AHHH, Real Monsters!

In 1876, German composer Richard Wagner introduced the public to Der Ring des Nibelungen, a tale about female Viking warriors called The Valkyries. In it, the sisters of Brünnhilde take dead warriors to the Afterlife, or Valhalla, on a ride set to the opera’s most-famous piece of music, Ritt der Walküren. Despite Wagner later regretting the public affection of his work, his opera, in particular Ritt der Walküren, proved to have long legs, becoming the inspiration for various movies, shows and parodies in the decades that’ve followed. You’ve probably heard this piece of music under its English name, The Ride of the Valkyries, and it’s incredibly easy to hunt down on YouTube. I know I’ve listened to it myself, and I’m unashamed to call it one of my favourite pieces of music.

I mention this because Richard Wagner was a member of The League of Antisemites, an organization started by Wilhelm Marr. Wagner’s disdain for Jews was such an open-secret that Adolf Hitler considered his work an inspiration and would reference it frequently in his speeches. Considering that I’m Jewish, and should oppose all Nazi-inspired art, how can I consider The Ride of the Valkyries one of my favourite pieces of music? The answer, against all better judgement, is simple: it’s well-composed. It’s so well-composed, in fact, that I’d be remiss to discard it despite knowing who Richard Wagner was.

This past year-and-a-half has seen a drastic rethinking of consent and predatory behaviour, thanks to Harvey Weinstein and the influence of Me Too. The way in which we’ve collectively responded to predatory behaviour from influential people has caused a rethinking of the art that these predators have had a hand in. This has also led to discarding said works and re-evaluating their legacies. I’m not one to deny this outright, I’m guilty of it too, but I also think that it’s slightly wrong to engage in this form of erasure.

See, art is, and I hate this word, problematic. It’s problematic because it’s human, and, therefore, prone to the flaws of those making it. But it’s also problematic because it’s often collaborative, and, therefore, the end-result of circumstances the consumer has no control over. That our favourite works of art were created, or partly-created, by awful people isn’t surprising, but expected. And trying to erase the impact that predatory people have had in art removes not only their potentially-positive contributions, but is incredibly-dishonest. If history is anything to go with, bad people should be learned from, not ignored.

I understand that this is hard to do; after all, these people have hurt us. They’ve wronged us. They’ve set a bad precedent by suppressing the talent of individuals whose voices we may never get to know. That’s a tragedy, and it’s only natural to want to erase them. If they had to cheat to get successful, why bother feeding that success?

I’ve been struggling with this dilemma for years. It began when Mel Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ, followed by his DUI and Antisemitic rant a few years later. In the years following that, I’ve consistently struggled with comprehending how talented people can be so awful, as well as how to deal with their legacies. How can I enjoy Chicken Run, one of my favourite animated films, when Gibson voiced Rocky the Rooster? Am I crazy?

In recent years, however, this has only gotten worse as more of my favourite artists have been outed as awful: JK Rowling? She’s a TERF who’s actively pissing on the goodwill of her fans. John Lasseter? He’s a horny creep who made working at Pixar toxic for women. R. Kelly? He may have sung “I Believe I Can Fly”, but his underaged romancing isn’t a secret. And then there’s Vic Mignogna or Todd Haberkorn, VAs who’ve come under fire for their predatory behaviour towards fans.

This is all upsetting, and it’s not going away anytime soon. If anything, it’ll only get worse as more artists are unearthed as awful people. And that’ll also mean that their legacies will be re-examined, which, for many people, victims included, will take the shape of erasure. Sympathetically-motivated erasure, but erasure nonetheless.

Unfortunately, this’ll also downplay history. Like Wagner and The Ride of the Valkyries, the impact of these artists is everywhere: Rowling helped pioneer a renewed interest in children’s literature in the late-90’s and early-2000’s. Lasseter was responsible for significant advances in CGI, even directing the first, fully-computer generated film in 1995. R. Kelly helped make Space Jam big in the late-90’s, and his music is incredibly-memorable still. And Mignogna and Haberkorn have helped shaped anime dubbing in North America with their contributions to voice acting in the Texas and LA scenes.

Even if these are all people not deserving of respect, that doesn’t make their contributions any less-impactful. I know that Rowling, Lasseter, R. Kelly, Mignogna and Haberkorn were all influential in shaping my childhood, teenage-hood and adulthood, even if I now know who they really are. It’s shocking, and it’s frustrating, which is why the only way to fix that is to go back in time and change my tastes in art. But since time machines don’t exist yet, and the ripple effect of changing the past would be negative, I have to live with that not happening.

Besides, we should be using these individuals as people to learn from, not erase. Rowling’s awful? Okay, that should be a wake-up call to aspiring writers. Lasseter’s also awful? Okay, that should be a wake-up call to aspiring animators. R. Kelly’s awful too? Okay, that should be a wake-up call to aspiring musicians. Even Mignogna and Haberkorn being awful, while disappointing and upsetting, should be a wake-up call to aspiring voice actors.

I also don’t think we should be giving posthumous wins to awful people by letting their legacies get to us. Should we downplay their victims’ pain? Of course not! But pretending that they never existed loses the lessons they offer to history, and I think that that’s a crime.

Finally, I’d like to share something personal: when I was about 11 years-old, Teletoon started airing old Warner Bros. shorts through The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show. They were all smart and funny, but one stood-out in particular: “What’s Opera, Doc?”. In it, Bugs Bunny tries outwitting Viking Elmer Fudd and loses, with the entire short set to, you guessed it, Wagner’s famous opera. It was funny, sad, and-most importantly-clever, despite its music. Even after finding out that Wagner was Antisemitic, I was upset because the short had made such a lasting impact. And isn’t that what matters most?