What's kiddie porn, what's not? - A Daily Download

What's kiddie porn, what's not?

Sukumar Ranganathan - Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:04 AM

 Yesterday's  Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times has an article on British nationals Duncan Grant and Alan Waters who were acquitted of paedophilia charges and now seem to be back working at the same shelters for street children where they are alleged to have committed their crimes. The story isn't up on their website but it is there in the epaper you can find on the site.There's a case pending against the two in the Supreme Court, but the incident probably highlights the casualness that accompanies most incidents reagrding paedophilia in India.
Sure, most people in India haven't become as aware as those in the West have when it comes to this subject.
That's not necessarily a good thing.
People in some parts of the world, however, have become paranoid about the subject.
And that's not necessarily a good thing either, especially when it comes to art.
Writer Neil Gaiman's blog recently featured a post on a ruling in Australia that, according to the post "sets a dangerous precedent, particularly for readers of adult oriented comics."
The post then goes on to refer to Lost Girls , about which Gaiman has written passionately before
I have a copy of Lost Girls, and my first column on graphic novels for Mint's weekend magazine Lounge was on that.
I don't seem to be able to find it on the livemint site though -- maybe someone has been censoring content, or maybe it just slsipped into ether because it was the first column.
For those who came in late, Lost Girls is Alan Moore  and Melinda Gebbie's post-modernist and very erotic take on Peter Pan's Wendy, Wizard of Oz's Dorothy, and Alice in Wonderland's Alice.
It's fun, it's erotic, and it's extremely creative.
Would that be considered child pornography in these politically correct times?
I don't know
Heck, would the first lines of one of my favourite books be considered child pornography?
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."
I don't know.

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4 Comment

From Sum

December 12, 2008 7:19 AM
Have you ever wondered why humans invented God - because we have an inherent need to separate the good and the evil. This need is perhaps part of the evolution process - which leads to civilization in the human context. Thank God for it. One can argue that creativity should not have any limits and perhaps venturing into unknown and seemingly dangerous territories is actually good as it may lead to things we do not know yet. I am a mother ( without whom kiddies are nonexistent ) - I would rather that science helps us understand the motivation behind these vagaries rather than have my kids come in contact with anything "gross". To that extent I pray that our laws would eventually come to our rescue.

From jacob koshy

December 12, 2008 12:13 PM
if Lolita is porn, Kill Bill-1 is porn too. There's this mangaish representation of a 11-year-old Oran-ishi (Lucy Liu) straddled on the evil boss before she swords him. From what i remember, an important criteria to be classified as 'porn,' would be that it has no literary or artistic merit. Therefore, Nabokov is safe

From jyoti

December 16, 2008 11:25 AM
sukumar nabokov ranganathan?? its too good to be true...

From musa

December 29, 2008 2:26 PM
Sum God is not an invention, so there is nothing to wonder about. We are all descendants of paedophiles. How old was your great great great great grandmother when she got married? Men tend to like them young.....'how young' becomes like 'how beautiful', its subjective. None the less we must have the law to keep the rogue elements in check. In these modern times (unlike the days of our ancestors) it's necessary for girls to get an education in order to have a good chance in life. Also generally the law requires one to be above 18 years old to get a job, ID and other things needed to become independent. This means they will be have to be above 18 years of age in order for them to achieve this. I think the real evil that the anti paediphile movement is addressing is the possibility of girls loosing out in the opportunity to have a 'quality life' and therefore contributing to proliferation of, orphans (death when delivering), street kids, and crime. This was not the case in the early 1900's and back.

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