In a purely commercial sense, music, books and films, which are based around the more sinister elements of human nature (and as a result, are often surrounded in a wave of controversy) are often largely sucessful. They are after all, catering to an audience, who craves them just as much, as those who bankroll this genre, crave the revenue.
Look at how successful the movies of Tim Burton have been (Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissor Hands, Sleepy Hollow, Beetlejuice, The Corpses Bride). Listen to some of the most popular alternative bands, The Cure, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Lamb Of God, Dimmu Borger, Interpol & My Chemical Romance.
Experience some of the most successful movie and book franchises in recent times, Friday 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, Requiem For A Dream, The Terminator movies, Batman series, the Harry Potter sensation, SAW series, The Watchmen, Sin City, Stephen King adaptations and more recently Twilight – the list goes on.
All vastly removed from the clean, vanilla, inoffensive-by-the-numbers fare which we’re usually subjected to.
All those examples, are designed to appeal to that little deviant in us all, especially if you’re an impressionable teenager. But in reality, very little of it is TRULY rebellious, evil or worthy of outcry. I’m not saying their motivates are any less genuine than anyone else’s, but you can’t be truly subversive and be seen at Greater Union cinemas or available “from all good retailers” without compromising somewhere along the line.
I realize this is an extreme example, but Hitler’s Mein Kampf , a book that is not only harrowing, sinister and down right evil, and which is available commercially, has never been edited, compromised or dumb down.
I think if you really wanted to get a reaction, rather than reading your FHM magazine in high school with pictures of girls in underwear or using whiteout to write down the latest band your parents hate on your bag, go to school with a copy of Mein Kampf, under your arm, I’m sure you’d get a far different reaction.
And you know why? Because Mein Kampf, for all its misguided and waywardness, is a real form of expression from someone who constantly sought new ways to control the world (whilst instigating genocide). You can’t get much more hardcore than that.
I think it’s a great shame that a lot of true art is sanitized these days because we all have to be politically correct. Roal Dahl has written some truly macabre stories for adults, yet few are aware of that aspect of his work. Most think he’s merely a children’s writer, and for a while I did too. But his adult novels are genuinely twisted and often thrilling reads.
To find material and media, which is both dark in tone and without the shackles of commercialism attached to it, you have to delve back into the past – before corporations approved budgets and final drafts….
When you go back in time, incidents, which now seem quite unspectacular, caused tremendous outcry during certain periods. A girl in stockings is not particularly offensive to anyone these days and yet in the Victorian Era they had trousers on piano legs because they were deemed to “salacious”. During his early years, Elvis wasn’t allowed to be filmed below the waist, as he was alledgedly the “work of Satan”. To everyone these days, he’s simply known as the King Of Rock N Roll.
A writer such as Lewis Carroll (Alice In Wonderland) was both artistic and uncompromising, yet equally subversive. Those traits, I think, are rare qualities amongst the current generation of writers, artists and musicians.
I’ve been reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe, now for those of you who aren’t familiar, he was an American poet, short story writer, editor and critic and one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Best known for his tales of unbridled horror and his intoxicating poetry, he was also one of the early practitioners of the short story, not to mention a progenitor of Gothic fiction in the United States during the 1800’s. Even his death, is shrouded in mysterious and strange circumstances…
I’m quite inspired by people such as Poe and I think Carroll has created some wonderful imagery for the world to continue to enjoy. But you have to really make an attempt to seek out these characters and I think its about time we did, as the world becomes more and more sanitised, homogenised and politically correct, the more and more relevant our history becomes.
It’s a way of reminding ourselves and giving hope that there was a time, when creativity and imagination wasn’t frowned upon, but rather encouraged and given an avenue to seep into the mainstream, however minor it was.
Nowadays, you can’t even peacefully protest outside The White House. I have a friend, who runs a club called “Rock N Roll Motherfucker”. Recently they had to change their name, because the cops complained that their flyers and artwork contain profanities.
Personally, I’d prefer the cops to be out doing their job arresting rapists and violent criminals – but that’s just me. What is the world coming to?
I’m sure Poe and Carroll would have approved…
Alex
Zombie_Plan says:
Freedom of expression is something becoming more and more rare as people become more and more paranoid. I’m sure as a fellow Australian you remember the Nando’s ad just last year or the year before with the single mum who worked as a gogo dancer, and had to wear a patch to resist her cravings for Nando’s? Did you hear that the reason it was cancelled was because one person complained about it? It’s not dark nor nothing like Tim Burton’s works, but it is a firm example of how censorship is casting a shadow over everything, and preventing us from having any freedom of creativity.
Apr 19, 2009, 8:58 PM