For my latest newsletter, I wrote a thing about JK Rowling and "separating the art from the artist." I have thoughts!

https://buttondown.email/charliejane/archive/jk-rowling-and-separating-the-art-from-the-artist/

J.K. Rowling and "Separating the Art from the Artist"

In case you've been living under some kind of magical rock, there's a new Harry Potter tie-in video game out now, called Hogwarts Legacy. I honestly wasn't...

@charliejane yes, yes, all of that. I am not a celebrity, I'm just a shmuck who sits alone in a room and writes.

Wearing my "English Degree" hat, I also feel obliged to throw out: "separating art from the artist" is a postmodern critical tool, intended for literary analysis. Using it routinely is like saying, "I hear hydraulic jackhammers are way cool, I need one for my apartment."

For most of history, art and artist were one and the same.

For people not engaging in literary analysis, SAFA is misuse of a professional tool. Which, fine, play with literary tools all you want, talking about art is cool, but don't claim that this tool is the unimpeachable cultural standard! It just isn't.

@mwl Barthes really intended it to be for works whose authors were dead and gone. I think he specifically says that
@megapenguinx I believe you're correct, but didn't want to claim that without the cite and I was too lazy to walk upstairs to that library.