Caleb Neelon Said

Caleb's been hanging around the gallery this week, installing his show to open this Saturday and I had no idea of his talk on Shepard Fairey at the ICA last weekend. He referenced Walt Whitman and other notable writers that have shaped our society. You can read his speech here.


An excerpt.

"That was a tiny section from Walt Whitman's famous epic poem, Song of Myself, which was published in his masterwork, Leaves of Grass. In 1882, on its publication, Boston authorities banned the book for indecency. They singled out the section I just quoted, presumably because of its veiled references to kissing a dude. Boston authorities would go on to ban Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1891. In the 20th Century, Boston authorities would go on to ban, or do their best to ban, works by H.L. Mencken, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, and even Voltaire's Candide, nearly two hundred years after its publication. Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front was removed, successfully, as well."