0406blog
Stop The Bannings
In 1565, Pope Pius IV ordered that draperies be painted over the genitals of the many naked figures depicted in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” masterpiece on the wall of the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo spent more than four, often tortured years on the fresco which covers the alter wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and depicts the second coming of Christ and the final eternal judgment by God of all humanity. When he saw it, all Pope Pius IV could say was “It’s pretty good but those disgusting genitalia have got to go, what do you think this is, a bathhouse” or words to that extent and so he ordered that draperies be painted over the genitals of many of the 300 figures. Michelangelo must have freaked.
And so, Pope Pius IV, head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1559 to his death in 1565, maintained his status as protector of virtue and censor over all that offends him. And with one order, he desecrated one of the greatest works of art the world has even seen.
Michaelangelo wasn’t the first to have his art edited but he was one in a long line of painters, authors, musicians, filmmakers and others whose works were deemed obscene or politically or religiously threatening by the thought police of the time who went about destroying the works and reputations and even threatening the lives of authors, painters, filmmakers and music makers.
Possibly one of the earliest recorded bannings came in the 330s when “Thalia Arius,” a theological tract, was outlawed throughout the Roman Empire for contradicting Trinitarianism. The Catholic Church continued the ban on the book for the next thousand plus years.
One of the most notable books to attract worldwide religious ire came from Salaman Rushdie, whose 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” was banned for blasphemy in Iran and elsewhere around the Muslim world as a fatwah was issued calling for his execution.
Jazz legend Billie Holiday sang about the racist practice of lynching African Americans with her powerful “Strange Fruit.” In response, radio stations banned the song from hitting airwaves when it was released in 1939 and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover tried to stop Holiday from performing the song which he saw as promoting a race war.
Photographer Robert Michael Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989, was at the center of drama in 1989 when his exhibition titled “The Perfect Moment” riled and offended so many because of the nudity and explicit photos of gay life that it became a hot button for the debate on whether federal funds should support “obscene” artwork.
Comedian Lenny Bruce was persecuted for his groundbreaking comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. He was convicted of obscenity in 1964 and his career and even his life quickly unraveled until he died of a heroin overdose.
During the time of Hitler’s conquest of the world, Hitler ordered seized and destroyed any art that reflected western culture or that portrayed Jews in a positive light, including anything by Karl Marx and Albert Einstein. A few of the more famous titles banned in Germany were “Ivanhoe” by Walter Scott, “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens because they both featured Jewish characters.
The United States has a long, unfortunate and disgraceful history of prohibiting books and among the earliest was the 14th Century masterpiece, “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, because it contained “obscene,” “filthy” or “inappropriate” material.
“The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption” published in 1650 by William Pynchon was banned in Boston and was the first book banned in the new world because it criticized Puritanism.
Obscenity, that quality which is surely in the eye and mind of the beholder, was the reason that many books have been banned in the U.S., including “Moll Flanders or The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders” in 1722 by Daniel Defoe; and “Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure” in 1748 by John Cleland.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe was against the law in the Confederate States during the Civil War because of its anti-slavery content. It also was a no no in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I because it presented the idea of equality and for “undermining religious ideals.”
“The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck’s 1939 masterpiece, was temporarily banned in California because of its unflattering portrayal of residents of the area.
Children must have been dismayed when China banned “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll because it anthropomorphized animals and showed them acting on the same level of complexity as human beings, a true insult to humans.
The Taliban was not very discerning and during their five-year reign in Afghanistan, all Western technology and art was prohibited.
Two books among many that were offensive in Australia were “The Anarchist Cookbook” which was written in 1971 by William Powell and explained how to make bombs and something called “How to Make Disposable Silencers” written in 1984 by Desert and Eliezer Flores because it “promoted, incited or instructed in matters of crime or violence.”
In Lebanon, you can’t read “Sophie’s Choice” by William Styron or “Schindler’s Ark” by Thomas Keneally because Jews are depicted in a positive light.
And during apartheid in South Africa, among the verboten titles was “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, for obscene material; “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Malcolm X with Alex Haley because of its criticism of white supremacy; “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation” by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, also for criticism of white supremacy; and “Soul on Ice” because the writer, Eldridge Cleaver, again criticized white supremacy.
Artists always have been an easy mark for those who try to set the ethical standards and the artist often puts his or her very life on the line. Today the assault on art is as acute and threatening as every and we all must stand behind those who honestly describe the world for us.