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[Scoops Novel]

Part of it is living in an old house, with old books. Part of it is also reading many of these books when i was young, being a prolific reader early on. However, as time went on, i picked up on it, starting with Lovecraft, who I'd heard about but never read, recently Rudyard Kipling, and finally Roald Dahl's antisemitism "There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity; maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason." As quoted in New Statesman (1983), which i was shocked by. I will be forever glad that wont have to count Tolkein amongst them, and I'll remember with fondness his response to the Nazi's attempting to use his work. However, it leaves me disappointed, and to prevent further depressing facts in the future, I'd like to know more about such well-known authors, or simply figures, so that i can judge them for what they are.

Edit: I said so i can judge them for what they are. Not as monsters, not as angels, just not with blind faith. I simply don't want any further surprises. It doesn't render their works invalid, it doesn't make them any less skilled, but i will adjust my opinion of them and when relevant, their works.

[Flying Dice]

Orson Scott Card is quite homophobic. George R.R. Martin hates fan-works (and by extension much of human storytelling history, because oral tradition is roughly equivalent to fan fiction etc. etc.).

Those are two off the top of my head.

[Scoops Novel]

The more debatable facts such as the latter should be left out. Considering the nature of much fan fiction, it doesn't vindicate him but it makes it understandable, especially when people warp the story for their own ends, rather then dispensing with it to begin with. Let's not derail over this, though I'm prepared to do it in a thread.

[Loud Whispers]

Part of it is living in an old house, with old books. Part of it is also reading many of these books when i was young, being a prolific reader early on. However, as time went on, i picked up on it, starting with Lovecraft, who I'd heard about but never read, recently Rudyard Kipling, and finally Roald Dahl's antisemitism

When he was young H.P. Lovecraft had a cat that ran away, a cat which cameos in one of his stories. He called his cat Nigger Man.

[XXSockXX]

Contrary to what you may believe because of who likes to throw his name in, Friedrich Nietzsche was not antisemitic and quite critical of antisemitism.

BTW you shouldn't be too surprised to find an antisemitic statement by an author born before WW2, when antisemitism was not as discredited as it became. People are a product of their time. I don't think it generally ruins the work of someone if he has a view I completely disagree with, as long as I don't feel as if I'm reading propaganda.

[Max White]

Mark Haddon actually doesn't know anything about autism and shouldn't been seen as an expert.

[Neonivek]

Is any of this information really something I "should" know?

Is coloring the books I read something I should be doing or should I be reading books on their own merit?

Mark Haddon actually doesn't know anything about autism and shouldn't been seen as an expert

Ohh how common this is. I read scientific journals that often didn't know what, for example, Schizo was.

He called his cat Nigger Man

Didn't he live in a time before "Nigger" could only be said racistly?

[fqllve]

Contrary to what you may believe because of who likes to throw his name in, Friedrich Nietzsche was not antisemitic and quite critical of antisemitism.

Neither was he a nihilist and I find the end of Also Spake Zarathustra to be one of the most beautifully hopeful conclusions I've ever read.

He did, however, influence Ayn Rand. Although it's pretty clear she was starting to reject his ideas by the time she wrote The Fountainhead.

Is any of this information really something I "should" know?

Is coloring the books I read something I should be doing or should I be reading books on their own merit?

Depends on if you're going to actually read the books or not.

[Frumple]

George R.R. Martin hates fan-works (and by extension much of human storytelling history, because oral tradition is roughly equivalent to fan fiction etc. etc.)

Anne McCaffrey's in the same boat, actually, or at least willing to let her lawyers send out cease and desist letters.

I'd be amused to see what direction a derail thread on the subject would go in, but... eh.

Is any of this information really something I "should" know?

Is coloring the books I read something I should be doing or should I be reading books on their own merit?

Oh, probably not, and probably the latter. Most that might occur is give reason not to buy the books (or buy them second hand) if you don't want to be supporting someone who professes beliefs you'd rather not support. I certainly stopped buying McCaffrey's stuff after finding out her position on fan works (mind you, that wasn't exactly some great sacrifice as I'm not terribly fond of her stuff to begin with, but... yeah.). Borrow it from a library, sure, but buy in a way that the money gets back to 'er, nah.

[XXSockXX]

Since she's been mentioned: If you're a US Republican you should know that Ayn Rand was an atheist.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

He called his cat Nigger Man

Didn't he live in a time before "Nigger" could only be said racistly?

"Nigger" has pretty much always been racist. "Negro" was the polite term of the time, and remained so until the 70's, when "Black" overtook it. Ironically, "black" also used to be seen as racist. That said, Lovecraft didn't seem very malicious in using it, given that Nigger-Man was so beloved by him that he made it part of one of his most famous stories (The Rats In The Walls, for the record).

Lovecraft is very confusing. He was anti-Semitic.....and he married a Jewish woman. Between that and Nigger-Man, I have no idea how Lovecraft really thought about the groups he made bigoted statements against.

[Loud Whispers]

He called his cat Nigger Man

Didn't he live in a time before "Nigger" could only be said racistly?

You kidding? It's always been racist. This guy was a known racist, living in a country of racists. Wrote pretty damn good stuff, but it's very alienating for the modern critical reader and is something that has to be taken into account.

[XXSockXX]

Lovecraft is very confusing. He was anti-Semitic.....and he married a Jewish woman. Between that and Nigger-Man, I have no idea how Lovecraft really thought about the groups he made bigoted statements against.

He changed many of his views in later life, probably because of his marriage. He became much less extreme in his political views and moved quite a bit to the left. It is not that noticable in his work, but in later works the stereotypical degenerate races don't appear that prominently anymore. The society of the aliens in "Mountains of madness" has even been interpreted as his idea of a socialist society. Who knows, if he had died a bit older, it might have had more of an effect on his work.

[Neonivek]

He called his cat Nigger Man

Didn't he live in a time before "Nigger" could only be said racistly?

You kidding? It's always been racist. This guy was a known racist, living in a country of racists. Wrote pretty damn good stuff, but it's very alienating for the modern critical reader and is something that has to be taken into account.

Language is a complex thing. You would be surprised what words are derogitory now that weren't before... or words that were considered perfectly acceptible and were turned evil by propaganda.

So it isn't "so obvious" that I should know the uses of words throughout time.

[Willfor]

Lovecraft didn't protect his copyrights, and he died starving and in great pain -- unable to live off of his contributions to society in the end, despite how numerous they were.