Like politics, art must always be considered in the context of the times. For instance, read “White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling. The fact that it is filled with (what was for the time rather moderate) racism, the poem is nonetheless brilliant, for Kipling assumed the role of the UK’s “sunset poet” by announcing the coming passing of the torch of world leadership from the UK to America.

Or look at a man who has as valid a claim as anyone else to the title of “greatest science fiction writer ever”: Isaac Asimov. We now know that he was a serial groper of women. Does that make his work any less profound? Certainly not.

All our heroes have feet of clay. That fact doesn’t negate the fact that they’re heroes. It just means they’re human.