Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Urriak Uruk" data-source="post: 8526094" data-attributes="member: 7015558">One thing I didn't really see in the OP (and it's long, so perhaps I missed it) is the capacity for artist's to show remorse.Like, the big section on people being imperfect. This is true, no one has led a literally perfectly behaved life. People make mistakes, they get emotional and do things that in retrospect they regret. However, the real capacity for whether someone is a &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot; moral person is whether they have the capacity to see what they've done wrong, apologize, make amends and change their own behavior for the better.For someone like Gary Gygax who is dead, that's obviously not going to happen. I don't really care much about making a moral stance on that fellow or his flaws, because he's buried and nothing I do now will affect him. If he was alive I'd feel different, as I do about another alive D&amp;D designer, Mike Mearls (who I won't go into here).Tolkien is also not a perfect person, but he did apparently &quot;agonize&quot; over the depiction and origin of orcs, that Morgoth could corrupt but not create (but also point to maybe orcs being redeemed). He also has several notes, letters and writings are also explicitly anti-Nazism and anti-racist. This in no way shields him from criticism, but it's important to note that the man had doubts and was aware of his writing flaws, and his letters post-Lord of the Rings show attempts to make amends for some errors. This is a judgement of character, that an imperfect person at least tried to improve.For someone like JK Rowling though? She's very much alive, and is very much flaunting her flaws and shows little capacity for change. So I absolutely will do my best to support alternative books, films, etc. without her stamp on them.TLDR: Don't judge people by their mistakes, judge them by how they act after their mistakes. Do they keep making them, or try to do better?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Urriak Uruk, post: 8526094, member: 7015558"] One thing I didn't really see in the OP (and it's long, so perhaps I missed it) is the capacity for artist's to show remorse. Like, the big section on people being imperfect. This is true, no one has led a literally perfectly behaved life. People make mistakes, they get emotional and do things that in retrospect they regret. However, the real capacity for whether someone is a "good" or "bad" moral person is whether they have the capacity to see what they've done wrong, apologize, make amends and change their own behavior for the better. For someone like Gary Gygax who is dead, that's obviously not going to happen. I don't really care much about making a moral stance on that fellow or his flaws, because he's buried and nothing I do now will affect him. If he was alive I'd feel different, as I do about another alive D&D designer, Mike Mearls (who I won't go into here). Tolkien is also not a perfect person, but he did apparently "agonize" over the depiction and origin of orcs, that Morgoth could corrupt but not create (but also point to maybe orcs being redeemed). He also has several notes, letters and writings are also explicitly anti-Nazism and anti-racist. This in no way shields him from criticism, but it's important to note that the man had doubts and was aware of his writing flaws, and his letters post-Lord of the Rings show attempts to make amends for some errors. This is a judgement of character, that an imperfect person at least tried to improve. For someone like JK Rowling though? She's very much alive, and is very much flaunting her flaws and shows little capacity for change. So I absolutely will do my best to support alternative books, films, etc. without her stamp on them. TLDR: Don't judge people by their mistakes, judge them by how they act after their mistakes. Do they keep making them, or try to do better? [/QUOTE]

Verification