Yup. It panders to the Romantic notion that what interests the audience is "getting to know the artist". I find many of the Romantics appallingly egotistical, as a result.
It's also the cause of the notion that you shouldn't enjoy artworks by bad people, the idea that approving of the artist's life is essential to enjoyment of his/her work. I recall, in my teens, some of my father's friends tut-tutting at him "allowing me" to read Pound. Now, first of all, my parents have never seen it as their job to censor my reading; secondly, the fact Pound was an odious Fascist creep doesn't stop him being a great poet; thirdly, his best work is non-political; and fourthly, I have never been so stupid as to buy anyone else's secondhand political opinions, anyway. But these people had clearly bought into the idea that the art was irrevocably 'contaminated' by the artist's politics.
If "all art is autobiographical", we should not hate Mary-Sue so much...
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 10:30 am (UTC)It's also the cause of the notion that you shouldn't enjoy artworks by bad people, the idea that approving of the artist's life is essential to enjoyment of his/her work. I recall, in my teens, some of my father's friends tut-tutting at him "allowing me" to read Pound. Now, first of all, my parents have never seen it as their job to censor my reading; secondly, the fact Pound was an odious Fascist creep doesn't stop him being a great poet; thirdly, his best work is non-political; and fourthly, I have never been so stupid as to buy anyone else's secondhand political opinions, anyway. But these people had clearly bought into the idea that the art was irrevocably 'contaminated' by the artist's politics.
If "all art is autobiographical", we should not hate Mary-Sue so much...