The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

I once stopped by the Troubabour Café on London's Old Brompton Road to take a picture of the K-On artwork in the window. It was gifted by Japanese fans who'd travelled to see the actual café depicted in the K-On movie.



Found that image via Google. By the time I visited a few years ago, the art had become faded and sun-bleached, unfortunately.
 
...and now distribution of the light novels themselves is being halted. I read through some of the questionable comments which kicked everything off and they were pretty vile. Still, I'm amazed that it actually went as far as getting the anime cancelled. Hopefully the slot will be filled by something more deserving; there's no great shortage of similar content to pick up the slack.

R
 
Girls wIth Guns said:
When will people learn that social media is nothing but pure evil? It's way too easy to destroy your life just from one tweet or post. No thank you! I stay completely off all the social media sites - so I will always remain unsociable... :p
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Or alternatively create an alternate account in which to post the self destructive posts.
 
Rui said:
...and now distribution of the light novels themselves is being halted. I read through some of the questionable comments which kicked everything off and they were pretty vile. Still, I'm amazed that it actually went as far as getting the anime cancelled.
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I don't condone any of the things he said and think not only was it rather stupid to say them publicly as well as sad that he holds those beliefs in the first place, but I also feel like people are very quick to blur the line between art and artist these days. It's something which didn't really happen (at least not to such an extent) in the past and if people are going to decry and boycott art made by people because of the creator's personal views (and words, not even actions in this case, I mean Phil Spector is a literal murderer but that doesn't make his music worse) I feel like we'd probably miss out on a lot of interesting stuff. I mean a lot of creative people tend to be quite outspoken and a little unhinged anyway.
 
ayase said:
I don't condone any of the things he said and think not only was it rather stupid to say them publicly as well as sad that he holds those beliefs in the first place, but I also feel like people are very quick to blur the line between art and artist these days. It's something which didn't really happen (at least not to such an extent) in the past and if people are going to decry and boycott art made by people because of the creator's personal views (and words, not even actions in this case, I mean Phil Spector is a literal murderer but that doesn't make his music worse) I feel like we'd probably miss out on a lot of interesting stuff. I mean a lot of creative people tend to be quite outspoken and a little unhinged anyway.
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MMO junkie didn't suffer, and look what happened to it's director
 
ayase said:
I don't condone any of the things he said and think not only was it rather stupid to say them publicly as well as sad that he holds those beliefs in the first place, but I also feel like people are very quick to blur the line between art and artist these days. It's something which didn't really happen (at least not to such an extent) in the past and if people are going to decry and boycott art made by people because of the creator's personal views (and words, not even actions in this case, I mean Phil Spector is a literal murderer but that doesn't make his music worse) I feel like we'd probably miss out on a lot of interesting stuff. I mean a lot of creative people tend to be quite outspoken and a little unhinged anyway.
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I think the problem here is that those racist opinions are actively written into the books as well, so you can’t cleanly cut away the authors opinions and those presented in the story.

MMO Junkie was a different situation as well given it wasn’t the original creator who held this kind of opinions, but simply the director of an adaption and so it was far easier to blur the connection.
 
Demelza said:
MMO Junkie was a different situation as well given it wasn’t the original creator who held this kind of opinions, but simply the director of an adaption and so it was far easier to blur the connection.
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yea but I'd argue with such things that are changed in adaptions they can stand by themselves as that person's work too. Harvey, by far one of the worst people in film these days, unquestionably did adaptions of a few things and his name has been stricken off all his work to not drag it down with him
 
Demelza said:
I think the problem here is that those racist opinions are actively written into the books as well, so you can’t cleanly cut away the authors opinions and those presented in the story.
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I've seen conflicting accounts as to whether this is actually the case and the novels really do contain racist content, or whether people are drawing these conclusions based on his personal views. Which is another thing that tends to happen a lot in these days of politicising absolutely every form of media. I can't imagine anyone would have chosen to adapt content for an anime series that was openly racist. Well, apart from Angel Cop but that was quite a long time ago and also unintentionally hilarious because of it.

There seems to be an ever growing tendency to see fictional protagonists as author avatars, and fiction itself as propaganda for the author's beliefs. No doubt this is true in some cases, but not in all or even many. I mean if we followed that line of thinking to its logical conclusion (and a lot of media commentators are certainly getting close to doing so) we could never have an anti-hero again, because clearly that means the writer condones all the things their protagonist does.

I think this mindset is having a major impact on people's ability to enjoy fiction as fiction, to be able to escape into a fantasy without constantly trying to unpick it all and turn it into a political argument whereby consuming fiction has real world consequences - Something I'll never get on board with because it reminds me of the loons who wanted Grand Theft Auto banned because it might turn people violent, or Dungeons & Dragons banned because it might turn people into demon worshipping Satanists. I don't think reading fiction written by a racist (which if we go back in history, would be a lot of fiction - Goodbye Evelyn Waugh, so long Philip Larkin) is going to turn anyone into a racist, just as I don't think listening to Gary Glitter is likely to turn anyone into a child abuser. Or take Morrissey - A very outspoken artist who says some things I very much agree with and some things I massively disagree with, all of them controversial, but I don't think that should ever be grounds for his music not to be heard.
 
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@ayase
But can you blame people for not wanting to support the work of a racist? And it is probably quite hard for many people to give the show the benefit of the doubt in regards to its dubious content now that they know what views the author holds. Likewise, it's probably difficult for one not to be reminded of the author's real life crappiness when the novel's themes are so uncomfortably close to that subject. It ruins the effect of the fiction and kills the illusion and the escapism. It might not be as difficult if the work was more easily separable. I'm not familiar at all with this show, but that's been my experience in similar situations.

But yeah, personally, I'm not sure that I really want to financially support well known racists. I know that most great talents are usually let downs as people, or at least have as many foibles as everyone else, and it's always dangerous to read the biographies of artists you love. But I do think there is a scale, and on my scale unabashedly attempting to devalue the human worth of people of a different race (or gender or sex) through your words is quite high, so I can't really blame people for wanting to wash their hands of this chap.

I'm a little more insouciant about racist artists from the past (providing they aren't on Hitler's level or something) , as racist beliefs were a lot more normalised and common, and if those artists are dead I know I'm not financially supporting them.

Well, that's my take on it. I wouldn't blame anyone who did want to continue reading it too of course, it's just that I do understand the disgust.
 
Vashdaman said:
@ayase
But can you blame people for not wanting to support the work of a racist? And it is probably quite hard for many people to give the show the benefit of the doubt in regards to its dubious content now that they know what views the author holds. Likewise, it's probably difficult for one not to be reminded of the author's real life crappiness when the novel's themes are so uncomfortably close to that subject. It ruins the effect of the fiction and kills the illusion and the escapism. It might not be as difficult if the work was more easily separable. I'm not familiar at all with this show, but that's been my experience in similar situations.
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Absolutely I can understand that, but I'm not sure that's a decision I'm very comfortable with publishers or distributors making. Customers yes, if people don't want to financially support the work of someone they disagree with, they are totally within their rights not to support them. If I considered someone's work to be propaganda for a cause I disagreed with I wouldn't support it either. But equally, I'm willing to admit that terrible people can produce great things, and if those things are easily separable from their beliefs I don't think they're necessarily tainted by association.

When it comes to the artist as an individual, I think this tendency to view people's present opinions as fixed and immediately and harshly condemn them (rather than treat them in a way which is much more constructive and attempt to educate them and change their minds) is unfortunate because it isn't doing anything to really challenge their beliefs. If anything, I think people are more likely to double down when attacked and think that they're right, because without any kind of reasoned argument for why what they believe is wrong, it can come across as just trying to suppress what they're saying, which can seem like trying to silence the truth (by which I mean their version of the truth).

I guess it comes from a view that people aren't monsters, people who are racists or misogynists are probably that way because they've had a poor education or bad parenting (people's parents being racists is easily the number one cause for someone being a racist). People have the ability and the potential to stop being those things, but I don't think telling them they're a terrible person and attempting to ruin their livelihoods is the right way to achieve that result. I don't think people are forever irredeemable for expressing unsavoury opinions at one moment in time, least of all on tw*tter, a platform that encourages people to say dumb things for attention. But I've made peace with the fact society's probably doomed when it comes to this sort of thing anyway, as people of all political persuasions seem to be becoming more and more inflexible and judgemental. People usually seem more interested in a fight and looking good to other people on "their side" than they are changing anyone's mind and actually improving anything.
 
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