Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Is it obscenity ... or art?

I am all for banning images from family oriented places that might be damaging to young minds. That said, I am also all for the arts and supporting artist's rights to do as those before them and immortalize the human form in all its glory.

Last week Candice Gilmer posted in her weekly Author of the Week entry about an older release of mine, including as she does the cover.
(http://candicegilmer.blogspot.com)

She visited her blog a few days later and found that someone had reported the image as obscene and had it banned. (Note, the image in question is the cover shown with this entry - same size too.)

Wow!

I was stunned, upset, a bit miffed. Then I started feeling rather sad for whoever it was that had complained. If the cover had been a photo of a blantantly suggestive woman's bare buns I might have been a wee bit more understanding. But a pencil drawing? A piece of artwork?

When conceptualizing the cover, my artist and I found it appropriate to include some slight nudity, since it is a collection of Greco-Roman myths and most of the early images of the Goddeses included nudity. Venus anyone?

The cover fit the feel of the collection. And this is the first time I have had any problem with it. (We made certain not to catch an angle that would show more than buns. LOL)

What's more, quite a bit of the truly memorable art of the world's history involves some form of nudity or another. It's part of what makes it truly breathtaking, vivid, evocative, MEMORABLE!

So to whoever complained, I have to extend my sympathy. They are missin gout on some of the beauty of the world, part of what makes life worth living!

Ah well. To each his/her own I guess. And it's their loss.

Michelle

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Think how shocked I was! After all, many of the books I've featured as Author of the Week have been erotic, some of which have strong erotic themes in the covers.

And someone complained about this one???