It's Not That Long Ago

[poliphilo]

Back in the early '50s Malcolm Muggeridge (as editor of Punch) published a cartoon of Churchill (then prime minister) as a senile old man (which he was) with a caption politely suggesting it was about time he stepped down- and there was all hell to pay!

In the same era it was taboo to publish a caricature of the Queen. If you absolutely had to have her in your cartoon, it was allowable to show her from the back or with her face artfully concealed. I believe it was Gerald Scarfe in Private Eye who finally demolished that convention.

And of course cartoon representations of God and Jesus and other holy personages were absolutely unthinkable.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I think for myself the crux of the issue (if this is, in fact, a reference to the violence related to the Danish cartoons) is one of double standard and political manipulation. Double standard in the sense that the Arab press in several Middle Eastern countries has no problem regularly printing anti-Semitic propaganda, which is often satirical if not outright vicious (where's the respect for the faith of another there?), political manipulation in that the fury these cartoons generated didn't even manifest until months after their original publication, when imams and other Muslim leaders decided to generate further anti-Western sentiment among the masses.

But you're right in that the West still has its censors and ocntention (I still remember the furor Last Temptation of Christ caused when it was released), although it's rare in the West when satirizing a religion results in mob violence and death.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was making a sidelong comment. The point being that the freedom enjoyed by cartoonists in the West is of fairly recent date.

I agree with your point. The imams can dish it out, but they can't take it.

Though the whole thing has become horribly complicated.

Thanks to the Observer I discovered this morning that a short film called Visions of Ecstasy- which deals with St Theresa's "love" for the crucified Christ- is still banned in Britain under our archaic blasphemy laws.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

a short film called Visions of Ecstasy- which deals with St Theresa's "love" for the crucified Christ

Interesting, I wonder whether Netflix would carry such a thing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It must be available somehow, somewhere....