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The Big Snow Phallus Controversy
02/28/2003

I've been engaged in a discussion over at Critical Mass regarding a controversy up at Harvard about a nine-foot penis of snow and the sculpture's rapid destruction. Brian Carney, with whom I agree, says:

Was this destruction a shocking attempt to stifle artistic expression? A callous act of censorship? No, it was the right thing to do. A one-story-tall snow phallus, whether prank or "art," is intolerable in a public place like Harvard Yard. More to the point, it is obscene, in the old-fashioned sense of the word--something that, at a minimum, should be kept out of sight.

Harvard, unnaturally prolonged adolescence for the low low price of more than a hundred thousand dollars. Andrew Sullivan's got a link to a picture of the thing if you really want to see it.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 05:19 PM EST