When Jesse and I moved in together, we combined our dvds right away, but it took us a few years to combine our cd collection. (Yes, we still have a cd collection—but this post isn’t about getting rid of all our cds, just a few of them.) Jesse said it was because we had so many more duplicate albums than movies; I would say that he was just embarrassed by my Moxy Früvous cds and didn’t want to be associated with them.
At the time, I wasn’t embarrassed by them. Sure, they were nerdy and cheesy. But, even if I don’t listen as much any more, I liked them anyway, and they remind me of a good time in my life. I still love a lot of those songs.
This past week was the first time I’ve been embarrassed to own Moxy Früvous music, and it has nothing to do with sonic nerdery. It’s because former member Jian Ghomeshi, who went on to work at the CBC (I’ve heard him described as “the Ryan Seacrest of Canada”), has been accused of repeated violence towards women.
When I find out deplorable personal information about artists I like or have liked, I never quite know how to process it. Should the life of the artist matter in how you experience their art?
I struggle with this a lot, and I haven’t figured it out yet. I know that I’m not consistent in my reactions. I find it impossible to be charmed by the Tom Otterness sculptures in the 14th Street subway station because I know he shot and killed a shelter dog for a piece of video art. I won’t read or watch Dilbert because of the gross things Scott Adams has said about women, or Ender’s Game because of what Orson Scott Card has said about homosexuality.
On the other hand, it’s kind of easy for me to do those things. I don’t really feel a strong desire to read about another sci-fi dystopia, and at this point in my life it’s a lot harder to read a comic strip than it is to ignore it. I’m admittedly not so committed to my ideals when they clash wish something I truly love. For example, Graceland will always be one of my favorite albums, even though Paul Simon was involved in some kind of domestic violence case this year.
Should I force myself to get better at this? Do I throw out those Moxy Früvous cds? I feel a strong desire to. I feel icky about having them on my shelf, and right now I don’t think I can listen to them again without thinking of the allegations. But these are the ideas that are stopping me from chucking them:
*I don’t know the truth of these allegations. It doesn’t matter how many blogs say they’re basically true; no one but the people involved know for sure. (Then again, when your friends turn against you, it’s pretty damning.) Still, I don’t want to put too much faith in mob mentality/the court of public opinion.
*Throwing away my cds would be symbolic more than anything else. The band is broken up; they won’t get any more money from me. Getting rid of my cds won’t get back the money I spent on them or the Moxy Früvous concerts I went to. But should I do something symbolic? Or is this just about not supporting bad behavior financially?
*There are other musicians in the band besides Ghomeshi. Is it fair that my opinion on the band has turned because of one member? Similarly, these songs made me happy once. Should I let Ghomeshi take that away?
*I’ve heard the argument that you have to let the art speak for itself, and not let the artists’ lives interfere. I think this was more in reference to Orson Scott Card. I think I’ve heard people say that if Ender’s Game isn’t about the evils of homosexuality—if it doesn’t come through in the text—it should be okay to read it. Or if Dilbert makes you laugh, what does it matter that the writer is misogynist? If Terry Richardson takes great photos, it shouldn’t matter that he might be a scumbag, etc. I’m not sure if I agree, but I’d be interested in hearing from people who do.
*I have a sneaking suspicion that every artist I like in every medium is an asshole in real life to varying degrees, and if I cut out everyone that’s done something shitty, I won’t have any art left in my life.
So, I’m torn. Really torn. What do you guys do when you find something like this? I honestly want to know.
Sculpture Image: Gothamist
Also, she is totally not a dude!
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Obviously I struggle with this all the time, being a pretty big Woody Allen fan. The allegations against him are, at very least, a lifelong asterisk to all of his movies, no matter how much I love some of them. But: I do love some of them and still want to see his new ones. I think to some degree you can separate the art from the artist, or at least I have to try. I’m not a strong enough person to just erase someone’s work from my life out of principle.
Your last point is also interesting because while I’m pretty sure some of the artists I love are actually decent people, there is way more of a microscope on this stuff now than there was 50 or 40 or even 30 years ago. What’s that line in “Getting Better”? “I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved”… John Lennon was not a nice guy. But it wasn’t really known until later and the idea of throwing away Beatles records because of terrible stuff he did would seem crazy to a lot of people. I’m sure plenty of people have actually sworn them off for that reason — but it always seems to be easier for people who don’t love that stuff so much to begin with, and I’m guilty of this as well. It’s easy for me to swear off R. Kelly because I never really swore on R. Kelley to begin with (not being a member of the class of 2003 and all). I can argue that he seems worse in a lot of ways because his work has been celebrated (sometimes ironically?) as these ridiculous and often over-the-top sex jams, and I’m not really interested in listening to over-the-top sex jams about someone who is actually a sexual predator.
I’m certainly more attached to Woody Allen than to Roman Polanski,
so it’s more of a mark on Polanski than Allen for no other particularly
good reason.
I don’t know; there’s not really an easy answer. But I’m not much for symbolic gestures. Moxy Fruvous (little as I care for them) were certainly a part of your musical life. I guess I wouldn’t be in favor of throwing away their CDs for the same reason I wouldn’t be in favor of throwing away CDs of a band you loved in 1995 but found kind of laughable now (like for example if I had Throwing Copper on CD). To me it forms a kind of history. Obviously others feel less attached, either to the art or to the physical object.
Think of it this way. If the art that someone creates genuinely moves you, and you don’t see traces of their “horrible disfunction” in the work, then you are doing yourself and the world a disservice to divorce yourself from it. Your original reaction was real, your enjoyment was real, and most likely it was warranted. When someone creates a piece of art good enough to grab your attention and effect you like that, then they are expressing themselves and operating from the BEST part of themselves. Do they have a “worst” part? Of course. So does everyone. But imagine if we, as a culture, insisted on making the defining part of everyone’s life be the worst thing they’ve done? That no matter how high they’d soared, no matter what good they managed to eek out in this f-ed up, crazy world, they would only be as good as the WORST THING THEY’D EVER DONE.
Kill me know, ’cause I don’t wanna live in that universe.
And call me stubborn, but I won’t let Jian Ghomeshi’s sad psychological issues, for which he’s in need of intense long-term therapy (along with whatever punishment is dolled out), ruin my enjoyment of something awesome he did that I really enjoyed. That’s MY LIFE. MY EXPERIENCE. MY ENJOYMENT. His disfunction has nothing to do with that art. Or with me. And I won’t let his problems effect my life.