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April 14, 2005

The Power, and the Absurdity, of Art

Some Columbian painter/idiot depicts the horrors of Abu Ghraib, using his trademark "chubby people" as those being abused.

I don't know. These guys look like they could spend a couple of days on a restricted-food "torture" session. They're in Cuba, they're not getting all the food they might want to eat... think of it like a spa.

Meanwhile...

On the topic of incitement -- artists can't claim they can both "change the world" and that their works are completely harmless when it is suggested they might inspire violence.

Sort of a contradiction, no?

AndrewF tips:

Eric Rudolph [the abortion clinic/Atlanta Olympics bomber] goes on and on in this article that he's not part of the Christian Identity movement, etc etc etc.

Note, however, what he says in the very first paragraph of this NYT article:

Declaring himself "bloodied but emphatically unbowed," Eric Robert Rudolph on Wednesday issued his first public explanation for a series of abortion clinic bombings and an attack at the 1996 Olympics.

Where have we heard this before? It's from William E. Henley's poem "Invictus".

And who else was obsessed with this poem?

I see this as a nod and a wink to his buddies and fellow travellers. He's trying to hold himself out to be some noble anti-abortion person, which would get him at least some sympathy from folks who agree with him but abhor his methods, but the reality is, he is a racist, paranoid anti-government freakshow.

Of course, the NYT doesn't remember or know about any of this. Such a strange, lyrical statement, but nobody thought to lexis-nexis it?

This is like a NYT dream-- this shows, possibly, a thread that connects conspirators, in their souls if not in actual knowledge.

And yet the NYT's famous multiple fact-checking and attention to the small details seems to have come up empty on it, yes-yes?

By the way, I'm not slagging the poem "Invictus" or anything, and neither is Andrew.

But if a fairly anondyne poem making the standard Heavy Metal point about "no retreat, no surrender" can inspire men to kill, I should think that t-shirts and shooting-targets actively and overtly inciting the assassination of a President just might, too.

posted by Ace at 11:39 AM

Comments

That's a cool poem. Thanks for pointing that out Andrew. I'd have to say my favorite is still "The Second Coming" by Yeats, but that's up there.

Posted by: fat kid on April 14, 2005 12:16 PM

Semi-O/T question, but does anyone have text tattoo's? I know this one guy who has a bible verse on his arm, but I'm kinda toyin with the idea of getting Kipings' "IF" (or at least a couple excerpts) wrapped around my lower leg (in a sleeve-like fashion)

Posted by: fat kid on April 14, 2005 12:18 PM

Ummm... don't.

Posted by: ace on April 14, 2005 12:21 PM

How can a poem about a black demon represent white ostensibly "Christian" (coughbullshitcough) racists?

And though I've never read the poem that I can remember, it IS a pretty kick ass poem.

As far as faggy poems go.

Posted by: hobgoblin on April 14, 2005 12:21 PM

I hav ethe text of the magna charta tattooed on my penis. In 24 point font.

Posted by: hobgoblin on April 14, 2005 12:22 PM

You guys and your tatoos... you get one, you get some queer little barbed wire around your ankle, next week you get Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, and then three months later you've got German-Gothic script on your back reciting quotes from NietzSche like you're Max Fuckin' Cady or something.

Stop the madness.

Posted by: ace on April 14, 2005 12:23 PM

and ace,

We won at the Or Sup Ct!

yip yip yahoo

Posted by: hobgoblin on April 14, 2005 12:24 PM

in truth I have no tattoos, but that's because I'm waiting for Rollings to croak so I can get the "Search and Destroy" and the sun on my back and I don't want to look like I'm copying ;P

Posted by: hobgoblin on April 14, 2005 12:27 PM

Rollins

the fingers just automatically put a g after any -in I type

Posted by: hobgoblin on April 14, 2005 12:27 PM

Well, it's gonna happen, it's just a question of what and where. I've been itchin for over a decade to get one, and still dont have one yet.

Here's the other option I'm lookin at - a pretty mean lookin phoenix that'll kinda wrap all over my shoulder/scapula/underarm etc:

http://store.yahoo.com/coolestshop/eph.html

I've got a friend doing some mean customization to that thing...

Posted by: fat kid on April 14, 2005 12:28 PM

And before you know it, you've got a Maori-looking design covering half your face, you've chewed off some dude's ear, you're living in a trailer in the desert, and Robin Givens is suing your ass. Ace is right. Nip it in the bud.

Posted by: skinbad on April 14, 2005 12:31 PM

Just so there is no mistaken thinking here. This guy is NUTS1 Not pro-life, not anything but NUTS.
Bombing an abortion clinic or any other building is the product of a deranged mind and in all my years in pro-life have I ever heard ANYONE even HINT that anything like this is acceptable.

Just making sure you know.

Posted by: Rightwingsparkle on April 14, 2005 12:48 PM

That artist is so cool. It's an exact copy of Frida Kahlo except with chubby people and he's not a unibrowed lesbian.

Posted by: See-Dubya on April 14, 2005 01:24 PM

FK, why don't you go all-out and get one of those full-body Yakuza-style jobs?

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~horikoi/photo_1.html

Posted by: Angus on April 14, 2005 02:19 PM

B/c that would be stupid (??)

In any case, thanks for the link - there are some good color combo's on one of those guys:
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~horikoi/Images/Photo/037.jpg

Posted by: fat kid on April 14, 2005 02:32 PM

I'm holding out for the chubby Saddam henchman putting the chubby prisoner into the plastic shredder.

Posted by: MP on April 14, 2005 03:06 PM