When the Creator is a Monster, But the Art Still Matters
Or: Why Your Favorite Book Didn’t Betray You—The Author Did
Let’s get one thing straight: finding out that a writer or artist you admire is an absolute garbage human being is gut-wrenching. It’s like discovering your favorite treat is toxic. You feel betrayed. Confused. Maybe a little queasy.
And suddenly, you’re asking yourself: “Does this mean their work is tainted? Should I feel guilty for ever loving it?”
No. And here’s why.
The Meaning You Found Was Always Yours
When a story hits you in the gut, when a book changes the way you see the world, when a movie makes you cry in the dark… that’s not because the creator personally handed you meaning like a waiter delivering soup.
You found it. You shaped it. You made it yours.
The author didn’t reach into your brain and say, Hey, this part? This moment that made you feel something real? That was me. You’re welcome.
No. You took their words, their images, their ideas, and you built something personal out of them. And no amount of real-world disappointment can erase what that story meant to you.
The Story Exists Beyond the Creator
Once a story is out in the world, it doesn’t belong to the creator anymore. It belongs to the people who read it, who live in it, who find themselves inside its pages.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?
If a story is written but no one reads it, does it have meaning?
No. The meaning comes from the audience. From you.
The story wasn’t whispered into existence solely for its author. It was given shape by every reader who took it in and made it their own.
So when a writer turns out to be a terrible person, it doesn’t rewrite the emotions you felt when you first read their work. It doesn’t change the comfort you found in it. It doesn’t reach into the past and undo the moment that book saved you.
That was yours. And no one can take it away.
But What If Their Evil is Baked Into the Story?
Sometimes, when you go back, you realize the warning signs were always there. The casual cruelty, subtle bigotry; the poison hidden in the prose. And suddenly, it’s not just about them. It’s in the story itself.
That’s different. That’s when you get to make a choice.
You can interrogate the work. Recognize its flaws. Decide what, if anything, still holds meaning for you. Some stories are salvageable. Some are not. That’s for you to determine.
But if the meaning you took was something good, something true, something that helped you—then it wasn’t theirs to corrupt. They may have planted the seed, but you grew the tree.
Separating the Art from the Artist (Without Ignoring the Harm)
Look, let’s be real. Some people take “separate the art from the artist” as an excuse to keep supporting bad people like nothing happened. That’s not what this is about.
Acknowledging that a creator is awful doesn’t mean the emotions their work gave you were fake.
Holding onto what their story meant to you doesn’t mean you’re excusing their actions.
Choosing to step away from their work doesn’t mean you have to erase the impact it had on your life.
You get to decide where you draw the line. No one else.
The Stories We Keep
At the end of the day, stories are more than their creators. They are what we found in them, what we carried away, what we made of them.
And no matter what happens, that part? That’s yours. Forever.
Tony Sarrecchia Feb. 2024
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Spot on, Tony. Thanks!