I was very disappointed to learn of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s disgraceful behavior. I have always rather enjoyed Schwarzenegger’s work. Granted, he was not exactly a great actor, as such, but he has a great screen presence.
People often talk about separating art from the artist, vis-a-vis the artist’s work being excellent, but the artist himself being a total jerk. It can be tough to enjoy a piece of art when you know the person who made it was a wretched human being. I have this problem all the time with a lot of my favorites.
For example, Chinatown is one of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion. Unfortunately, it was directed by the criminal wretch Roman Polanski. And then there’s Lawrence of Arabia, another absolutely brilliant film, directed by serial adulterer and all-around bully David Lean.
Moving on to my favorite music, I come to the great rock-and-roller,Warren Zevon. I don’t even know where to begin. Suffice it to say, he really was “Mr. Bad Example“.
(Since I wrote this last week, I’ll leave poets out of this one. Also, I should mention that Thingy had a good post on this a while back. Ta-Nehisi Coates did too, about a year ago, but I can’t find it.)
