Don't care. If a manga is good I'm not going to skip it because of something the author did.

It's still a pretty painting

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My perfect sentence when someone suspect me : "I'm not suspect, it's not me I swear"

Art is art. But if for you art is a social thing, I accept your judgement.

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My perfect sentence when someone suspect me : "I'm not suspect, it's not me I swear"

I'm a bit shocked actually that for most people, it wouldn't make any difference. Has our society become so numb that serious crimes don't affect people anymore? Sad, really, really sad, that most people don't care as long as their own desires as fullfilled and they're satisfied!
I, for my part, would stop reading that author's works immediately and probably burn all of their works I've bought so far. People wo rape, murder etc. don't deserve a fraction if my time, let alone my money!

That´s what i said but not only are many of his artworks still ceased by the US government to this day, one of his works was attacked with a knife recently during as gala (it survived). To say that humanity was capable of divorcing Adolf Hitler the artist from Adolf Hitler the Reichskanzler just isn´t true.

Wolfenstein II has an amazing cameo by him btw. yet i had to import the Pegi version to see Hitler and not Herr Heiler. Or Nazis instead of The Regime. The gore is 100% left in tact but any references to Germany, Jews etc. have been stripped clean from the game in the local version. Fallout 3 had it´s Nuke removed, the Fat Man was renamed and so on (the gore was removed too, cuz Japan). Company of Heroes 2 is banned in Russia due to it´s... rather demonic (and historically iffy) take on The Red Army. WW2 as a topic still continue to hurt and Wolf II´s Make America Nazi-Free Again campaign somehow ended up being a controversial political statement in 2017. 2017!

And then there was Charlie Hebdo. Or how about Anita Sarkeesian? She technically created a documentary mini series but we saw what that lead too... Law & Order ended up having a Gamergate ep. due to her! The artists and the art were hardly seen as separate entities in these later examples. They still aren´t. Orson Scott Card lastly didn´t commit a crime with his ongoing crusade against the legislation of homosexuality but good luck getting a conversation about him going and not having it turn about his RL views.
Or how Lovecraft´s work crusaded against black people. Shub-Niggurath indeed.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 3:55 pm, Dec 10 2017

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I voted for the first choice, because I don't think it matters if the author committed a crime or not, if the story is good. Sure, I may not like the author as a person, but if his work is good, I don't see any reason to avoid it, just because he committed a serious crime.

It's not like he is harming others by continuing to write or draw. That being said, if he used his works to paint himself in a good light (making his crime seem like something not so wrong), then that would annoy me a little bit and I may stop reading/seeing/admiring his works.

Even though I may say that, it really depends on what crime he/she committed and why. If the crime is something that makes me detest that author as a human being, then I would most likely stop consuming the author's works. But I feel like I may also read one of his works every once in a while, to complain about the author.

mmmm not sure until it has happened; que sera sera. Though I have experienced a difference in beliefs with an author of a great epic, Orson Scott Card. For those who had yet read his amazing work, the Ender saga, their refusal to read his work was their method of protest to him being against homosexuality. Finding out about that did not stop me from finishing the Ender Saga though. However being against homosexuality seems to be a contradiction to the morals and principles of the Ender Saga. Though this isn't in the same realm as a serious crime....

Last edited by mysstris at 10:25 pm, Dec 10 2017

It depends on the medium. Its going to be hard to watch stuff with Kevin Spacey in it and I can't look at anything with Bill Cosby and not feel tremendous disappointment. There's been other actors who have been convicted of crimes where I now avoid the work they've been in. In part this is because they are public figures and their images are so strongly associated with their roles that its harder to separate their work from their personal lives.

Writers are a little bit of a different story because they are easier for me to divorce their work from their personal...uh, issues. It also helps if an author has long been dead. Unlike actors they tend to be hidden behind their work. On the other hand, if its a current author and their crime is especially egregious or one that hits my rage/disgust buttons like harming a child in any way then yea their work overall will carry a taint. Depending on the crime might make me avoid their work or throw it out if I own it.

Could I look at a painting by Adolph Hitler? Yea, sure no problem. Do I think it should be preserved and not destroyed? Absolutely. Would I hang one up or a replica in my home? Hell, no. I wouldn't be able to look at those things in my private space and not be upset. So context of viewing the work also matters. If its looking at something from a historical perspective or for an academic paper let's say, then no problem. For personal or recreational use different story.

I'd love to say "I don't care", but from experience I know that once I find out something about an author that I don't like, I can't enjoy their works to the same extent anymore. It doesn't necessarily have to be a criminal record, maybe the author holds retarded political views, that sort of thing.

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You know, in all honesty, I voted for "makes no difference", but I think in large part that was in response to the specific examples in the OP (on me of course) and I failed to think far enough through the "convicted of a serious crime" part.

Yeah, now that I think about it again, I see breaking news that one of my favorite authors.......well, favorite whatever, casual acquaintance, stranger that lives down the street, whoever........just got his house raided and they found a dozen or so people cut up and stuffed in his freezer, yeah, kinda hard to say I wouldn't "treat their works" differently >_<

And yeah, in a case like that, we'd be looking at "All works past, present, and future has been tainted"

Had a situation like this happen 10 or so years ago with a artist I liked and eventually I was able to enjoy and respect the work again. After that it has been easier to separate the work from the artist to an extent. But for me at least that applies to older work, for instance I can always watch Mad Max and Lethal Weapon but I could never stomach watching anything new from Mel Gibson.

I wish there is an option to change my vote. I was not sure between the first and last option. And I voted for the first option but after more thinking I lean more toward the last option (Thanks to hahhah42). After that, the first option feels kind of ignorant for me that people couldn't care less about somebody's evil doings as long as they get what they want.
About manga segawa-san, I've watched the interview on youtube a few years ago. At that time, I was just oh wow crazy but interesting. He wrote a manga, great. But wait, he wrote a manga describing when he killed his gf and that he thought her butt flesh is so yummy asdf*^#%, No, just no. I couldn't read it. It's sick and I feel really bad for the girl's family who is left behind, and the thought of him using this story to get money, and.... it's not just a fiction anymore.
I feel the same about Hitler that I would admire his arts in museum or somebody's house. He has great skill and it's interesting to see other side of him that most people don't know. But it would be a different story, if he drew Jews massacre or something similar like that.


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Honestly, I'd like to say it doesn't matter, but it does. Both when I think about it with my guts, because I know I'd be influenced by it, and with my head. The latter is because while a mathematical theorem is still objectively the same no matter who the guy who proved it was, a work of art is an expression of an artist's identity. You can't possibly judge a work of art objectively, well maybe you can, but only up to a certain point. Even when you take away the premise of a criminal author, paintings, literature, music and every form of art do acquire much more meaning when the context they were made in is known (be it political, social, historical, religious or strictly personal). So knowing that some form of art was realized by a twisted mind does change the game a lot.
If instead we're not strictly talking about art, because let's face it, 90% of manga and anime isn't exactly art, then all the more the work itself has not enough ineherent appeal to overcome real life tragedies. It doesn't mean nobody can enjoy it, it comes to personal dispositions, and there's not a right answer.

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I'm really surprised by the percentage of people who voted for "Make no difference" because wow, that's almost half the people on MU who wouldn't not care if an author was charged and/or convicted of a serious crime, like a serious crime. I'm hoping they haven't thought through the whole serious crime thing...

Anyway, I'm kinda with train93 in that a piece of art like fiction, poetry, painting, comedy, music, etc is an expression of the artist and so all their works are tainted. Yeah, the degree in which they are expressed depends on the medium and the artist, but when it's something serious and not just that in real life they're bigots then it's always going to be an issue. Even when it's that they're bigots, if they're working in poetry or comedy or some medium that basically requires the artist to invest part of themselves as themselves in their work to be successful then yeah also tainted.

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I can separate the art from the artist pretty easily. Most of the time. What actually makes it hard for me, is when the artist dies or something, for manga. I know of one in particular where the artist died recently, and I still feel sad when I see an image from it. Maybe that's how people feel when an artist commits a serious crime.