• baines@lemmy.cafe
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    4 days ago

    it gets easier when you learn the author was a piece of shit

    ruins a beloved childhood book

    • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      I still don’t really understand this sentiment. Could you please explain why this is the case for you? I really mean this as curiosity.

      I can certainly understand current things, like if there is a book author right now that is a piece of shit and they try to sell a new book, of course I won’t buy it. Also not support their old stuff. But why exactly is their effect in the past tainted by this? LotR is still an amazing book, talking about lots of good things like friendship, loyalty, self-sacrifice etc, creating a beautifully interesting fantasy world. Why is this ruined, why can you not appreciate this now that you know the author is a piece of shit?

      • notthebees@reddthat.com
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        3 days ago

        For context, David and Leigh Eddings were convicted in the late 60s for child abuse in South Dakota. They literally put their adopted children in cages.

      • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        I think they’re talking about David and Leigh Eddings, authors of Belgarath the Sorcerer.

        • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          Didn’t know that :) don’t know that book then, thought I was just forgetting something about LotR. But my original question still stands.

          • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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            4 days ago

            Well, in this case it’s a book that features small sexualized female creatures, which is already pretty ick, but then you put the fact that the Eddings’ went to jail on multiple charges of “extensive physical child abuse” and that’s a whole new layer of closely connected grossness.

            It’s one thing to accept death of the author when the material isn’t related to whatever it is the author did. It’s a bit more unsettling when the work seems like it was influenced by those same proclivities.

            • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 days ago

              Understandable, thanks for the correction :) as I thought it was about LotR, my comment is basically completely irrelevant xD

          • nomy@lemmy.zip
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            4 days ago

            “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”