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The art of crime
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August 26, 1999 |
Nothing Personal's crime-obsessed columnar cousin Rogues' Gallery recently tipped Salon People readers off to the bleak amateurishness of Adolph Hitler's watercolors, which turned up in the basement of a museum in Tehran, Iran, in July. And in the past few days, NP has found itself contemplating that age-old grad-school question about considering a work of art apart from its creator after being alerted to two most disturbing airings of serial killer art. This week an exhibit called "Victimizing Visions, an Exhibit of Art by Serial Killers" is on display in New York. In it, gallows-minded art lovers can view paintings of fire-breathing dragons by Charles Manson (including a lovely inscription referring to his powerful penchant for "mopping the floor," or prison rape); a painting of eyes by Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez (said to have thoughtfully returned the eyeballs of one victim via mail to the next of kin); and a sensitive series of Pogo the Clown self-portraits and a rendering of men hunting Yogi the Bear by the late John Wayne Gacy. "The lack of sublimation, and schizophrenia, that distinguishes most of these mass murderers also typically blocks art creativity," the show's curator bizarrely boasted to NP. "Probably for this reason, there has never been a group show of art by serial killers anywhere ever. This is the first one!" But -- heaven help us -- it may not be the last. Does anyone else smell a trend? According to an Associated Press story released on Tuesday, a group of students at the State University of New York in Binghamton are planning to publish a "parable" written from prison by Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski in their zine, Off! The slayer's story, "Ship of Fools" -- which takes place aboard a ship; begins, oh so originally, with the phrase "once upon a time"; dwells at length on the right to perform a sexual act that has popped up in newspapers a little too often in recent years; and explosively climaxes: "and after a while [the ship] was crushed between two icebergs and everyone drowned" -- is considerably more ... uh ... entertaining than his turgid 368-page manifesto. (What was that about the creativity-deflating effects of a lack of sublimation and schizophrenia again?) Also Today Blow me down! It's the Rime of the Ancient Unabomber Amy Reiter Amy Reiter's column appears daily on the People site, Monday through Friday.
Got a hot tip? Tell Amy! "I think people realize that he wasn't just a serial killer," 21-year-old student and Off! editor Tim LaPietra told the AP. "He had something to say." And I think it's back to remedial ethics for you, Tim. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sporty Rotten? "I am the Antichrist, I am Sporty Spice, I do what I like ..." -- Soloing Spice Girl Mel C in concert, doing a cover of the Sex Pistols song "Anarchy in the U.K." and telling us what we all already know. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rumors, rumors, everywhere ... Nothing Personal has to hand it to you readers; you sharp tacks sure can float a rumor with the best of 'em. "I have been emailing my little fingers off!!!" writes one feisty fingerless scuttlebutt fan with an apparent love of plentiful punctuation. "When is SOMEONE going to ask GWBush if he LIED about felonious drug use on his application to the military??? It is so frustrating that no one has asked this very obvious question!!! Is the military questionnaire not a sworn statement???" Let's take those questions one at a time, shall we??? 1) You just did!!! 2) It certainly is legally binding!!! While several newspaper reports have suggested that Gee-Dubya may have used a little highly placed string-pulling to get into the cushy Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, NP hasn't been able turn up any prior printed inquiry into a drug question on his application form. However, we did stumble upon this sparkly little gem, an excerpt from a military press release, circa 1970, quoted in the Washington Post: "George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed ... As far as kicks are concerned, Lt. Bush gets his from the roaring afterburner of the F-102." Still, the fact that Bush began his military service in 1968, well before his 25 years of sworn cleanliness, makes the application question very intriguing, indeed. Kudos to the digitless dirt-digging dynamo!!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - An underlying undie bond ... What brings a couple of singer- "Alanis knows what it's like to have left your underwear behind in the hotel room," Amos recently mused to the media. "And it wouldn't be so bad except that it was your Prada underwear that you bought with a royalty check and even that would be OK, but you already wore them. So, she understands what it's like to know that someone is hawking your dirty Prada underwear on the street." Hmmm. Fair enough. But maybe you gals would consider letting aspiring author Ted Kaczynski join your Fruit of the Loom club; he also knows a thing or two about the trials of stolen undies ...
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