Word: taboo
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...Winger and John Malkovich, is rumored to be cruising for an adults-only rating. The X was the forbidden zone, which strong directors could fight, sometimes successfully, to avoid. The NC-17 is different: a limbo rating. Will the board award it more freely? Will the studios declare it taboo? What if a cynical porno distributor submits his hard-core film for a rating and gets the same NC-17? Will publishers and theater owners, seeing the designation as a new euphemism for X, allow movies so rated to be advertised and exhibited? So far, nobody knows...
...case against nukes, however, is strong. Besides the taboo that has existed since Nagasaki, and the problem of precedent ("The temptation for other countries to use nukes would increase if we use them in the gulf," says a Pentagon official), there is the post-crisis environment to consider. No matter the reason, an American atomic strike in the gulf would signal that, unique among the world's present hot spots, the Middle East is the region where the West views life as so cheap that any weapon of war is justified. The problems of repair -- physical, psychological and political...
...dramatic rules -- it was too murky, too slow moving, too coy about solving its mystery -- yet it attracted a fanatically devoted audience. Viewers, it seemed, were a lot more willing to sample unusual, challenging fare than anyone had expected. Just as All in the Family launched a trend toward taboo-breaking, socially relevant sitcoms and Roots ushered in the age of the mini-series, Twin Peaks was supposed to augur a new era of more adventurous, risk-taking network fare...
...astonishing unanimity of purpose brought out all sorts of uncharacteristic behavior. The Saudis for the first time allowed the U.S. to stage military operations from their soil, breaking the old taboo against colluding openly with Israel's closest ally. Japan, which has assiduously avoided conflict with gulf states to guarantee a steady oil supply, chose principle over economics. Switzerland, which does not belong to NATO, the European Community or even the U.N. and ordinarily eschews economic sanctions, took sides by joining in. Even Cuba and Yemen, Security Council members that abstained in the vote for sanctions against Baghdad, fell into...
...life and the life around him. His still-lifes depict beauty and intense eroticism. His portraits of celebrities and friends are marked by highly aestheticised definition and exaggerated characterization. He forces us to ask ourselves where we draw the line between the visual appeal of the daring revelation of taboo images and the depiction of images for the sake of sexual arousal...