Not surprisingly, even artists whose bread and butter is, for lack of a better term, "Shock Art" are afraid of shocking one group of people. It's easy to see why, though. I mean, Martin Scorsese made a movie that featured Jesus hopping off the cross and gettin' jiggy with Mary Magdalene, and he didn't so much as get kicked in the shins by an irate Methodist Sunday school teacher. Theo Van Gogh made a movie suggesting that, well, maybe Islam wasn't too hip with gender equality, and he got shot full of more holes than a Putt-Putt course and had an explanatory letter post-it-noted to his chest with a bowie knife explaining that it was because he had offended Islam. (I guess the note was for the thicker bystanders who didn't get the significance of the fact that the guy was shouting "Allah this" and "Allah that" while pumping bullets into him.)
Really though, if you're going to shock people, which is the safer bet? Episcopalians who are too stuffy to notice your existence? Baptists who might picket your business after church bowling league on alternate Thursdays (although Bubba might beat you up if he catches you at the bar he doesn't go to)? Or a religion that has, to put it as charitably as possible, some Very Serious anger management issues?
"Or a religion that has, to put it as charitably as possible, some Very Serious anger management issues?"
ReplyDeleteHOW DARE YOU INSULT US!!!
I KILL YOU!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go
I forgot to add "INFIDEL!!"...
ReplyDeleteyeah...
Two things strike me about this:
ReplyDeleteFirst is the claim that Islam IS the religion of Peace....Yeah, Right.
And the Courage of those who claim to be anti-establishment in exercising their own brand of religious freedom while mocking Christianity, but refuse to say one word against the Prophet. Do the words "Cowards" and "Hypocrites" come to mind?
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Spinoza, the emperor Frederick, and the Marquis de Sade (to pick a pretty mixed bag--is this some kind of joke?) all referred to Moses, Christ and Mohammed as the Three Great Impostors--and lived to tell about it. Some audacious scholar claims they ripped that off from earlier Muslim free-thinkers. Imagine that. So what just happened? Did the great rank-and-file of Islam start watching CNN? Did Islam find ridicule beneath its notice until the last decade? Are there larger, darker forces at work? Could be, seekers.
ReplyDeleteI often find myself wondering what TE Lawrence would say.
Someone please forward this post to Madonna. Not only is she getting old and tired(-looking), but her act is too.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. If you want to free women, liberate oppressed minorities, fight racism, oppose genocide and protect gay rights, you are WAY behind the curve making art to provoke Christians. Take on the mad mullahs! Sic em, artists!
ReplyDeleteAnd if you are in NY....how about a little sculpture involving welded AKs and pistols? Lets declare our stand on First AND Second Amendments and double dog dare anyone to attempt to squelch our free expression and support of the Bill of Rights.
Artists? Anyone? Cutting edg-ey avant-guard folks? Hello? Wine sippers? Chic-o-chics?
(crickets...........)
I've been saying for years that the liberal left-wing artistic community is so homogenous that in order to really subvert the medium, they would have to vote Republican, be vanilla-straight and live in a mid-western suburb. They prove in this article that they have no wish to have a positive effect on culture as they have so disengenuously claimed for ages (while whining that funding for NEA is necessary), but wish merely to provoke and maintain their own luxe level of existence.
ReplyDeleteIronically, they have managed to take cowardice to the level of an art-form.
Meanwhile, the Muslims prove that it is easy to control liberals through the threat of violence.
ReplyDeleteWho says that violence never solves anything?
"Who says that violence never solves anything?"
ReplyDeletePeople whom make a habit of whistling past the graveyard.
Those photos of the Iranians hanging gay teenagers really put the Drive-By Media in a quandary. Dare they criticize the institutionlized murder? If they do, it might make Dick Cheney seem reasonable in comparison!
ReplyDeleteAnd if they DO ever muster the courage equal to a Scandinavian politician, will those pretty glass walls behind the morning show talking heads REALLY stop gunfire? We avidly await the results.
comatus, I think he'd say "Shit, where's the brake on this thing?"
ReplyDeletesteve, if that was a Departure from Controlled Flight, overbraking almost certainly caused it. Brake location wasn't the issue then that it became in the 60's.
ReplyDeleteBut if you don't buy into the van-and-sledgehammer theory, you just don't know how to enjoy a conspiracy.