2008/10/17 John Sessoms <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Smoking "makes a comeback" in quite a lot of recent Science Fiction; usually > as a result of finding a cure for cancer. Theory seems to be that once the > harm is removed, there's nothing wrong with it. Real world, I doubt that'll > happen, since cancer is only one of the possible negative consequences.
Agreed. > And I'm going to say again, I don't see any evidence that the "original" > image was sanitized. It just doesn't look like she was holding a cigarette > when the photo was taken. Then I will have to say again; I backed down from my first reaction. Please re-read the thread. > Which makes objecting to the artist not depicting her holding one foolish. > Who exactly ARE the revisionists in this case? Thing is, this debate is going on at multiple levels at the same time, and they keep getting mixed up. One level is whether the particular photo was manipulated to remove a cigarette. That level seems settled; that Ebert was mistaken, and his essay fooled both me and others. Then there is the level of whether it would have been OK to remove a cigarette like that. Your initial comment in this thread was: "I'd much rather have the government not portray smoking as cool than accurately reproduce a tiny version of an old photo." I cannot escape the impression that you think it would have been OK, and for moralistic reasons. I will repeat my opinion; that smoking was so much an integral part of social life of the period that it should not be written out of the images from the era. I don't think any moralistic overlay can change that (I regard the detrimental effects of tobacco is an axiom in this case, just for the record). I'd be happy to hear your arguments against, if you have any. Then there is the level of whether old pictures of smoking movie stars promotes smoking today. I think no more than the thin waists of 19th century ladies with corselets inspires anorexia in girls today. best, Jostein -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
