# Writers v. actors you personally dislike as people: can you still enjoy their work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-v-actors-you-personally-dislike-as-people-can-you-still-enjoy-their-work/476629>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 10, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-v-actors-you-personally-dislike-as-people-can-you-still-enjoy-their-work/476629 "2008-12-10T22:46:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-v-actors-you-personally-dislike-as-people-can-you-still-enjoy-their-work/476629/81 "2008-12-18T07:30:13Z")

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Ernest Hemingway’s own life seriously damaged my enjoyment of _A Farewell to Arms_, though I suppose it would be a kind of creepy book anyway. But knowing its connections to its life just made me cringe the entire time I read it. Stupid 11th grade English.

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**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-v-actors-you-personally-dislike-as-people-can-you-still-enjoy-their-work/476629/82 "2008-12-18T13:09:26Z")

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I wanted to add Arthur C. Clarke,

but I just found out on wikipedia that the claims about him being a paedophile turned out to be lies,

Yay!

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**Author:** ![Grimpen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/82dd89/32.png) [@Grimpen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grimpen)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-v-actors-you-personally-dislike-as-people-can-you-still-enjoy-their-work/476629/83 "2008-12-18T13:21:23Z")

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> [@gaffa](#):
>
> I go to considerable effort to ensure none of my cash winds up in the coffers of the “Church” of Scientology. That means if Tom Cruise or John Travolta is in a film, I’ll pay for a different film.

That would be a factor for me, too. I can read, with enjoyment, authors with whom I disagree. But I’d be very reluctant to help fund an organization or movement that I considered destructive. I also find that I simply don’t enjoy writing which I’ve come to believe is embedded in ways of thinking that I find repellent. To clarify: if I disagree with an author, I may still enjoy that person’s writing very much. But if I come to feel there’s simply something sour about the way an author looks at the world, that changes the way I read what that author’s written and takes much of the pleasure out of it. I’m thinking of one science fiction writer I used to enjoy very much, until I realized I could no longer distinguish her heroines from her sociopaths.

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