June 15, 2004Tasteless - For Now?Over at MeFi, there's a thread about a LiveJournal (LJ) site presented from the point of view of -- brace yourself -- Anne Frank. You know -- LJ sites are often considered "diaries," so someone figured it would be amusing (?) to do an LJ site of Anne Frank's diary, arguably the most famous diary in history. So there it is: The LiveJournal of Anne Frank. The problem: it's truly tasteless, and you are hereby warned that it will likely offend you. In fact, many would consider it blasphemous, sacreligious, disgusting, or worse. But... You know, I don't think anyone would condemn someone who perished in, say, the Salem witch trials. After all, that happened hundreds of years ago; there is no one alive now who has firsthand knowledge of the Salem incident. An LJ diary of a "witch" presented in this manner would likely either be ignored, or enjoyed by a very small group of people. I seriously doubt anyone would condemn it, or even call it "tasteless." My guess is that because, relatively speaking, Anne Frank is still fresh in our memory, it IS considered tasteless and condemned. In other words -- there are still people alive in our world who lived through the Holocaust/WWII/etc. It's possible (don't know) that there are still people alive who KNEW Anne Frank. And what this person is doing is arguably no more offensive than, say, The Onion; some of their stuff is very, very rough, too ("Reagan's Body Dies" and "Nancy Reagan Available At 82" for instance). I think that time is the key here. In perhaps 100 or 200 years, this won't seem quite as bad. But for now - bad taste, and probably worthy of contempt. Posted at June 15, 2004 05:27 PM | TrackBackCOMMENTS!
I believe in the First Amendment and people's right to exercise it - - However, to do so in this manner is tasteless and shows complete lack of understanding of the events of the life Anne Frank was forced to live. Many forget that yes they have a right to the first amendment (US citizens that is) - - but the first amendment gives the right to free speech, but does not guarantee it is consequence free Posted by: Uptown Girl at June 15, 2004 09:02 PMThe difference is that no one is trying to have witches executed anymore. But there seem to be plenty of people who wish to see Jews murdered today. I guess the author is attempting to be shocking, but I didn't think it was funny, aside from how ignorant and offensive it was. I still think they have a right to say what they wish of course, but that doesn't mean we have to think it anything other than purile idiocy. Posted by: Jerry at June 16, 2004 08:44 PMPost a comment
|