With great power

Or the sad state of real life heroes.

A short interlude, some thoughts on heroes.

I've reached that age now where most of my heroes are dead. In a lot of cases personal information isat best sketchy so I can happily hang on to a love for what they did creatively without having to separate the art from the artist so to speak.

When I was a kid it was easy to have John Wayne's politics, Sinatra's mafia connections, Carl Giles being a grumpy old man and Walt Disney being a xenophobic union breaker crossed my horizon. And when it eventually did, it was in such a slow way that it had no impact on my love for their work.

I have very few living heroes, mostly because too many have already proven to be clay.

There is a well known writer, some 3 years my senior. As well as being wonderfully inventive and creative he seemed to understand the power that came with his acclaim and want to make good use of it. He took to social media like it was birthed for him and he always seemed to be on the side of kindness and love.

Like most stories like this it ends badly though, he allegedly abused a number }of much younger women who looked up to him as a hero. I say allegedly because nothing has been proved. These kinds of things, when they come out, are rarely without foundation.

It's heartbreaking when someone many viewed as a role model comes crashing down in flames. It's heartbreaking for the victims, it's sad for their family and it's distressing for their fans and supporters.

I'm not going to burn my copies of this man's books or the films and tv series made from them. I won't be so eager to pick up something new from him, particularly as the stories of abuse continue to role in. The work he created is not finished by the circumstances the author finds himself in, it is tainted though and at certain points when bad things happen, you might wonder if the idea came from his own behaviour.