About Problematic Authors

Israel-Palestine conflict becomes the trending topic worldwide this past month. Lots of people are beyond angry on Israel’s bombing on innocent Palestinians, killing thousands of civilians (in which many of them are children, women, and powerless people). People are protesting on this bombing in many forms. One of them is boycotting brands and authors who are pro-Israel as the oppressor.

I see people who are disappointed with their favorite authors’ stance immediately want to unhaul the novels, never wanting to touch — let alone to read — the books these authors wrote. They also stopped buying newer novels or editions of existing titles to boycott these authors. Well, I have my point of view on this. I took English literature in university and I had to read various literary works, from classics to modern, romance to fantasy, you name it. No matter how revolutionary, controversial, or problematic the author is/was, we still had to read their book anyway. It’s like we gotta separate thoughts on the author and their works.

I remember one day one of my university friend once asked me about my view on a problematic author. She asked if I would still read their work, regardless of their problematic point of view or behavior. I said, I would still read it anyway. Sometimes, the asshole author created the best literary works. My point of view hasn’t changed today. I’m truly disappointed that some of the authors whose book I read (or want to read) stand by the oppressor, but I won’t discard books from these authors that I owned. It doesn’t stop me from going to read their most popular novel(s). However, I won’t be buying a new copy from bookstores.