My Idol has fallen from the pedestal

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Unfortunately, that's the price of stardom. When you're famous, people delight in taking potshots at you.

Yeah, I feel funny reading anymore of Perry's stuff till I reach some sort of closure with this. It's easy to say, nobody's perfect, don't judge, etc. (Not that anyone has said this.) But it isn't about judging someone. It was just such a huge shock. I have been reading and re-reading her mysteries for nearly 10 years, and now,I must digest this about her. ( It's giving me indigestion.)

Sweep away all pedestals.
Idolize nobody.
It's foolishness.
If somebody creates something that moves you, great. You can appreciate what they did without somehow elevating them to demigod status in your mind.
Thusly elevated, and imbued with your higher expectations of them, they can only let you down.
It's your fault for supplying the pedestal.
Be slow to judge people good or bad, and continue to adjust your provisional view of them based on any new data that come in.

Now that is not entirely true. You can be a fan of an artwork or a fan of an artist. Some people just move you not for what they created but for who they are. Imagine there is somebody doing a huge of awareness work, creating organisations, lobbying for a better status etc for a specific minority group, isnt it quite normal people in that minority will have a huge admiration for this person regardless of his work? I cannot think of any good examples, but surely you get my point.

I agree, crackedpleasures.

I have idolised fictional characters, like Sherlock Holmes, Merlin, Oliver Cromwell, or Robin Hood, etc.
And adored a film actor with a glorious voice, when I was about 12-14, until I discovered to my horror that he had been a serious drug user, which ( info at that stage of my evolution!) totally wrecked my adoration.

But other than that I don't think that I have "idolised" a real person, ( who was unknown to me personally ), because of their "work", apart from Andrea Dworkin for her book "Intercourse", ( and I think that what I feel/felt was profound admiration and gratitude rather than idolatry), and nothing that I have found out about her since has caused me to distrust or doubt her, except in so far as my own ideas have changed and my perspective on hers as a result.

I have been far more prone to idolising real people who I have known; a couple of men, and a woman. The awakening was painful.

One writer that I am aware of appreciating more and more is Ursula le Guin. And think of her with admiration for her deep insight and analysis, and sensitivity. And it is true that if I suddenly discovered that she was/did "x, y or "z, it might shock me. But then I don't believe, based on her work, that she could "be" anything appalling. She might have done some unkind/unjust/troubling things, but learned from them.

I believe redemption/repentance is possible during one's lifetime. I had an abortion. It took me many years to pay my "debts" for that, but I think it is done. So with a murder.

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QFT in a big way.

As an aside, the British actor Leslie Grantham (who shot to fame in the BBC soap EastEnders) is also a convicted murderer. Nobody cared. But when the tabloid press revealed he'd been caught w*king on a webcam, he got called every name under the sun.

No particular reason for mentioning that (other than finding out whether "w*king" gets past the swear filter on here, which I'm pleased to say it does) as it's not entirely relevant to the debate, but it's always interesting to look into this morbid and warped thing called celebrity culture.

This is a minor point, but Oliver Cromwell was all too real.

I have no idol in my life. I have favorites, but seriously... I'm not much of a person to idolize anyone unless I truly knew them. As in, I know them personally. Then it is a much different story.

Maybe "idolize" was too strong a word to use. I haven't truly idolized anyone, since I was around twelve. Then, it was Rudolph Nureyev, and Margot Fonteyn. Since I have always loved the ballet, they were my absolute favorites. Even when someone tried to spoil it, by saying that Nureyev was gay, I didn't care. After all, I wasn't going to propose marriage!

Having said that, I guess that as a writer, and because Victorian England is one of my obsessions, I was rather stunned to find this fact out, about the writer. I believe that my reaction was all too human, which is a relief. I am sure she is not perfect, and that she must be different today, than the way she was at the time of the murder. It just took a while to process this.

Whoops!

I knew that! Why did I put him in a list of fictional characters? Weird. Maybe because what began it was a film starring Richard Harris as Cromwell. I read lots of books about him afterwards.

Thanks for the correction.

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I idolized Dr Who, but then he blew up Skaro....

....and committed genocide by destroying all the vervoids...




Oh and Oliver Cromwell.... I doubt that the real (personal) Oliver was anything like Richard Harris' portrayal - and probably not like the books either. History tends to leave out the good deeds of bad men (I'm sure Hitler did one or two good things - maybe a half-decent watercolour? maybe not) and the bad deeds of good men (Jesus was supposed to be so good... but how do you think his parents felt when he ran off for a couple of days aged 12 without telling them where he was going.... and... when they found him, he had a smartass answer).

btw: don't take this too seriously (or at all).

Meh, Roald Dahl was an anti-Semite, but it still doesn't diminish my fond memories of his books. Nobody's perfect.

Hell, Mother Teresa wasn't at all like her public image. Her hospitals were filthy, she refused to administer medicine or painkillers, railed against abortion in some of the most overcrowded areas on Earth, and hobnobbed with dictators. Gandhi hated black people, and Tibet under the Dalai Lama was a feudal theocracy.

I must say I find racism amongst the most repulsive things on earth, so I do think I could no longer idolise the work of someone explicitly racist. I would probably be more easily forgiving other "sins"...

PS I know I mentioned Morrissey as an idol. He is NOT a racist, the things the press wrote about him were false quotes and Morrissey has taken these papers to court as he strongly disapproves racism and does not want to be wrongly identified with it.

Wow! Talking about irony in its purest form.

I like Roger Bannister, because, so far, he hasn't given me a reason not to.

So far, virtually every famous person I ever liked has been a disappointment. I am not a fan of celebrities in general because I find most of them vapid.