Artist and art: an unbreakable bond?

[heslopian]

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?

[rowens]

I've been using art to try to destroy art for decades now; but that's not where this thread went.

I think the movie should be boycotted, and that the people that want to see it should go see it. If the boycott is so extreme that no one's allowed to see it, action should be taken to do something about that.

If that guy believes he's scientifically correct about the necessity of marriage for the future of the species, that's part of his story as much as his work is. Why does he feel that way? Is he right or wrong? Not many people would boycott his biography. Or a movie about his life. Boycotting the movie based on his book only draws attention to the topic of his personal views. Which is a good thing to know sometimes if the views are dangerous or important in any way. The movie is dispensable. Or, the movie is very good. It depends.

[billy]

i pretty much agree with rowens, people should be allowed to protest as people should be allowed to be bigots. if however protesters actually stop people who want to see the film from seeing it, they should be arrested. i see nothing wrong with someone having a view that marriage should follow certain guidelines. homophobic or otherwise. while i may disagree with them i believe they have a right to think that way. everyone thinks this stuff is clear cut and in fact it isn't. he isn't breaking any laws. and nor should there be a law that stops someone believing that marriage is just for hetero's. most of us have some law or other they don't believe in. i think the stand your ground law in the usa is stupid, i think some of the gun laws are even sillier but most americans would rate those laws i hate as having more value than the new marriage law thats being enacted throughout the world. i'll def watch the world and in honesty don't give a toss as to what he thinks about gay marriage laws.

[heslopian]

This Card business surprised me. I knew that he was a homophobe long before this current controversy, yet aside from a few bloggers and literature fans not many people seemed to care. It certainly wasn't a big news issue. Movies, though, are an incalculably massive part of our cultural sphere, so now that worldwide marketing for the Ender's Game film has begun suddenly everyone gives a shit. Even if you do think that the film should be boycotted, such an action seems pointless. Card has been a very successful fixture of sci-fi literature for years, and earned his legacy long before this film went into production, so it'll make no difference to him if you don't buy tickets to some movie based on one of his many books. All you'll be doing is denying yourself an experience you might have enjoyed. It's the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[billy]

i agree with your point about the cutting your nose off to spite your face, what would it achieve not seeing it. it was the same with the catholic church en mass condemning the exorcist. more people go and watch it 'cause of the controversy.
so he's a bigot, did he stop any gay marriage rights, has he stopped any gay rights? too many people are thought police. i'm sure many producers are gay and for gay weddings
do we see hetero's or anti gay rights morons boycotting their works with protests, of course not. there are more effective ways to voice an opinion than boycotting a film.

[rowens]

Some people get off on having their face spited.

[heslopian]

do we see hetero's or anti gay rights morons boycotting their works with protests, of course not.

That's not necessarily true. The Laramie Project, a play about the 1998 homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard, was picketed by the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, who'd also picketed Shepard's funeral. Though that may have been because the play depicted the Church's funeral picket, as opposed to just its pro-gay sentiments.
I take your point, though. I'm not aware of any protests against John Water's A Dirty Shame just because Waters happens to be gay and very pro-gay rights. It was protested because it name-checked almost every weird un-Puritan fetish under the sun And nobody dug up Highsmith's anti-Semitism when The Talented Mr. Ripley was made into a film, though she was dead by then, anyway.