This is very, very NSFW and explicitly graphic and blasphemous, which is of course the point, and yet…I am unmoved, except to note that it is indeed on-point and explicitly graphic.
And this? A pale imitation of this.
I dunno, guys.
[UPDATE: As the comments indicate, that first link may cause depression bordering on spiritual bruising. Really, you're probably better off sticking with the latter two links, which get the point across in a different way.]
A nod to Kierkegaard and Walker Percy: existentialist tomfoolery, political satire, literary homage, word mongering, a year-round summer reading club, Dylanesque music bits, apocalyptic marianism, poetry, fiction, meta-porn, a prisoner work-release program.
Søren Kierkegaard
Walker Percy
Bob Dylan
Good Country People
Labora / Editions
Sutter's Casebook
Betty Duffy
Bitkin
By Way of Beauty
Charlotte was Both
I Have to Sit Down
The Onion
From Empty Hands
The Fine Delight
First Things
Dappled Things
All Manner of Thing
Gerasene Writers Conference
Scrutinies
Transcendental Musings
The Ironic Catholic
DarwinCatholic
Inside Catholic
Catholic and Enjoying It
Catholic Radio International
Bad Catholic
Universalis
Is My Phylactery Showing?
Quotidian Quintilian
The Lion & The Cardinal (Daniel Mitsui)
Babes in Babylon
Fort o' Tude
Ellen Finnigan
En pocas palabras
William Wilson, Guitarist Extraordinaire
Signposts in a Strange Land
Godspy
Godsbody
© Copyright 2013 Korrektiv Press. · All Rights Reserved · Design by Up to Speed on Genesis framework· Admin· Bidness
This is a demo store for testing purposes — no orders shall be fulfilled.
“Today in porn”
Yeah, it’s done.
I saw this the other day — why did I click through? I’d read the article without the picture — and I wasn’t offended. But I was saddened, and I felt a bit sick, as you would if you saw a caricature like this featuring your wife, or your dad. And I spent the rest of the afternoon praying the Chaplet on and off. Yeah, it makes a point. But I still wish I hadn’t seen it.
Okay, now I’m sorry I linked to it. But I did say it was very NSFW, etc. I suppose that’s no excuse in the end. I’ll remove link.
“felt a bit sick”
Yeah. Offense isn’t the right word. But it is disturbing, and not funny in the least (and I don’t blame you, M.L. for posting it either).
But it reminds me of a Saturday Night Live skit, subject of which was Michael Jackson, and it was one of those funhouse cartoon shorts where he ended up sitting on a flagpole and liking it, or something–and I just remember thinking–if this is funny to the rest of the world, I must be living in a very thick cocoon.
Definitely a porn’s gone mainstream moment–where if it doesn’t shock you in some way–you’ve been seeing way, way too much–and that’s not even taking into consideration the particular characters in this cartoon.
And I get what Onion’s trying to do–sure no one’s going to get killed over a picture like that, maybe–but I feel indignant. Indignant, like Mrs. D, to the point of wanting to make reparation for profane language and imagery via the Divine Praises.
If that image doesn’t hurt a huge number of people somewhere deep in their bones–then faith means nothing (or is that their point?)
Naw, I’d already seen it before now. I think it makes a valid point. I just want to put out the warning for anyone else who may be wavering on whether the Onion can do something funny with a cartoon of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Ganesha having a mass orgy. The answer is, not surprisingly, no.
This is one reply too many, but I wasn’t making any point about your putting it up, Matthew, but only spouting off my initial reaction to having seen the thing myself. Sorry if it sounded like I was pointing the accusing finger at you.
Well, if it’s one reply too many, it’s done out of kindness. I really really don’t ever want to give scandal with this kind of posting.
I don’t know. I laughed. And then felt bad about laughing.
Update: I didn’t really feel bad about laughing. But I felt bad about not feeling bad.
I’m not an art historian, but I think there’s something in the cartoon that revealed an unintended reverence. The Manga comic book style. The multi-connected anatomy, like a a dime store version of the Kama Sutra. The fat, happy Buddha, not the sleek enlightened one. Everything about this Bahai orgy is a farce, including the positions depicted.
This is nothing like, say, a play named “Corpus Christi.”
Also, when the Internet forces me into despondency, it’s always good to remember that most of the people in my life don’t read The Onion, or even know what it is.
I guess I laughed.
What Zachary said.
I posted this on FB (sans image). Not because I laughed but because to me it seems to zone in on the heart of humor–the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be. Usually that discrepancy is ha-ha funny but sometimes it’s not and is closer to the tragic. Maybe then it’s not humor but something else. And maybe what ties them is their proximity to catharsis.
Or not.
And I should say that the whole analysis above was post facto. At the time I posted it, it was just because it resonated.
I clicked the last ones. Thanks for the warning.
I’m delicate these days.
I used to be a regular reader of the Onion, but it started to feel stale some time ago. The well had to run dry at some point, I guess. They still manage to hit a home run every now and then, but I think they’ve cratered to the demand for constantly new content.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m tired of this style of humor where everyone and everything is worthy of satire or parody. For one, it loses all of it’s supposed edginess – it’s hard to be shocked by something that goes out of its way to offend all comers.
Second, and perhaps related to the first, you get the sense that the writer has no emotional investment at all in the culture at large. It’s not a laugh or a sneer, just a smirk.
Third, it gives rise to that nagging feeling that, truly, nothing is sacred anymore. Conversely, nothing is profane or offensive, either. It’s all just mildly amusing or vaguely offensive.
Meanwhile, the Islamists will murder you and your family over a youtube video. It takes all kinds, I guess.
I actually thought the cartoon was funny (in a crude way) from the standpoint of interfaith dialogue and tolerance, apart from the barb aimed at Islamists. It would have been funnier if it had left that alone and just used the bumpersticker slogan “coexist” as its caption.
Yep, the easiest kind of humor there is.
You know, I thought the image was a big tortured–trying too hard. Obviously offensive, but that’s the point. Anyway…
Real humor in this situation (and that’s a tough one)– Muslims tweeting on “Muslim Rage” article in Newsweek. These tweets are (intentionally) hysterical.
http://www.religionnews.com/culture/arts-and-media/muslims-tweet-displeasure-with-newsweeks-muslim-rage-cover-story
Those are good, lighthearted.
Remember how good The Onion‘s response to 9/11 was? Everybody was mourning the death of humor and irony, but no.
‘That One A–hole at The Onion Still Occasionally Writing Headlines Like This’
So when I saw this I did what I always do when I see or hear something blasphemous: I summoned before me the line from TS Eliot, where he says that effective blasphemy requires a smidgen of faith. But that didn’t do it for me. That line helps me understand Bunuel but not this article.
This article is crass and blasphemous but only as a means to its end, which is the defense of free speech. It’s a noble cause. But it has the strange of effect of making the blasphemy appear even more demeaning than it normally would. I think.
Wait a sec… So THIS is what it feels like to be shocked! I am from such a jaded and media saturated generation that I never felt this before. That little twist in the intestines. Shit. I am genuinely shocked.
Anyway, I am back.
Unrelated: Anyone here read THE MARRIAGE PLOT?
Isn’t that one of them fancy books by Postmodern He-Man Boy Genius Society?
Shock is good, as long as it stays this side of scandal.
And welcome back!
Well……..there’s this:
http://tinyurl.com/97svcgu