Shock Isn't Enough

Jennifer Schuessler is right to say that outrage over "Tropic of Cancer" and the work of D.H. Lawrence  seems downright quaint these days, when millions of suburban housewives are devouring the "sadomasochistic fantasy" Fifty Shades of Grey. Though many say it's still the duty of an artist to shock people, that's becoming a harder task:

To ask if art can still shock is quickly to invite another question: Shock whom, and where? Connoisseurs of the highbrow jolts delivered, say, by European movie directors like Lars von Trier and Gaspar Noé (whose “Irreversible” assaulted audiences with a nine-minute rape scene) might find themselves shocked at the guilt-free pleasure taken by fans of the torture-porn “Saw” franchise. And violence that might seem humdrum at the multiplex might seem shocking in a live theater, to say nothing of an opera house.

“There are a thousand different audiences,” said Vallejo Gantner, the artistic director of Performance Space 122 in the East Village. “At ‘The Book of Mormon’ the shock is all part of the fun. But it’s much harder to shock a downtown theatergoing audience.”