Can We Love a Book Written by a Bad Person?

Way back in January, I wrote a post about favourite books where I briefly touched on how the author of a book might impact our view on their work. The call to cancel problematic and controversial authors has been going strong for a long time now—to be point of there being lists with “authors to avoid”—but, can we not enjoy books that are written by bad people?

I want to start this post off by saying that I’m still not totally certain on how I feel about all of it despite taking me half a year to write this post in hopes that I would get some clarity on this issue. This is a very nuanced topic and I don’t expect to stumble upon a one-fits-all answer for it.

Personally, I don’t like problematic authors lists or not reading someone’s work because someone else deemed them controversial. I believe that we as readers should have enough critical thinking skills to judge for ourselves whether to read or not to read a particular book. I also don’t believe it is logical to expect that our views will align with the authors we read, whether we know so or not. J.K. Rowling—and I’m using her as an example because I think everyone knows about her and her views—is a very loud transphobe, but it’s naïve to think that other authors aren’t just as bad and simply better at not plastering their twisted views everywhere. That being said, every one of us have our own limits and as such it’s a pretty personal choice whether we decide to read someone’s work or not. I, personally, no longer have any wish to read any of Rowling’s books, but someone else might not mind despite having different views. My main issue with this is that I don’t believe we need to give these authors more exposure. Like, sure, you can love a problematic author, but there’s no need to shout out and promote their books.

There is also something to be said by how we’ll openly love books written by bad people who lived long ago versus how we’ll interact with new books by problematic authors. The distance between the work we’re reading and present day does definitely affect how we think of an author and their views. If we’re reading something from, say, the 40s, it is expected that we’ll find sexist, racist, and homophobic remarks among many others and mostly, we won’t be fazed. However, if those same remarks appear in something published in the present, we’ll be baffled.

All of this ramble to say that I think this isn’t a black and white discussion. Every single one of us have a different level of comfort in what we’re willing to read, and that’s okay. But I also believe that having “authors to avoid” lists and such is counterproductive. Reading these authors is not evil per se, but perhaps we shouldn’t give them as much promotion. My views on this topic are subject to change but, for now, this little rant is what I think.

What do you think about this topic? Do you personally make use of the type of lists I talked about? Do you agree or disagree with what I said?

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