The Rowling's Razor, "Oppenheimer", and separating the creation from the creator
This time it's personal
A pop culture museum in the US removed JK Rowling from its “Harry Potter” exhibition — for her transphobic views, obviously.“We would love to go with the internet’s theory that these books were actually written without an author”, says the project manager.
While I fully ally with trans people in the discussion around the writer’s views, I don’t support this kind of theory, because it might actually be harmful in the long term. This concerns me personally as an author — I’ll tell you about it in a bit.
The idea of "Harry Potter" coming into the world without an author is no different from "Thriller" popping out of nowhere, or "Rosemary's baby" being projected onto the silver screen from pure ether. And even if you can believe in HP's immaculate conception, you still buy the book or pay to stream the film, thus contributing your money to make JKR even richer.
A friend of mine (living in Russia) praised on their insta a music fest their company was sponsoring. But they seemed to genuinely like the show, so it wasn't a real promo post, despite them having quite a large following on social media. The problem is that said friend has been (so I thought) standing against Russia's war in Ukraine, and the show included at least one artist openly supporting it. Maybe they just love his music, but this choice has turned from personal to political today. The “Rowling’s Razor” (my term for the act of severing the work from the creator) went blunt this time.
I think we should remind ourselves that people are complex, and not always in a good way. “Oppenheimer” depicts this in great detail, in the most modern language I admire Nolan for: one does what they think is right, then it turns into a disaster, and they try to make amends (or not). Stories like this can provoke rage, or hope. Oppenheimer and JKR make their choices, so why should we refuse doing the same? Every time I want to grab my Rowling’s Razor, I try to stop and scrutinise my own predilections: why do I chose to read HP to my kid? Why am I still enjoying "Remember the time" — but not the songs by that Russian indie band who declared they don't really give a shit about the war, business as usual?
As an author, this makes me consider the artistic value of my work vs its social and political impact. Here’s the personal story I promised.
At the beginning of this year, while still in Russia, I co-wrote and co-directed a sci-fi animated series: “Eve: Connected through time”. It was done in Unreal Engine 5 with a great production studio: a friendly, fun, and hardworking team of young people. I had high hopes for this project as part of my portfolio, my personal “Love, Death, and Robots”. But recently I’ve discovered that the studio has partnered with an artist openly supporting Russia’s genocide. Literally, he’s painting murals or Russian military commanders in destroyed and occupied Mariupol and vocally supports the invasion. No chance they didn’t know about this: they even tagged his Instagram account with said murals and the author describing how he “was stuck in a traffic jam from Mariupol”.
Now, what should I do with “Eve”? The studio’s name is burned into the credits, and I don’t think it’s right to remove it. I discussed it with my co-author Anton and decided not to promote the series in any way and add a disclaimer about the studio’s support of the war wherever we mention the project. Things we like or even treasure can be made by people whose views and actions hurt us, and we deserve to know it. I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but it hasn’t magically generated itself. A lot of it is done by people who are ok with Russia killing Ukrainians. My kid’s favourite film series is based on a book written by a transphobe. This is something for me to own.
In other news:
Have you noticed that Threads looks like the early days Instagram now? Just open the "Following" feed and enjoy the quiet stream of photography. This week, I'm going on vacation for the first time in 2 years and feel a strong urge to delete Instagram while I'm enjoying the Montenegro beaches. So maybe I'll keep my Threads to simply post photos without engaging in my friends' social and personal lives for a while. I'm sure they'd appreciate that, too.