The next time some SJW tells you what a great "artist" Marion Zimmer Bradley was, and how the woman's books were so amazing, just send them this:
The reason I mention, is that the book is finally available in print, and y'all might want to go buy it. I can't recommend reading it, because by all accounts it is harrowing, to say the least. But buying it will give the Greylands some money, which would seem a good thing to do.It might also be instructive for the SJW to be reminded that Orson Scott Card, author of "Ender's Game" and other classics, was denounced and written off by SJWs for having an opinion about gay marriage. Yeah.The Last Closet has been an Amazon bestseller for weeks as a Kindle e-book, and is scheduled to be published as a print book this month. Over one hundred readers have reviewed it, and virtually all have given it five stars.
The book recounts Greyland's life with her mother, who was the author of The Mists of Avalon and many other famous works of science fiction and fantasy, and her father, Walter Breen, who was a world-renowned authority on numismatics. Both identified as "gay," both abused drugs and were involved in occult practices, and both were pedophiles, Greyland says, a claim that has been confirmed by her only surviving brother.
Saying MZB is a horrible person and a horrible writer is easy for me. I loathed Mists of Avalon, found Darkover Landfall completely pointless, and thought Stormqueen so revolting I vowed I would never pick up another book from her. However, I could see it being a serious dilemma for someone who did like those books. After all, I don't think Mists of Avalon was a horrible book because it was written by a child abuser and pedophile enabler, it was horrible because it was 800 pages of Morgaine preaching and Gwenhwyfar whining combined with maybe 100 pages worth of story. But if you thought Mists of Avalon was brilliant, does the revelation of MZB's true nature necessarily force you to dismiss her art as well?
ReplyDeleteArt doesn't excuse evil, no question, but does the art have to be thrown out with the artist when the evil becomes known?
I'm sure I read something of MZB's over the years somewhere. Whatever it was, it didn't stick in my mind as Brilliant! so I can feel pretty safe in erasing her from my library.
ReplyDeleteDoes Triumph of the Will need to be throw out because Hitler is in it? As a practical matter, we can't really do it anyway, so the question doesn't have much meaning.
What would be nice is if people reading MZB knew what the Real Life backdrop was for those books, and the real life cost. Then you can read them the way we watch Triumph of the Will. MZB books are propaganda for -her- fucked up lifestyle, and if you know that going in, then you can see it when you read.
Now, on the other hand, there's a whole lot of SJWs quite prepared to eradicate Orson Scott Card's work from libraries and bookstores everywhere. They can't do it, but they do try.
I'd like to know from them why they don't go after MZB with the same zeal. I know the answer already, but watching them spin and gyrate is fun. If somebody is going to lie to your face, its good to make the WORK for it.
Heck, since you mention Hitler: he himself was a relatively decent artist, from what I've heard. Nothing that would have given him a place in the art history books, but I know of one art professor (I'm racking my brains to remember who it was and can't remember, unfortunately) who likes to show his students slides of some rather decent landscape paintings and ask them to guess who the painter was. They're shocked to realize that it was Adolf Hitler.
ReplyDeleteApparently, good art can sometimes be made by evil men. But I wouldn't choose to have one of Hitler's landscapes hanging on my wall. (In a museum, OTOH, where it was part of a historical display about his life that explored how he slowly turned into a monster -- that would be an appropriate place for such a painting.)
Hey Robin,
ReplyDeleteIt is beginning to look like a large percentage of the celebrated films, photographs, fashions etc. of the late 20th Century was made by evil men. Harvey Weinstein, Tarantino, there are plenty of skeletons falling out of closets all over the place lately. Few were as bad as MZB, but some allegedly have come close.
Looking at our popular culture, this seems reasonable. So much of it is abusive, exploitative, and just plain ugly.
Side note: apparently, Hitler was good at painting landscapes and buildings. He was not very good at depicting people.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't that good a painter, from what I've read. People and animals are far harder to get right than buildings and landscapes. A dabbler can do a nice landscape, you have to study hard to do people well.
ReplyDeleteToo bad, really. Maybe if he'd worked harder as an artist we could have been spared all that bullshit he did later.
Hitler and art and war:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/EUpXdv2oV3A