| The original edition |
Started in Copenhagen, Denmark.
These early entries do not always include page numbers.
6/20/2000
The Trial of Lady Chatterley: Regina v Penguin Books
Limited Ed. By C. H. Ralph [Note
– this book, an edition published soon after the trial, was purchased at a library
sale near the Round Tower]
Round Tower
How
could the Crown except to win the case when the Defense called upon people who
had helped to write the law as supporters for their case?
Defense
witnesses do make some good points about the book, authors, and society in
general.
Graham
Hough, in reply to prosecutor asking him that authors are expect to quote
accurately, “No, sir. From my knowledge of the habits of authors it is the last
thing I would except, for them to quote accurately. They do it from memory and they always get it
wrong” – very true -avoid this
Dr James
Hemming on society, sex, and young people:
“Well, today, young
people are subjected to a constant titillation and insinuation of what I would describe as
shallow and corrupting values with regard to sex and the relationships between
he sexes. For example, the picture is
put before the young girl that if she has the right proportions, wears the
right clothes, uses the right cosmetics, she will become irresistible to men
and that is the supreme achievement of a
woman. On the other hand, the general
effect of this titillation and insinuation so far as the young man is concerned
is to suggest that sex is little more than a physical thrill that to have a
pretty woman in one’s arms is the supreme ecstasy of life, and that to seduce a
woman is manly and something to be attempted for yourself and to be envied in
others” (118)
So society hasn’t changed that much. But the scary thing is that movies can get
away with such behavior. True movies are
taken to task nut never to the degree that books are. Books are banned! Is that because the pen is mightier than the
sword? But then news says things about kids not reading so
where is the danger? And how come people
divide what to ban books but never movies.
Huck Finn the book is banned in some areas but the movie can still be
shown. Do people do more than just read
the book? How come wit the books professional
opinion Nevers seems to count in the US.
Does the
written word influence society , influence us that much or is some residual
fear from when the printing press came into existence?
One has
to admire Penguin for not publishing the expurgated version of the book.
Miss
Dibys Powell asked how book differs from other novels, tv, and movies in
regards to portrayal of sex, “It is on a very much higher moral plane. I regard it as an extremely moral book, a
great proportion of the books I read and the films I see and the television I
watch seems to have a degrading influence, and a great deal of the contemporary
cinema seems to degrade the whole sanity of sex, treating as something trivial. But in Lawrence’s books, which has a great
elements of sacredness, sex is taken as being something to be taken seriously and
as a basis for holy life.” (150)
DAMN
STRAIGHT!
Cecil Day-Lewis
wrote detective fiction under the name Nicholas Blake! Wonder what people said about that. [NOTE – the trial outs this fact]
What
hadn’t the persecution called witnesses?
They could have found at least one critic that would’ve agreed with them. Not every critic can think the same thing
about a novel. Prosecution appears to
have been so unprepared, its laughable.
They most have thought it would have been easy.
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