It's hard to imagine people getting, as my mother would say, "up in the papers," which is a strange phrase I'm fairly certain she made up but swears is a real thing and I think is roughly equivalent to "up in arms," about books, specifically content that could be viewed as obscene. Every once in awhile a religious fruitcake will complain that Harry Potter is a Satan worshiper or that a children's book about a classmate with two mommies has prompted his five-year-old daughter to question her sexuality, but for the most part people lay off books. Hell, a lot of people don't even read books. Libraries have become the last bastion of horny old men looking to scope a little midday porn. And e-book readers are crap. That's just a personal opinion however, as I have never been face-to-hard-to-read-face with an e-book reader and probably never will. I like the feel of a book in my hand, the smell of the pages, the crack of a new spine. Books are a source of great joy for me, and I still hold onto the hope that I will one day be a published author and hold my very own copy of my very own book in my hands.What do people complain about today? Movies? You don't hear too much about theaters being picketed anymore unless its by fringe, gay-hating religious cults (Westboro Baptist Church; Catholics). Magazines? Bookstores and news stands do a decent job of keeping unsavory periodicals hidden from impressionable youth. TV? Not really. Networks are so frightened by the possibility of being fined by the FCC, they largely pussy out when it comes to edgier fare. What form of popular entertainment is left? Radio? You didn't seriously just suggest that people listen to radio, did you? Omigod, were you, like, born in the 1980's? Gah!
Believe it or not, people used to lose their shit over books, novels like Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. Obscene tells the fascinating story of the man who published these, as well as many other, sickening tomes in America, Barney Rosset, founder and former owner of Grove Press and Editor-In-Chief of the Evergreen Review. Rosset spent his life publishing the books he loved, throwing caution to the wind. It paid off on the one hand, as he made available to the American public important works by authors such as Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, and Tom Stoppard, among many, many others. He published many of the Beats. He was also responsible for bringing obscure, anonymously-penned Victorian erotica to the masses. I'll let you decide whether or not that was a good idea on your own time.
Believe it or not, people used to lose their shit over books, novels like Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. Obscene tells the fascinating story of the man who published these, as well as many other, sickening tomes in America, Barney Rosset, founder and former owner of Grove Press and Editor-In-Chief of the Evergreen Review. Rosset spent his life publishing the books he loved, throwing caution to the wind. It paid off on the one hand, as he made available to the American public important works by authors such as Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, and Tom Stoppard, among many, many others. He published many of the Beats. He was also responsible for bringing obscure, anonymously-penned Victorian erotica to the masses. I'll let you decide whether or not that was a good idea on your own time. Where this philosophy didn't pay off were the resulting and expensive court cases to defend his right to publish what he liked. Sure, Rosset won some important cases, but he took a significant financial hit that has left him a far-less rich, but cheerful, old man today.
GEP says: WATCH IT!
