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

[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....