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A review by mayphoenix7992
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
"Love is anarchy. Love is chaos."
In the light of the recent revelation that Neil Gaiman had joined the ever increasing list of problematic authors and artists, reading this book felt more relevant than ever.
It carefully explores the dilemma of making an ethical choice when confronted with an artist's biography while we love and consume their art. I didn't expect any strict answer on what would be right and what would be wrong, but it still felt *right* to read Claire Dederer's essay and think about the entire issue, until I realised that I needed to *feel* rather than think my way through the issue.
The chapters about being a woman artist, and a mother artist, really enlightened me. I had never realised how many geniuses were men, terrible men who had committed horrible things. But having it written on paper it suddenly made sense why women were not allowed (or rarely) to be great artists or geniuses because they couldn't afford to be monsters. Because the crimes that make a man monstrous don't enter the realm of womanhood and nurturing. The greatest cruelty we could commit would be to abandon children, while men do it constantly.
In the end, there is no right or wrong answer about what we should do with great art by bad people - we just can't help the human condition that is love.
In the light of the recent revelation that Neil Gaiman had joined the ever increasing list of problematic authors and artists, reading this book felt more relevant than ever.
It carefully explores the dilemma of making an ethical choice when confronted with an artist's biography while we love and consume their art. I didn't expect any strict answer on what would be right and what would be wrong, but it still felt *right* to read Claire Dederer's essay and think about the entire issue, until I realised that I needed to *feel* rather than think my way through the issue.
The chapters about being a woman artist, and a mother artist, really enlightened me. I had never realised how many geniuses were men, terrible men who had committed horrible things. But having it written on paper it suddenly made sense why women were not allowed (or rarely) to be great artists or geniuses because they couldn't afford to be monsters. Because the crimes that make a man monstrous don't enter the realm of womanhood and nurturing. The greatest cruelty we could commit would be to abandon children, while men do it constantly.
In the end, there is no right or wrong answer about what we should do with great art by bad people - we just can't help the human condition that is love.