I think the best heuristic for separating artist from their work is: How much does the artist try to put their own personality into it?

Woody Allen films are very much soaked through with Woody Allen. I don't get the sense that O'Brian's books are to the same degree.

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dwd 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You have to question what of the person filtered through to their works.

As a teen I voraciously read my way through the Belgariad, and later the Malloreon, Elenium and the Tamuli.

Shocked to learn that Eddings and his wife were both convicted and jailed for child abuse prior to writing those novels.

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ChrisMarshallNY 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I still like those books, and, for some reason, that didn't affect me. Other people, however, have. Science fiction/fantasy has a long, turgid history of weird and unsavory authors. I tend to ignore that.

I think books have a firewall between the author and the characters on the page. Actors, however, are a different matter. They are the medium.

	▲	jay_kyburz 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I've always enjoyed H P Lovecraft and was disappointed to learn about his racism and xenophobia. AI tells me its was way beyond what was normal at the time.

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wombatpm 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I stopped after Malloreon more because my interests changed. Finding out their history hasn’t changed anything for me. But Marion Zimmerman Bradley for some reason has and I have no desire to read any of her books ever again.

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move-on-by 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I read Atlas Shrugged recently. I went in not knowing anything about the book or author. I liked it for maybe half way through and despised it by the end. Reading about the author after finishing the book, it had a lot of her personality in it.