Another time? Crumb’s still alive, and he’s still defending his own racism and misogyny. Maybe have a think about just why you’re doing that too?
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Because Crumb is a great artist to whom very few of his critics can hold a candle, and well worth sticking out my neck for. Because although he might be still walking around, he clearly is not a creature of the 21st century. Because to suppress group-focused enmity, policing people’s behavior may be well justified, but policing culture is ultimately an authoritarian move that does not even work.
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Not every shit out of the man’s ass is a work of art.
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Wait, so publishing racist and misogynistic drawings isn’t “behavior”?
I’ve never been a fan of “Oh, so you think you could do better? I’d like to see you try, smartypants!”
Right, so maybe leave him and his racist and misogynistic “art” back in the 20th? Why continue celebrating his racist and misogynistic art? Or him, if he too still celebrates that shitty “art”?
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I personally put R. Crumb in the category of “complicated person that it’s OK to have mixed feelings about,” similar to figures like Walt Disney.
And I’m sure both Crumb and Disney would absolutely hate that comparison.
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I don’t think it takes a modern mind to object to the two comics I was referring to: “When the Niggers Take Over America” and “When the Goddamn Jews Take Over America.”
They were meant to shock just as much when he originally published them, as well as when they were reprinted in the 90’s by nazi propagandists, as they are shocking to us now. There is no ambiguity here. He’s a subversive cartoonist and always has been. He’s a proud edgelord.
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In all honesty, this is the exact conversation we need to be having. However, this discussion frequently requires a provocation in the comments before we really have the honest conversation about it. In the end, most people just get the headline and the breathless interview.
My main objection is that when we breathlessly push forward these profiles, we omit all of the backstory and the impact. Even if it’s just the art, when we place it up on a pedestal, constantly, then we make it clear that others aren’t welcome, or are less important than our enjoyment of art in which we were never the target.
The art isn’t separate from its content and its impacts. We have a role in what we decide to laud as the example moving forward.
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To me it read that way in the interview, with some “I’ll get you for not fitting the profile I had pre-fitted to you” thrown in. While Crumb guilelessly shares his demons, Hyzagi’s “sharing” comes off as being calculating, appropriated, and non-cathartic; more like acting out to make a Crumb-like mark while he still has a platform. Tons of ugliness to spare in that one-on-one.
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On top of that, these kind of conversations are what help us to make better culture, a more inclusive society, and to understand various kinds of subtexts to art/culture, as well as how others experience the world we all share. There is literally no reason not to criticize art and culture, except as a means of shutting down these kinds of conversation.
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Well, I didn’t know those. Of course they’re intolerable if you take them literally. Crumb seems to have tried to defend himself saying they were meant to caricature those stereotypes? Personally I’m willing to believe him regrading his intentions, but even then, there’s no question he did a shit job of it.
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Username checks out.
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