prolog

1st roll call.
Woody Allen
2 stains.
Michael Jackson
3 fans.
JK
Rolling
4 critics
5 geniuses.
Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway
6 Anti-Semitism, racism, and the question of time.
Richard Wagner, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather
7 Anti-Monsters.
Vladimir Nabokov
8 Those who silence and those who are silenced.
Carl Andre, Ana Mendieta
9 Am I a monster?
10 Mothers who abandoned their children.
Doris Lessing, Joni Mitchell
11 Female Lazarus.
Valerie Solanas, Sylvia Plath
12 Drinkers.
Raymond Carver
13 Beloved.
Miles Davis

Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
main

Monsters scattered around us,
The deepening dilemma of fans

What do Roman Polanski, Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Miles Davis, and Hemingway have in common?
The point is that they are artists who have achieved great success in their respective fields.
These are naturally followed by adjectives like ‘best’, ‘genius’, and ‘world-class’.
The second thing they have in common? They were all at the center of a scandal.
They were artists who created great works, but they were also sexual predators, abusers, drug addicts, and pimps.
While any human being can have many faces, we often use the expression "monstrous" to describe those who evoke polar opposite emotions of admiration and disgust.


Monsters are everywhere.
The film "Tar" vividly shows us the monsters that could be around us.
Lydia Tarr, the world's greatest conductor with overwhelming charisma, is a monster not only in terms of skill but also in how she uses her position as a means to satisfy her personal desires.
This work, which calmly follows her decline from the pinnacle of life, makes the audience think about the separation between art and the artist's life.
The New York Times Magazine recently published an article addressing the controversy surrounding a documentary about the singer Prince.
The conflict between the production team, who wanted to show Prince, a figure who left his mark on American pop history, without any editing, and the Prince Foundation, which is desperately trying to block the broadcast, claiming that the girlfriend's testimony that Prince assaulted her is false, is a clear example of what a "monster" looks like in our society, and on the other hand, it makes us think about how we should deal with a monster artist with revealed moral flaws.


With the development of social media, the boundaries between personal lives are becoming blurred, and we are now able to observe the stars we have always admired from a much closer distance than before.
The more this happens, the deeper the dilemma becomes.
You've built a deep sense of intimacy and trust by following a star, peering into their daily lives. But what if they one day turn out to be a criminal? Would unfollowing them be enough to resolve the issue? What if even after unfollowing, they, their work, and their traces linger in your mind? "Monsters" confronts head-on the dilemma between monsters and the audience who consume their creations.
The question of whether the work and its creator should be separated is a long-standing debate, but while there have been numerous attempts to hear and compare the opinions of both sides, there has been no result in which a single author has become a party to the dilemma and persistently delves into the subject, which is a welcome achievement.


Book of the Year selected by leading media outlets
From Roman Polanski to Joni Mitchell—Geniuses Who Became Monsters

Author Claire Dederer is an art enthusiast who explores film, music, art, and books to explore the dilemmas we face in our daily lives in a candid and intelligent way.
As the New York Times reviewed, this book, which is “part thesis, part memoir, and part everything else,” was named a “book of the year” by major American media outlets, receiving praise such as “the year’s most intellectually satisfying nonfiction book” (Times) and “a valuable reflection on the most pressing cultural questions of our time” (Library Journal).
It all started with Roman Polanski.
He is a genius film director who directed films such as “Disgust,” “The Satanic Verses,” and “Chinatown.” Cinephiles around the world, including author Dederer, praise his film aesthetics.
But in his private life, he is a child molester who drugged and sexually assaulted a thirteen-year-old girl.
This gap also created a rift in the hearts of fans.
I love his movies so much, but knowing this, I can't enjoy them as much as I want.
Our conscience hinders us.
The gap between reality, which we thought was limited to private sorrow and dilemma, has become a realm of collective anger with the 'MeToo' movement.
This is how the author's journey began.


Monsters don't discriminate between genders.
If male monsters are generally depicted as heinous criminals, female monsters are generally associated with 'motherhood'.
When a woman is deemed to lack the maternal love that society considers normal, such as abandoning or neglecting a child, she becomes a monster.
As a feminist writer, the author questions this too.
The moment when the standard of 'motherhood' is so easily turned into 'monsters' by Doris Lessing, who left her children behind and became a successful writer, and Joni Mitchell, who gave her baby up for adoption, the part where women in the arts reflect on where they should stand has great implications for our society.


A book that shines with the author's efforts to weave a dense web of thought.

As an essay, the most brilliant part of this book is the part where the author looks into his own 'monstrousness'.
Rather than simply typifying monstrosity, Dederer seeks to look at the 'monster' within herself as a writer and mother.
The author, too, is not free from ‘motherhood.’
I ask myself if my work would be better if I were more selfish (pursuing ambitions like a man, ignoring the stroller in the hallway, closing the door with my back to the children, etc.).
I wonder if I failed as a writer because I didn't aspire to greater selfishness.
The author's willingness to remain true to his own feelings and to acknowledge the duality and contradictions within himself is what has enabled this book to garner the sympathy and support of so many.

‘Emotion’ is also an important keyword that runs through this book.
“How should we treat the work of a monster artist?” may seem like a philosophical question at first glance, but for the author it is an emotional question, and that emotion is ultimately love.
We say we 'consume' art, but in fact, it would be more accurate to add the modifier 'emotional' before that.
Because art is something that goes beyond the commodities of a consumer society and directly interacts with our emotions.
At this point, the author's question expands to:
"What should we do about the monstrous people we 'love'?" This book shines with the author's history of enjoying and loving various forms of art, and his effort to nimbly weave a dense web of thought by nimbly catching the thoughts and questions that arise from time to time.