{"id":4598,"date":"2010-06-10T07:12:56","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T13:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2010-06-10T07:12:56","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T13:12:56","slug":"ridiculous-apple-ulysses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/10\/ridiculous-apple-ulysses\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridiculous: Apple & Ulysses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, this is really good, we all know Apple has banned any porn or even Playboy-style nudity on their devices despite the fact that those things would: 1) require purchase. 2) exist on a device primarily owned by grown-ups. They have this right, even if I find it disturbing. Why disturbing? Because these things tend to get ridiculously absurd pretty fast. How fast? Apple has banned an App it’s been selling that’s an adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses, which was itself banned some 60 years ago for “being obscene.” And why this comic book? A single panel showing a nude man leaping into the water. He has an abstract and flaccid penis. And yes, I’m posting the picture inside: Article UPDATED!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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And yes, in case you were wondering, you can view that screenshot on any Apple product by using the web – you can’t read the entire comic, but because of Apple thousands are going to see the offensive shot and … what if they are children? As Tycho at PennyArcade once put it:<\/p>\n

You can’t throw a rock on the Internet without hitting a vagina!<\/p>\n

He’s right and with that vagina is usually a penis. A very large and very not flaccid penis.<\/p>\n

What bothers me, aside from censoring something that’s based on literature and not at all offensive, is that real people worked on this graphic novel and now they’ve been denied the opportunity to sell it on the hottest comic book viewer on the market.<\/p>\n

Oh and the book was banned previously because of a frank masturbation scene. Courts later determined it wasn’t offensive because it didn’t “promote lust.” \u00a0Apple is proving we’re going BACKWARDS now because, well, does that panel above really promote anything except maybe shrinkage and nude swimming?<\/p>\n

Apparently the App is still at the App store but the offending panel has been replaced by something less offensive. You know, it’s now 100% less “penisy.”<\/p>\n

EDIT\/UPDATE: <\/strong>Artist\/Writer Robert Berry makes it clear in a message board post below that he agreed to change the panel to comply with Apple’s standards for the iPad WILLINGLY. \u00a0Apple didn’t pull the App and force him to change it. \u00a0This is an important distinction but it doesn’t change my opinion in fact or content. \u00a0The very idea an artist has to change something this minor as a matter of policy… in fact THE VERY IDEA that an artist has to change anything or contemplate changing anything like this makes my skin crawl. \u00a0I’m not putting words in Berry’s mouth, but I’d argue his comic is changed by this panel. It’s still his vision and his choice, but it does change the story. The minor shock value of the panel is a part of his telling of the story. \u00a0I’m sorry he had to change it – but don’t blame him in any way. An artist shouldn’t have to compromise, but an artist also needs to get his work in front of as many eyeballs as possible. It’s a rough balancing act, commerce and art, and I don’t presume to judge this balancing act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, this is really good, we all know Apple has banned any porn or even Playboy-style nudity on their devices despite the fact that those things would: 1) require purchase. 2) exist on a device primarily owned by grown-ups. They have this right, even if I find it disturbing. Why disturbing? Because these things tend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}