Word: courtesans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...tame and respectable, but this documentary mini-series--which examines Edouard Manet's Olympia, Huckleberry Finn, 1920s jazz and racy 1930s movies--recovers what was shocking in art we have (mostly) grown comfortable with. The enlightening Manet episode unpacks 19th century French society to show how a nude courtesan roiled the salons by staring frankly at the viewer; the Finn segment examines a contemporary push to pull the book (charged with racism) from a school. The series comes down on the side of art, natch, but deserves credit for arguing, not assuming, its point...
...books should not be judged by their covers. I wholeheartedly agreed. Goodness that involved moral merit, intelligence and perseverance were productive, but beauty seemed like a perfectly worthless quality. I remember being very puzzled when I browsed through the encyclopedia and came across an article on Phryne, a Greek courtesan from the 4th century B.C. who earned such wealth through her beauty that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes on the condition that they should be inscribed, "Destroyed by Alexander, Restored by Phryne the Courtesan." I couldn't understand how she got to share space in the encyclopedia...