shlaifu wrote:
I watched a talk on Dutch iconoclasm in the 17th century, I think. The historian broke down the process of modern iconoclasm into several steps:
First, the images of the old relogion/culture has to be desecrated, to demonstrate that they have lost their power and effect on the new society.
Then they have to be removed.
Then they get put in museums where they are on display not as items of worship, but as historical items. They need a plaque that explains what they are, what they were used for. This 'explaining' removes the item from being a thing in a living culture that needs no explanation and makes it into an item so far away from today and so foreign, you need to actually explain it.
The final step is its veneration not as a holy object, but as a piece of art or craftsmanship, a profane object of aesthetic quality.
Sanitizing fairytales is the only way how Disney can keep those fairytales in circulation and part of our culture - and part of their income-generating portfolio.
If they were moved into the "art" section, only people interested in them as pieces of art would watch them. But they want to sell these to contemporary children, so they aren't allowed to become "art"
Interesting post, thanks for that.
I don't think what Disney is doing is iconoclasm in the way a society might destroy their old culture (The Anglo-Saxons for example completely destroyed their entire culture when they adopted christianity).
It's really a relatively small scale.
Thirdly the issue over "constraints" being placed on artistic expression is a matter of conjecture. It wouldn't matter since children would be subject to parental guidance on watching adult content. I remind people the Harry Potter series is a perfect example where the first instalment of the Philosopher's stone was relatively child friendly (bar 1-2 scenes with Voldermort) but became progressively less and less suitable for children to watch. I vividly recall watching Part 2 of the Deathly Hallows and the cinema was half full of small children and toddlers and I could hear the little kids gasp when in the first scene where Charity Burbage was being tortured and mocked by Voldermort before being killed and her corpse was consumed by Nagini the serpent. Somehow there's a mismatch between Harry Potter being marketed to little kids and having content that would make grown adults squirm.