IT was in November 1960 that an English court had delivered an acquittal verdict in the obscenity trial that had led to the lifting of the ban on DH Lawrence’s novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ – a landmark case in British (and indeed, the English reading world’s) literary and social history.
The verdict itself was an important victory for freedom of expression and saw publishing in Britain becoming considerably more liberal, although across the channel the Europeans, especially the French, already had the book in circulation since its first publication in 1928.
Cover of the paperback edition of DH Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’.
It was only in 1963, at age 13, when I was in Form 1 at St Thomas’ Secondary that I managed to get my hands on the previously banned Penguin paperback (as shown in the photo here) and had read it from cover to cover, burning the midnight oil!
The tremendous shift in teenagers’ reading habits had changed virtually overnight; such spark is best encapsulated in this verse from Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Annus Mirabilis’, which goes:
“Sexual intercourse began in nineteen-sixty-three (which was rather late for me).
“Between the end of the Chatterley ban, and the Beatles’ first LP.”
Between 1960 and today throughout the world, books and publications of all nature, covering varying subjects, topics and inclination, have continued to be banned, proscribed and condemned. These were mostly due to their theme, topic and subject – political, religious, racial, sexual and deviant – but a few, which did not fall into any of these categories, have had their circulation curtailed as well. This surprisingly have also included a few children’s books as well as some non-fiction biographies and historical writings.
In Malaysia, the government authorities would periodically announce lengthy lists of banned writings, music and movies – with nary a reason attached to such ban, except to say in general that they were ‘detrimental to society and would disrupt racial or religious harmony’.
The majority of these works were either religious writings or sexual adventures. You’d be surprised with some of the famous books and movies being banned merely for the reason of their political inclination, overt sexuality or foul language – the latter of which were too numerous to censor and would make it difficult for an audience to follow their storylines.
In the world of pop music, in 1956 while performing his newest hit ‘Hound Dog’, Elvis Presley was banned from dancing on stage by the Los Angeles deputy police chief, and was warned that he must cease his ‘sexy overtone’ in future performances there, or receive an obscenity charge!
Elvis’ early music was very much African-American based, from the many gospel meetings, rhythm and blues and soul music performances that he had witnessed and being a part of during his teenage years in Memphis, Tennessee – gospel singalongs in churches where all the singers had moved to the music.
Indeed in all his years of recording over 700 songs on dozens of albums, his only three Grammy Awards were given to him later in his career for only his gospel songs!
‘Elvis the Pelvis’ shaking those ‘banned hips’ on stage back in 1955.
Today with the coming of hip-hop, rap music, punk, new age, metal, new wave, EDM and suchlike, it is virtually impossible to ban or censor or even attempt to condemn any form of music.
In the 1950s and 1960s right up to the 1990s when radio, FM and pirate stations had ruled the airwaves, it was easy-peasy to simply ban or stop a record or album to be played over the airwaves and in turn, its sales would suffer.
Today, the more you try to ban a piece of music, a song or even a trend, the more followers it would garner – it seems that whatever pisses off the establishment is the way to go!
I had the biggest laugh when it was deemed newsworthy to report that to keep certain vagrants and loitering youngsters off certain street corners in a town, the local authorities there had decided to install loudspeakers and had then piped in Barry Manilow’s songs – they had worked as an incredibly effective deterrent and had certainly kept those youngsters away, trying to escape the mellow strains of ‘Mandy’ and ‘I Write the Songs’!
A couple of years back, The Guardian newspaper of England had published a list of the ‘Top 20 Greatest Banned Songs of All Time’ – you’d be pretty shocked to know who they had included: Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical’; Lady Gaga’s ‘Judas’; The Beatles’ ‘Happiness is A Warm Gun’; Abba’s ‘Waterloo’; Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’; Madonna’s ‘Justify My Love’; George Michael’s ‘I Want your Sex’; and Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby’.
But the two most famous banned songs of all time have to be the mother of them all – ‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday, recorded in 1939; Atlantic co-founder Ahmet Ertegun had called it ‘the beginning of the civil rights movement’. It was a song about the lynching of African-Americans in the USA and was considered so powerful that some US cities banned it, worried it would provoke civil disharmony.
Then there’s the ultimate sexual epic, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s classic ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus’ (I Love You… Me Neither) released in 1969; this breathy sexy scandalous erotic moaning a la French ‘dirty whispers’ had upset everyone, including the Pope! It was originally written for Brigitte Bardot. Many years later, it was being used to advertise anything from M&S smoked salmon to toilet paper! Still sexy?
Movies – be they Hollywood blockbusters, Hong Kong/PRC/Taiwan features or Bollywood films are often the targets of the censor’s scissors. Many documentaries too meet the same fate for reasons of religion, sexuality, race and politics.
In 1972 the movie ‘Straw Dogs’ directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George was banned; it was only lifted 30 years later, in 2002, with the video release in Britain. Its ban was based on it being ‘one of the strongest statements about violence ever put on screen’.
Peckinpah, famous for violence and bloodshed in Westerns, was notorious for portraying women in his films – a critic had put it this way: “In fact, any woman in Straw Dogs is shown exclusively to stimulate sexual desire: she is all legs, nipples out, with a coy smile and beckoning finger. She is temptress, seductress and child all at once.”
No wonder they had banned it!
Dustin Hoffman in Peckinpah’s 1972 film ‘Straw Dogs’.
To satisfy your curiosity, the film’s title derives from a discussion in the Tao Te Ching that likens people to the ancient Chinese ceremonial ‘straw dog’: being of ceremonial worth, but afterwards discarded with indifference after it had fulfilled its purpose.
At the same time the ban was lifted, four other notorious films were also ‘freed’ for distribution in the UK – ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Driller Killer’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
I would like to make a special note here that in recent years, a number of films directed by Kuching-born Tsai Ming-Liang, who has found fame internationally and received awards and accolades mostly in Europe and Northern Asia, have been officially banned in Malaysia for depicting what is so-called ‘perversity and homosexuality’ themes.
IMDB (the ‘industry bible’ – Internet Movie Data Base https://imdb.to/3pERM2Z) has Tsai listed as having directed 42 movies, written for 28, produced nine, and acted himself in two.
In conclusion I have this observation – in today’s meta world where everything is linked and online and interconnects with every other thing, it is nigh impossible to even think of doing what we’ve been used to in the past. The past can no longer set precedents for us to follow – except for the written laws of the land, and the rules and regulations of man and of God and the Holy Books; it is no longer up to the foibles and fancies of mere mortals like us to decide and dictate to the others what they can read, watch and listen.
Freewill has always existed – now it is unencumbered and unleashed as to a degree whereby we are able to decide for ourselves, with self-discipline and a full responsibility on what we want to do with our lives and the choices that we are making and will make in the future.
I can safely say that all forms and manners of censorship had died some years back when the Internet came into being; now with the interconnected world and the many diverse ways we have available to us all to stream, download, watch, listen and read within our own self-set boundaries of humanity, decency and self-respect!
Vive la liberté!
Amen.
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