{"id":7549,"date":"2013-03-21T04:03:13","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T08:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7549"},"modified":"2013-03-21T09:43:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T13:43:57","slug":"can-americans-handle-conservative-and-even-ultra-conservative-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/03\/21\/can-americans-handle-conservative-and-even-ultra-conservative-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Americans handle conservative (and even ultra conservative) art?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The History Channel says there was no intention of connecting “Satan” to President Barack Obama, calling the idea “utterly ridiculous.” (Photo: History Channel)<\/p><\/div>\n

So let me say right at the start that this isn’t a “trend” story.\u00a0 There is no evidence\u00a0 that “the arts” are producing more conservatives, or more ultra-conservatives.<\/p>\n

But with the proliferation of right-of-center media outlets and the viral nature of the internet, we have interesting new windows into the world of ring-wing art and artists that might have flown under the radar in earlier generations.<\/p>\n

Right now “The Bible” on the History Channel is drawing attention for its glowing and sometimes racy re-interpretation of, well, the Holy Book.<\/p>\n

It’s a spin on Scripture that includes a Barack Obama look-alike in the role of — wait for it — Satan.\u00a0 The series has been a hit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there’s a fascinating dust-up in the Pacific Northwest, where sculptor Charles Krafft was “outed” recently by a local weekly newspaper<\/a> for embracing white nationalism and Holocaust deniers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s been demonized excessively,\u201d Krafft said, referring to Adolph Hitler in an interview with public radio’s Studio 360<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to resurrect National Socialism or Hitlerism, but my opinion of the man has changed considerably since I began my revisionist investigations.”<\/p>\n

Krafft is a hugely respected artist, clearly a bright, thoughtful guy and a mainstay of the arts community in his region, whose work — including a Hitler-themed tea pot — has been collected by museums nationwide.<\/p>\n

In the past, his fascinating explorations of Swastikas and other National Socialist symbols<\/a>were viewed as irony or transgression.<\/p>\n

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A work by Charles Krafft. Irony? Or some other form of political expression. (Photo: CharlesKrafft.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Now?\u00a0 Not so much.<\/p>\n

But his fringe-conservative views have sparked consternation and hand-wringing and Krafft’s entanglement isn’t unique.<\/p>\n

Long-time “alt-folk” musician Michelle Shocked has drawn heavy fire recently after emerging as a vocal born again Christian and reportedly telling her audience that God “hates fags.”<\/a><\/p>\n

“I live in fear,” Shocked said<\/a>, “that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry.”<\/p>\n

A similar controversy has long embroiled one of the country’s most respected and beloved writers.<\/p>\n

Orson Scott Card, whose “Ender” series is a mainstay for young readers and sci-fi fans, has been vocal for years with his aggressively anti-homosexual views.<\/p>\n

Card has written at length about the idea of an actual war embroiling the United States, pitting conservatives against liberals.<\/p>\n

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Orson Scott Card’s novel about an armed war between liberals and conservatives is described as a “disturbing look at a possible future” for America.<\/p><\/div>\n

In a commentary written for the Mormon Times, Card seemed to embrace the idea of armed resistance<\/a> if same-sex marriage is legalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy,” Card wrote. “I will act to destroy that government and bring it down.”<\/p>\n

Those views forced DC comics to shelve plans to have Card pen a story for their Superman line of comics, and have also complicated plans for a Hollywood movie based on “Ender’s Game.”<\/p>\n

As a side wrinkle, there is also a fascinating urban myth-style screed circulating that purports to share the anti-big-government views of Bill Cosby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of being told that I have to \u201cspread the wealth\u201d to people who don\u2019t have my work ethic. I\u2019m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.”<\/p>\n

Turns out the conservative tirade — which also targets Muslims and climate change activists — is a hoax, that lives virally via email and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think it’s fair to say that these kind of right-wing views are more shocking in the art and media world than comparable views on the left.<\/p>\n

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HBO acknowledged that the head on a pike in “Game of Thrones” looked uncomfortably like former President George W. Bush (Image: HBO)<\/p><\/div>\n

(HBO did get in a spot of trouble when their “Game of Thrones” series included an image of George W. Bush’s severed head.)<\/p>\n

But artists across the political spectrum have long been eccentric contrarians, embracing behavior and lifestyles that jar convention.<\/p>\n

And I think it’s also probable that a lot of artists with right-leaning views keep them under tight wraps, for fear of facing the kind of backlash that has embroiled Krafft, Card and Shocked.<\/p>\n

So what do you think?\u00a0 When an artist you like stakes out a political position you disagree with — perhaps even a political position you find morally indefensible — do you stop reading his books or seeing her movies or buying his sculpture?<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So let me say right at the start that this isn’t a “trend” story.\u00a0 There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4863,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7558,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions\/7558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}