Klarinet Archive - Posting 000056.txt from 2002/04

From: notestaff@-----.de (David Glenn)
Subj: Re: [kl] Shocking
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 09:24:27 -0500

Tony Pay wrote:

> There's a tension between those people who are shocked by the use of
> 'vulgar' language and those others who sometimes use such language in
> order to shock them; and it's never really going to go away.
>
> It's a tension that you can find in other forms throughout the history
> of art, too. The initially shocking effect of the poetry of Rimbaud and
> the music-theatre of Wagner comes to mind, and you can think of lots
> more examples in painting and theatre. The crucial thing is that the
> tension is continually maintained by both sides, though what is
> 'shocking' itself changes with time.
>

It varies from place to place as well. American politicians suffer more
from a
"sex-scandal". European politicians more from a "financial scandal".

Speaking of sex: In Brazil (this came a couple days ago in German TV,
complete
with pictures!) a play writer tried to shock his audience by having his
play
end with a scene where a couple engage in sex - for real. Let's see if I
can shock
you a
bit: German TV showed the scene: the girl pulling down - cut!! - this is
too shocking! The
point is that this would not even be possible in the US.

So where's the better place to live and why?

David

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