The "Forbidden Page"
According to an article written by Tim Appelo in the Seattle Weekly in 2002, journalists were banned from printing page 204 of Journals (hardcover) in articles or reviews, ostensibly because of its dark content. The page features a drawing of Cobain's face, torn from a comic book, shouting a refrain from the chorus of his most popular song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit": "With the lights out, it's less dangerous / Here we are now, entertain us!" Under the drawing is a sketch by Cobain of the rest of his body until his hips, its skeletal frame and visible trackmarks contrasting sharply with the furious-looking comic book image. Above the drawing-collage are six lines cut-and-pasted from an Alicia Ostriker poem called "A Young Woman, A Tree". The six lines, which begin the poem, describe a girl who passes a blooming tree, and envies its beauty, and on top to the poem is the word "Swingers" (in Cobain's handwriting) ; it has been suggested that by juxtaposing these lines with his emaciated self-portrait, Cobain was making a comment on his own loss of creativity and his personal image being in contrast to his public one.
Read more about this topic: Journals (Cobain)
Famous quotes containing the words forbidden and/or page:
“There’s a theory, one I find persuasive, that the quest for knowledge is, at bottom, the search for the answer to the question: “Where was I before I was born.” In the beginning was ... what? Perhaps, in the beginning, there was a curious room, a room like this one, crammed with wonders; and now the room and all it contains are forbidden you, although it was made just for you, had been prepared for you since time began, and you will spend all your life trying to remember it.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)