Enjoying books is complicated.
Like, one of my favorite authors is H. P. Lovecraft. He was not a very good human being but I’ve read every story he ever wrote and I love them despite their obvious flaws and showing of the author’s bias and prejudice. I think it’s important to acknowledge that people aren’t perfect, to study works like his to learn from them. When you’re writing a book it’s impossible to not put something of yourself in it.
I both do and don’t believe in death of the author.
Like, the recent revelations about Neil Gaiman. He’s been accused of being a rapist by multiple women. He denied it all of course. I don’t think any investigations went anywhere. Not enough to prove him guilty, not enough to exonerate him. Who to believe, Gaiman or the multiple women who accused him? I’m leaning towards believing all the women. And I used to like him. I watched a documentary about him and I loved the movie Stardust. Him turning out to be an awful human being taints that.
Not to mention that he’s still alive. He denied everything, said that the accusations were false, but I’m still not going to buy anything by him or watch anything he’s involved in or support anything else he does. He’s tainted. It’d be a damn shame if he’s innocent but I think he’s not, and that’s enough.
H. P. Lovecraft has the advantage of being dead. His awfulness is in the past. His books can be read and the good parts appreciated. Chuthlu, cool, racist bs, not cool. It’s that simple and that complex.