Moonrattle

I think you bring up many interesting points. On an artistic levels, I too find that stories do not belong to anyone and that there are many benefits to presenting a story that is grounded on real experiences, even if those experiences have been altered. However, a key aspect of the ethics involved also has to with the element of commerce and profit in writing and publishing. If a writer, or any artist, is aware that they will gain notoriety from the backlash or the anger they elicit, which will in turn lead to greater sales, even if it is momentary success, then it really seems to be bothersome. I find that the element of publicity and money can truly complicate the ethics involved in such a debate.

This was a great article, and it really got me thinking as well, as many readers have already voiced. I always loved the representation of villains in Disney films as much as the princesses, and in many ways they seem quite empowered or sexually confident in themselves, yet by the sheer nature that they are a villain, they often suffer within that narrative. It is almost as if a more progressive or inclusive form of femininity exists but it is still bordered in. I would be super interested in seeing how the representation of female villains has also shifted to accommodate public viewpoints, even if they may still be problematically represented.

Hollywood offered an illusion, an escape from a world that many writers perceived to be increasingly dehumanized. WWI on a symbolic level showed the very worst that the 20th century had to offer. That recognition that whatever inkling of a utopian vision that may have existed at the very beginning of the 1900s vanished, leaving behind an all-too-real and unmagical reality of the destructiveness of the human heart. It’s so interesting that both writers had this incredibly complex relationship with Hollywood and all it had to offer.