A review by oliviaemily
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

how awful can we be before people stop loving us? i really enjoyed this musing on the perennial issue of whether art can be separated from the artist (and whether it should be). from jk rowling to joni mitchell, roman polanski to the author herself and her alcoholism, there’s a really nuanced and sensitive discussion of every type of monster. it kind of culminates in capitalism being the unavoidable issue (it doesn’t matter if you boycott, the decision is still shifted to the consumer) which i agree with but still found a bit plain. but then expands back out to conclude that, while every artist’s work is tainted by their biography, every consumer’s receipt of that art is coloured by their own experiences too. anyway it’s an ethical question without a real answer but this was a good exploration of it
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