Thank you for reading and for this comment. You have made this discussion better, not derailed it.

I completely agree with you that people who act this way should not get passes. I don't really think historical figures should get passes either, and I definitely think we should talk about all of that more so people get better at recognizing hypocrisy.

More so than individual artists getting a pass I am disturbed by the societal notion that people who have talent or skill in one field are worthy of hero worship. And everyone is so surprised when criminal charges get filed against people who they worship.

You are right that there are no criminal accusations against Salinger but there are against Gaiman. But there are no criminal accusations against Munro either. And frankly I'm not convinced that someone like Joyce Maynard couldn't have filed charges against Salinger, I think things happened that weren't consensual there. I am not really trying to defend his or anyone's actions because of their art. I was merely trying to ask, how can people seem to get and express certain things in their writing that they clearly are not living?

I'm expressing this badly. You are correct that I do not know the level of harassment in publishing, although I am also not surprised to hear that. I don't know what makes anybody think they can grope another person at a conference. I don't even know what they are getting out of that or why they need it. Why is there so much insecurity, which it seems to me is at least part of the root problem, among the people with a lot of the social cache, money, and power?

I am not the only naive or sheltered person out there. Sometimes I'm trying to speak with those people too, to bring them into a discussion that they may not even have known was going on.