this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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Neil Gaiman is an alleged rapist. Does that mean the sexual scenes in his books are not valid?
Horrible people is part of the human condition. Erasing them means we don't learn from it.
We can now better recognise the problematic parts of her work to gently help kids to appreciate it. Kids won't get the metaphors with slavery, racism, sexism that all exist with the potterverse. However, showing them these problems even in a fantastical world can help them better understand them in the real world.
Her work doesn't become pointless just by virtue of her being horrible. For some artists, that can even be the point. Look at Joss Whedon, who was lauded for writing powerful female characters. It's now clear he was abusive to the young women in his vicinity. Does that make Buffy less of a heroine or more?
This doesn't really relate to what I said whatsoever, because I never said her books or pointless or that we should erase her. I also didn't even say you're not allowed to read to books to your kid. Just that its content isnt great, and perhaps there are much better books for kids to read, such as the ones she lifted from, like the Earthsea Cycle.
Your implication in the Hitler reference was that we should not appreciate art from horrible people.
I'm glad my points changed your mind so much that we now agree, for the most part. ;)
No, that wasn't my implication (not quite as strong as that, anyway), nor did you change my mind. I still think it would be better to be reading better art, made by better people. Doesn't mean I'm trying to, like, ban Harry Potter books.