A Literary Exposé

Occasionally I see Ron Hubbard, and sometimes even Mary Sue Hubbard, being denigrated on some social networks by various individuals. The first thing that springs to mind is that they have a perverse perspective on the work of Ron Hubbard in that his personal life takes precedence on the basis that, "It is important to know the truth."

Lawrence* warned us not to trust the teller but to trust the tale. Yet all writers and famous inventors and great statesmen in fact, are apt to suffer the a=a state of being confused or conflated** with their works by those of smaller statute.

It has been said that this maybe what Goethe called Dichtung und Wahrheit.*** and in view of this it is more than likely that the overbearing magnitude of Ron Hubbard's contribution to the world cannot be accepted by some without several buckets of salt.

Seeing as how the peccadilloes and eccentricities of great people are considered by some more important than their contributions to society, here are some famous literary figures and their idiosyncrasies which one can revel in.

Robert Burns: His wife raised his illegitimate children as part of the family.

Alexander Dumas: Had heaps of illegitimate children and only acknowledged three of them

William Wordsworth had illegitimate children by Annette Vallon with whom he had an affair while he was in Paris just after the French Revolution. And Daniel Defoe had an illegitimate son by an oyster seller.

Fairly innocuous it might appear. But the sensation gets better. Freidrich Nietzsche had a long term sexual relationship, with his sister and Lord Byron seduced his married half sister Augusta Leigh in 1813 resulting in a baby girl.

Addictions to bondage and flagellation. Fydor Dostoevski, T. E. Lawrence, Algernon Charles- Swinburne, Jean- Jacque Rousseau and no less than Samuel Johnson all liked to be whipped while bound by fetters and padlocked. Well whatever turns you on I guess. Me, I prefer a good bar of chocolate.

Mother Fixations include such writers as, Andre Gide, W Somerset Maugham, and J.M Barrie. D.H Lawrence Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust and Norman Mailer to name but a few.

The following writers have been imprisoned as criminals. Brendan Behan for an IRA bombing. Thomas Paine for opposing the execution of the King although a supporter of revolution. I.e. treason. John Bunyan for preaching Christian beliefs that did not conform to the beliefs of the day. Normal Mailer for Civil Disobedience. But spent only one night in jail. Oscar Wilde, after losing a libel suit and being convicted of Homosexuality. Paul Verlaine. For assaulting a gay lover and further for attempted murder. O. Henry for embezzling funds while working for a bank. Sir Thomas Malory. Rape and robbery no less than eight times. And many others.

Some writers who committed suicide (Who said it was painless?) include, Thomas Chatterton with arsenic. Virginia Wolf walked into a river with stones in her pocket.

Ernest Hemingway took his own life in 1961 following in the footsteps of his father before him, his brother and sister and granddaughter for good measure.

Addictions

Edgar Allan Poe was addicted to alcohol and laudanum****

Thomas Quincy, Opium.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Opium AND Hemp.

Aleister Crowley. Heroin.

William S. Burroughs. Lots of drugs, primarily morphine and heroin.

Voltaire was addicted to tea and coffee no less. No doubt the caffeine.

Sigmund Freud. (Sure we all know him!) Took cocaine to 'handle' his sinusitis and smoked 20 cigars a day.

Charles Baudelaire was addicted to alcohol, opium and hashish.

Mark Twain. Smoked forty cigars a day.

Robert Louis Stevenson. Cocaine.

I could go on. I think the point here is that whatever Ron did in his private life matters not one wit on a scale of relative importances. I.e. compared to his accomplishments all of which were outstanding and certainly of more value to the future of this planet. Compared to some of the august people shown above. LRH was a saint (Yes I could quite likely get excitedly misduplicated again here - sigh)

References

* David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 to 2 March 1930) "Never trust the artist. Trust the tale." Studies in Classic American Literature (also rendered as "Never trust the teller; trust the tale.")

** conflated: verb (used with object), -flat.ed, -flat.ing. to fuse into one entity; merge: to conflate dissenting voices into one protest.

*** Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit ("Out of my Life: Poetry and Truth") (1811-1833), is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's autobiography. The German word "Dichtung" means both "poetry" and "fiction" in English, which indicates through an ingenious ambiguity a humorous notion that perhaps not all aspects are unfolded truthfully therein. A story related in part to Goethe's life, outlining his happy childhood, his relationship with his sister Cornelia, and an infatuation with a barmaid named Gretchen; it also partly expounds the changes in his thinking that were brought about by the Seven Years' War and the French occupation while other experiences throughout are presented and coloured. From Wikipedia

**** Laudanum: a tincture of opium.