But there's a problem with becoming a fan of this wonderful, intelligent Mr. Card. He holds strong allegiance to the Mormon religion, being a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, an American leader of the Latter Day Saint movement. Having a religion in itself, of course, is nothing to be ashamed of, since every person holds the right to believe in what they want. It is the religious doctrine entailed to Mormonism, rather austere in its prohibition of homosexuality, that is harshly criticized. Mr. Card has been one of the leading figures to state his homophobic tendency and antagonism against gay marriage. The result of this was a direct bombarding on the sale of his books, expectable considering that the majority of SF fans are left. Many of his former fans claimed that they will never read his book again no matter how interesting it may be. Card was, of course, strikingly indifferent about this reaction. He stood firm and embraced the criticisms with sheer sarcasm.
I start to hesitate at this point. Shouldn't I hate all of Card's work if I'm truly against his stance?But does his being a homophobia actually 'contaminate' his books? Did he reflect his homophobia into the book? All kinds of thoughts cross my mind, some of them civil, some of them outright and frank like 'Shit I wouldn't really care if he's against gay or not. Fun is all that matters anyways.' It's harder when they start to apply dichotomy to the issue. 'Are you even sane for advocating a homophobia's work?' The Internet community would shout out. It's like for that quarter of a second, I' m a minority. So the question of 'Does an author and his book share a common tree of morality?' starts.
Seeing some examples in my own country, it seems only just that the work of a moral failure be embedded a scarlet letter. Seo Jung Joo, a renowned poet for his pro-Japanese stance, is never openly acclaimed by the critics even now. Actress Lee Ji-A's dramas are tacitly banned to mention among many internet communities after her identity as a granddaughter of a major pro-Japanese figure was revealed. I understand those cases and deeply empathize with the public emotion against them even without the direct relationship between an author and the book.
But in the case of Card, it's a bit more tricky. He never expresses any of his homophobia throughout his books, and it's considered by a problem of faith still by some people.
I start to hesitate at this point. Shouldn't I hate all of Card's work if I'm truly against his stance?But does his being a homophobia actually 'contaminate' his books? Did he reflect his homophobia into the book? All kinds of thoughts cross my mind, some of them civil, some of them outright and frank like 'Shit I wouldn't really care if he's against gay or not. Fun is all that matters anyways.' It's harder when they start to apply dichotomy to the issue. 'Are you even sane for advocating a homophobia's work?' The Internet community would shout out. It's like for that quarter of a second, I' m a minority. So the question of 'Does an author and his book share a common tree of morality?' starts.
Seeing some examples in my own country, it seems only just that the work of a moral failure be embedded a scarlet letter. Seo Jung Joo, a renowned poet for his pro-Japanese stance, is never openly acclaimed by the critics even now. Actress Lee Ji-A's dramas are tacitly banned to mention among many internet communities after her identity as a granddaughter of a major pro-Japanese figure was revealed. I understand those cases and deeply empathize with the public emotion against them even without the direct relationship between an author and the book.
But in the case of Card, it's a bit more tricky. He never expresses any of his homophobia throughout his books, and it's considered by a problem of faith still by some people.
Becoming a major motion picture(yay!) while being sabotaged by its original fans, huh.
So I hesitate. 
No comments:
Post a Comment