What Are You (Not) Reading Wednesday

[shipperx]

Not doing the Meme because I'm not reading anything at the moment, but seeing a few things on the sign-in page brought to mind a question.

While scrolling through my Amazon recs, I saw Marion Zimmer Bradley's books pop up and shuddered.

So my question is, how does the knowledge about the real-life person behind a book influence whether or not you read their books?

I admit that though I once read a Scott Orson Card book before I knew anything about him, I now find that I refuse to read anything that he has written.  Now, despite Mists of Avalon, the same applies to Marion Zimmer Bradley.  I just can't read her work.  Ever.  I won't.  ::shudder::

Is this a strange reaction?  (I hope not)

Should the author's real life invalidate their work?

If so there are tons of past artists that this standard could apply to.  Or is it perfectly okay to be so disgusted with someone's real life* such that you discard their work out of hand without even examining it because... ew.  And because they don't deserve the consideration.



*  Issues with Scott Orson Card are explained here and here  

Issues with Marion Zimmer Bradley here. (I cannot find the original article that gave me shudders and chills, so that'll have to do) 

Comments

[cordykitten]

I can't answer the questions because it didn't came up yet. Saw this on my F-List now; it's the first I hear about it. (One of the reasons I lowe LJ - I get to know things).

Regarding MZB (haven't read the other article) - That's awful. I was always a big fan of MZB; she and Anne McCaffrey were some of my favorites back then. Didn't have Internet then were you can get to know things.

*thinks* That must have been in the 80s I guess, around 1980 - 1984?

Reading your entry got me to think: I know almost no to nothing about the author's personal lives. Just lately I try to follow some via Goodreads and Twitter. Still I won't get anything too personal there. I doubt that MZB would have posted about this issue. I wonder how many of the readers know about that and how many don't.

I'm not sure though I would have read the books if I had known back then.

[rahirah]

The MZB thing goes back to the 50s, which was when Walter Breen (the man she eventually married) was first convicted of child molestation. She knew about it. Married him anyway. Looked the other way as he preyed on children for the next thirty years, until he was finally sent to jail in the late 80s. And according to her daughter, she abused her own children physically and emotionally as well.

By all accounts, she was a lesbian in a time when that in and of itself was considered deviant, with a lot of internalized homophobia, and was abused herself as a child. She was a hot mess. But while that may explain her actions, it can't excuse them for me.