August 23, 2012

Blasphemy as art

Der Spiegel, which I've taken to reading lately, has an interesting article about a drawing used as an advertisement for a show in the city's caricature museum. Christians are not pleased by the imagery. I have to agree it's a bit over the top, but it's also funny. I'm sure Germany's version of Bill Donohue is having a great time denouncing it.

Der Spiegel has an appealing cosmopolitan flair. I enjoy it. And they have no silly compunctions about nudity. There was a delightful photo of nude Spanish firemen there the other day. (They were protesting in the nude.) You never see anything like that in our prudish country. But to Germans (and most Europeans) nudity isn't a big deal. I've heard they think Americans are childish about sexual matters. Sounds right to me.

2 comments:

Anna Guess Pick said...

When I was living in Berlin I remember my first walk into the Gruenwald forest. The path through the trees led to a small lake and beach area. I thought this would be a perfect spot to read my book. You can imagine my surprise when I came upon groups of German families enjoying a romp in the nude. Hard to erase the image of two old German males bent over reading and discussing a map. Ha ha. I admit I mostly pretended to be reading and spent most of my time watching them enjoy their selves, unheard of in America.

writenow said...

When we were hippies in California in the 60s, we'd visit mountain streams and get naked. Occasionally, families with kids would walk through, and they just waved and seemed to think it was fine. I think these norms are area-specific. Look at the cities where it's not illegal to be naked in public. But it's rare. Most Americans are idiotic prudes, these days.