If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you watch the movie Tar. It’s an exploration of the mind and messy life of a musical director, Lydia Tar, as her world collapses right before her eyes.
The movie
We follow her through her errands as a renowned orchestra director, a wife, and a mother. From the beginning, it’s clear that she is mixed up in a dangerous game of power. Slowly but surely, we start to see the first cracks in her perfect façade. A girl who used to be one of her students has killed herself, and Tar seems to be scared of what could happen if anyone knew her role in her fatal decision.
I’m not going to go through all the plot because I really think you should watch it by yourself, so I’m going straight to an interesting reflection that is brought up throughout the movie.
We’re talking about cancel culture.
The scene which sparked my interest
In the scene above, we see Tar lecturing some young students from Julliard. One of them, Max, says that as a non-binary person of color, they don’t want to play anything from Bach. The woman then proceeds, without really taking into consideration Max’s feelings, to show the class how beautiful Bach’s music is despite its author being a cis white misogynistic man.
Cancel culture and its risks
This little scene and this movie sparked my interest, and I couldn’t help but reflect on how cancel culture can be dangerous.
It is a long-held debate, but all of us should try to decide whether we want to discern the art from the artist. When we see something created by another human being, we can’t help but associate the two of them. Of course, in the end, what we consume and why we choose to consume it is personal preference, so there is no wrong or right in this discussion.
Should we judge the art based on its creator?
Lately, I am making a gigantic effort to remind myself that if I don’t separate the creator from its creation, I may deprive myself of some surprising content. Should we all stop admiring Gauguin’s art because he abandoned his wife? Or should we stop looking at Caravaggio’s magnificent artworks because he was probably a killer? Should we forbid children to read Roald Dahl stories because the writer held anti-Semitic views?
The question to these answers is up to you. I do not want to lose any valuable content because of the immorality of its creators. I prefer to judge the artwork and the artist separately, but I make sure not to support anything that isn’t aligned with my values. Before, I got so enamored with someone’s work that I believed the artist must be some kind of special being possessing the same qualities and sensitivity that the art shows. The truth is that it’s an absolute mistake 99% of the time.
So what do you think: should we separate the art from the artist? Where do we draw the line?
I can’t wait to hear your opinions, so feel free to write me on any of my social media or via email.
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