Glen Weldon's Trick To Separating Art From Artist

Here's a story we all know too well: something you love is a part of your personal mythology. Then, one day, allegations surface, some ugly narrative takes over, and suddenly you find yourself looking at a building block like it's covered in black mold. You can't completely abandon it OR blindly defend it—but how do you find a thoughtful middle ground?

Glen Weldon has one of the more elegant solutions, largely because he acknowledges the reality of reconciling our past experiences with our present ethical concerns. From his recent NPR note on the allegations against Neil Gaiman:

"I can't separate the art from the artist… But knowing what I know now about the allegations, I can and will separate myself from the artist's future work."

Weldon's key is to draw a line in time. Not to erase what came before, but to make conscious choices about what comes next. Your old works aren't suddenly toxic, they're artifacts of a different moment, when they meant something pure to you. Keep them on your shelf. Let them be what they were.

Just don't add to the collection going forward, if that’s what feels right.

This isn't about pretending the past didn't happen. It's about acknowledging that while we can't change how these works once touched us, we can choose how we engage with them - and their creators - going forward.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's a human one. And sometimes, that's exactly what we need.

I highly recommend reading Glen Weldon’s full post, “One longtime Gaiman fan on where we go from here” via NPR, January 18, 2025.

ps. Life is full of too many of these. Here’s to the art on our shelves and untying them from the artists who forced us to give up on them.