That you label it kind of iffy is very troubling to me.
Several women have written about the nature of their relationships with him and he admitted that what they wrote was true. What legal action was taken against him is not my concern. That is a matter for his victims and the UK to handle if they have not done so already.
Then just buy the books used, orrow them from libraries or <joke> torrent the hell out of them and bollocks to them getting any profits!
There are a number of ways to read something without the money supporting the original author.
I’m looking at my collection and I don’t see a book called “Darkover”. The chronologically first book (by internal order) is “Darkover Landfall” (written later, takes place earlier.)
I didn’t see that quote (or a reasonable paraphrase) in the first few chapters.
I also checked out a couple of the “Free Amazon” books (which is where she lost me for anti-man vibes, so I agree with you in general) and the closest I could find was the Free Amazon screed:
Could you have been thinking of that?
This exactly is how I’m coming to feel about it.
Oh, fudge. I can’t remember, then. “Darkover Landfall” doesn’t sound right.
It definitely wasn’t the Oath of a Free Warrior you quoted from. It wasn’t a great declaration of that nature, but a smaller-scale statement, something much more conversational. I’m almost sure it began with a conciliatory phrase, something like, “It may not be fair…” It might even have been in the author’s forward and not in the book itself.
(I read the book in a “Feminist Science Fiction” class, which, in fact, was a lot of fun. Ursula LeGuin and Octavia Butler and Charlotte Gilman and Marion Bradley.)
I don’t know anything about who paid for Breen’s lawyers or where the money came from, but according to Wikipedia Bradley and Breen separated in 1979 (although they remained on friendly terms) and divorced in 1990, the same year that Breen was arrested for child molestation. I would assume they had separate bank accounts by that point if not earlier, although of course Bradley could have chosen to pay for Breen’s lawyers if she wanted to.
I never read any of the Darkover novels*, but I am a librarian so I’m good at finding books. 
As far as I can tell none of the novels are titled simply Darkover and most do not even include the name Darkover in the main title. But there are also a lot of Darkover short story anthologies, and one of them is called Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover. It seems likely that this would be referred to/remembered as simply Darkover.
A preview of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover is available on Amazon, but while there is an introduction by Bradley I’m not seeing anything there about blaming all men for anything. She actually makes a dismissive remark about “the louder and more obnoxious feminists” who complain that there’s a “conspiracy in science fiction”. Could you be mixing this book up with something else you read in the same class?
*I did once read one of the anthologies of Darkover stories written by other authors, but I don’t remember it very well.
This is where I am right now. I own quite a few of the Darkover books, as well as the Avalon series, and re-read them every so often (and was planning on filling in the gaps in my Darkover collection.
Now, I don’t know. Intellectually, I can understand the separation of the art from the artist. But emotionally…
Well, for example, I know that I used to love many of Mel Gibson’s movies, and still own a few, but now, when I am looking for a movie to rewatch or suggest, I somehow manage to ignore those movies.
So, I have a feeling the same thing will happen here.
Dang… I guess I’m deep in “Never Mind” territory. I remember the quote fairly well, and that it was in the first ten pages or so of a Darkover book. Beyond that, nothin’.
All I’ve got now is that she was really rude to several people in my presence, including officers of the fan club she was a guest speaker for, and including insulting the people who were buying her dinner.
The child molestation bits are just light-years worse than anything I ever had thought she could have done.
Yes, when I’m reading an MZB novel I’m NOT constantly thinking “this was written by a child molester”. I actually don’t think about the creator of a work while I am enjoying the work.
I don’t “pretend it never happened”, I just don’t think about it constantly, or for that time I’m re-reading a novel or whatever. If someone mentions the Awful Thing That Person Did a day later I have no trouble recalling it, so no, I don’t forget it.
Anyone ever read Vonnegut without thinking about Vonnegut?
For what it’s worth, I’m not against boycotts – I don’t eat at Chik-Fil-A, nor do I shop at Walmart unless I absolutely have to. So, I’m not condemning anyone necessarily for not reading MZB, or boycotts. I’m just saying that being able to separate the two doesn’t make a person immoral necesssarily.
She definitely paid for his living expenses between the separation and incarceration - and he didn’t move far, just next door, AFAIK.
No-one’s said that.
If anything, at worst I’d call it maybe “amoral” rather than “immoral.” But I’m not sure it even rises to the “amoral” charge. I’d understand not wanting to enrich the coffers of someone whose acts one despises, but in this case, MZB is dead, and I’d imagine most people don’t really know her SO Lisa enough to care that she’s being enriched if indeed she is.
For myself, I don’t think I’d be able to separate the artist from the art if I weren’t already deeply attached to it. This would be true especially if some of the person’s works (in this case, fiction) carries uncomfortable overtones or reminders of the artist’s… well, I was gonna say “foibles” but that’s hardly what I’d call child abuse of this sort. Flaws? Nefarious behavior? Fill in the blanks so that it’s a range that suits “shoplifting” to “drunk-driving” to “assault” to “rape” to “murder.”
Since I’ve never read MZB–and although Mists of Avalon was on my “someday I should probably get to it” list–I probably won’t bother now.
OTOH, if it were some unmatched classic that I felt was important part of culture, I would give it a try. I’m an opera lover and the first time I listened to the beginning of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde I adored it, despite my being Jewish and knowing his reputation. Hell, I’d be interested in seeing Hitler’s artwork, for that matter.
Same goes for work I already adore and now know some icky things about the artists. I still love 30 Rock even though Alec Baldwin is bonkers, I enjoy Michael Richard’s work in Seinfeld even though ditto, and Gary Oldman in anything, also ditto. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra still give me chills with their incredible voices despite the numerous skeevy things in their pasts. And I will never ever stop listening to Michael Jackson.
So I guess it’s a case-by-case basis with me.
(On a lighter note… as painful as reading those transcripts was, I did get a giggle out of the mistake in the line, “I didn’t know her from Adam or Fox.” Guess the transcriber never heard the expression, “I don’t know her/him from Adam’s off ox,” meaning the hypothetical ox on the opposite side of hypothetical farmer Adam–his right side, in other words. It’s not a hugely common phrase, although it used to be more known, especially from someone growing up when MZB did. For example, it’s used in It’s a Wonderful Life by Sheldon Leonard’s Nick the Bartender during the Alt/Evil Bedford Falls sequence.)
Same here, I’m very familiar with the name but none of the books ring a bell (I checked her bibliography). Add me to the list of “just found out”.
Since apparently I’ve never read one of her books I don’t think I’m going to now. I wasn’t able to get even to one quarter of Garcia Marquez’ autobiography because of his attitude about sex, but while I was no fan of his other work the specific issue that bothered me never showed up in it that I remember; I don’t know whether MZB separated so well or not, but from what I read in this thread she “separated” waaaay too well (cf. “why would I help that kid?”).
Agreed that what MZB did was wrong and there’s something profoundly wrong with her as a person. But I’m having a hard time feeling the kind of disgust at her as a person you and some others have expressed, because given what she’s said, I’m practically certain she herself was abused in just the same way as a kid. People who suffer through that just don’t generally know what’s normal, and can’t think normally when it comes to sex. There really is reason to have compassion for her here, even as one condemns her actions and calls for her to suffer consequences for them.
I’ve got something embarrassing I have to get off my chest…
For years, and I have no idea why, I thought the author’s name was Morton Zimmer Bradley. 
I’d blame the alcohol, but I don’t drink.
My lack of opinion hasn’t changed.
same here…
Considering many people come through molestation of that sort (and worse), yet break the cycle and understand exactly how completely devastating and wrong it is, yeah, I have no desire to feel any sympathy for someone that so defiantly goes forward perpetuating such hurt. Sorry.
ETA: That was to Frylock.
I had heard rumours about Breen a while ago, and had pretty much forgotten them, but nothing about MZB until maybe a month ago. I’m almost surprised that I’ve never read any of her books as I’ve been reading sf&f for decades. I’ll definitely be keeping it that way now.
But back in around 1980 (give or take) Locus, or maybe SF Chronicle, the SF news magazines, re-published a list of books that some US school board had banned from their classrooms because of their sexual content. It listed various individual books but further down the list it had the entry ‘the entire Darkover series’. At the time this blanket ban for some fantasy books cracked us up (the other books were stuff like Arthur Miller, iirc) and the phrase, said portentiously, became a minor catchphrase for a time… Of course, I don’t know what the sexual content was that they objected to, they may just have thought it was a bit strong for young adults rather than any specific themes.
Hadn’t thought about that for years…