Those stupid Danish cartoons continue to inspire stupid reactions
The Literary Saloon says all there is to say about the fact that Yale University Press is putting out a serious scholarly book about the Danish cartoons--without including reproductions of the cartoons.
The whole story of the cartoons strikes me, not quite as a tragi-comedy, but let's say as a depressi-farce. Everyone comes out so poorly on all sides. Who's worse? The ant-Muslims bigots who get a kick out of the cartoons; the Muslims who prove every negative stereotype true by the way they react; or the liberals at Yale University Press who turn cultural sensitivity into ridiculous condescension and hysteria--assuming that if they publish the pictures, they'll have "blood on their hands"? Hard to say.
The whole story of the cartoons strikes me, not quite as a tragi-comedy, but let's say as a depressi-farce. Everyone comes out so poorly on all sides. Who's worse? The ant-Muslims bigots who get a kick out of the cartoons; the Muslims who prove every negative stereotype true by the way they react; or the liberals at Yale University Press who turn cultural sensitivity into ridiculous condescension and hysteria--assuming that if they publish the pictures, they'll have "blood on their hands"? Hard to say.