Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JEB" data-source="post: 8241081" data-attributes="member: 10148">This is a valid ethical question. But there's a universe of difference between, say, "this medical technique will save my patient, but the inventor was a horrible man" and "do I play this game made by a convicted murderer?" In the former case, a life is at stake; in the latter, only an afternoon's entertainment.A very good point - deconstructing a problematic work can be an extremely valuable exercise, and you can't do that without the original work continuing to exist...... but this is an even further complication - most folks won't pick up that context. Most will just be like I was years back, thinking this Cthulhu stuff sounds interesting and cool, so why don't I read the original material - and will read it uncritically. So is it worth the trade? We keep endorsing the problematic works by problematic folks, as long as other folks get to push back?(To be clear, I'm no fan of obliterating problematic works, but I'm certainly not eager to pretend they're OK, either.)Well, in the specific case of Lovecraft, the extent of his bigotry wasn't at all well known, outside his circle of friends and correspondents. There are only a few stories with overtly racist elements, and casual racism was common enough in popular fiction of the era that they don't stand out that much.Heck, most readers of Lovecraft's stories probably still don't know about his bigotry. I know I didn't until years after I read his works. (I did frown on the aforementioned racist elements in a few stories when I first read them, but I figured it was of-the-time racism - regrettable but more a reflection of the time and not his character. Little did I know...)The 1920s and 1930s were definitely a more overtly racist time, but Lovecraft was still above average. I'm reasonably sure most of-the-time racists didn't have fantasies about minorities getting gassed...Would that sort of behavior really bring down society? Maybe taken to extremes, perhaps, in the sense that 100% ethical consumption is nearly impossible in modern, globalized societies, so you'd have to boycott everything.But in terms of entertainment? I think it would be pretty great if more people took stands and refused to buy things from folks they think have abhorrent views or behavior. Instead, you more often see folks boycotting the things they wouldn't have bought in the first place, and rationalizing purchases of the things they like but know come from a bad source...</blockquote>

Verification