07-18-2013, 06:56 PM
Ender's Game, an upcoming sci-film based on a beloved novel by Orscon Scott Card, has been threated with a boycott by some groups because Card, a Mormon, has intensely homophobic views, even to the point of saying things like this:
"How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn. Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die."
Also, in 1990 he claimed that anti-sodomy laws should be "kept on the books". In my opinion, Card is a bigot and a moron. His views are reprehensible, and I happily deride the cretinous oaf for them. However, I will still be paying to see Ender's Game. It's something I want to see based on its story - which isn't in any way about homophobia - and genre, so boycotting it would be hypocritical of me, I think.
A lot of my favourite writers held views which I think are rotten. Patricia Highsmith, author of the original book The Talented Mr. Ripley, was a vicious racist who hated Jews and thought that black children should be placed with white families. The poet Philip Larkin was also a racist. My favourite writer of all time, Flannery O'Connor, believed in "restraint" over birth control, even if that led to a world over-populated into poverty. Moving into music, I've even enjoyed "Rock and Roll Parts 1 and 2" by Gary Glitter, and the less said about that walking justification for vigilante kickings the better.
The mistake, I think, is to see artists as somehow "other". They're from the same crop as carpenters, chemists and priests. They're just as depraved or good as any wildly disparate group of people lumped together by some vague label.
This is all JMHO, of course. What do you think? Should Ender's Game be boycotted, and more importantly, is it possible to separate artist from art?
"How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn. Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die."
Also, in 1990 he claimed that anti-sodomy laws should be "kept on the books". In my opinion, Card is a bigot and a moron. His views are reprehensible, and I happily deride the cretinous oaf for them. However, I will still be paying to see Ender's Game. It's something I want to see based on its story - which isn't in any way about homophobia - and genre, so boycotting it would be hypocritical of me, I think.
A lot of my favourite writers held views which I think are rotten. Patricia Highsmith, author of the original book The Talented Mr. Ripley, was a vicious racist who hated Jews and thought that black children should be placed with white families. The poet Philip Larkin was also a racist. My favourite writer of all time, Flannery O'Connor, believed in "restraint" over birth control, even if that led to a world over-populated into poverty. Moving into music, I've even enjoyed "Rock and Roll Parts 1 and 2" by Gary Glitter, and the less said about that walking justification for vigilante kickings the better.
The mistake, I think, is to see artists as somehow "other". They're from the same crop as carpenters, chemists and priests. They're just as depraved or good as any wildly disparate group of people lumped together by some vague label.
This is all JMHO, of course. What do you think? Should Ender's Game be boycotted, and more importantly, is it possible to separate artist from art?
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2013, 06:57 PM by heslopian.)