what I can’t stand about so many people in their hypocrisy.

For me, I can’t stand it when people give others a free pass when they do horrible things that others wouldn’t get away with it. Not going to lie, it does hurt when I have to stop liking something because of their actions or if there are unfortunate implications that I don’t want to subject myself to. Someone’s creation whether it’s music, art, film, TV, etc. is connected to the creators in my humble opinion.

Now let’s talk. Do you separate the art from the artists? Why or why not?