Garrison Keillor poetry show cancelled because the word "breast" was spoken

[hm0504]

A Kentucky NPR station cancelled Garrison Keillor’s “A Writer’s Almanac” amid concerns of its “offensive” content. Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac is a five-minute program during which the popular baritone discusses great works of literature and poetry...

http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/index.php?p=1035

[hm0504]

A Kentucky NPR station cancelled Garrison Keillor’s “A Writer’s Almanac” amid concerns of its “offensive” content. Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac is a five-minute program during which the popular baritone discusses great works of literature and poetry...

http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/index.php?p=1035

[Vin]

Great gods! At least they reversed the decision. Living in KY, and having been a producer at an NPR station here several years ago, I admit to being surprised at something like this taking place in Lexington. At least the community complained about the cancellation.

Vin

[S.M.A.]

What a stupid, stupid thing to do. This makes about a much sense as "Medical Minute" being pulled because the health expert/host said "penis" repeatedly. Whoever dropped this bomb should have their head smacked.

Stuart

[Bob S.]

Can we call those who cancelled it "boobs"?

I copied from the site the "offending 'breast' poem" as it was called.

Bob S.

Curse of the Cat Woman
by Edward Field

It sometimes happens
that the woman you meet and fall in love with
is of that strange Transylvanian people
with an affinity for cats.

You take her to a restuarant, say, or a show,
on an ordinary date, being attracted
by the glitter in her slitty eyes and her catlike walk,
and afterwards of course you take her in your arms
and she turns into a black panther
and bites you to death.

Or perhaps you are saved in the nick of time
and she is tormented by the knowledge of her tendency:
That she daren’t hug a man
unless she wants to risk clawing him up.

This puts you both in a difficult position—
panting lovers who are prevented from touching
not by bars but by circumstance:
You have terrible fights and say cruel things
for having the hots does not give you a sweet temper.

One night you are walking down a dark street
And hear the pad-pad of a panther following you,
but when you turn around there are only shadows,
or perhaps one shadow too many.

You approach, calling, “Who’s there?”
and it leaps on you.
Luckily you have brought along your sword
and you stab it to death.

And before your eyes it turns into the woman you love,
her breast impaled on your sword,
her mouth dribbling blood saying she loved you
but couldn’t help her tendency.

So death released her from the curse at last,
and you knew from the angelic smile on her dead face
that in spite of a life the devil owned,
love had won, and heaven pardoned her.

[Jochanaan]

What's the world coming to? In a saner world, no one would take offense at the word "breast" but some would shrink from the vivid description of death.

Reminds me of the story "Ado" by Connie Willis (one of the finest writers you may never have heard of) about a future school in which Shakespeare's Hamlet is to be presented in a high school literature class but is whittled down to two--count'em, two--lines acceptable to everybody from right-wingers to radical feminists to undertakers' associations to...

[oldbob]

Well it's a good thing Garrison wasn't reading from the Bible:

"Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies." Song of Solomon 4:5

Sorry about posting so long after the previous post in the thread. I couldn't resist.

[NewAndNude]

quote:

Originally posted by Jochanaan:
What's the world coming to? In a saner world, no one would take offense at the word "breast" but some would shrink from the vivid description of death.

Reminds me of the story "Ado" by Connie Willis (one of the finest writers you may never have heard of) about a future school in which Shakespeare's Hamlet is to be presented in a high school literature class but is whittled down to two--count'em, two--lines acceptable to everybody from right-wingers to radical feminists to undertakers' associations to...

Perhaps you remember about six or seven years ago when America Online made a very bad PR mistake by banning chat rooms that used the word "breast." They also banned screen names associated with it and pretty much tore e-mails to shreds. It wasn't until breast cancer survivors started raising hell and talking in the mainstream media that AOL agreed to drop the policy.