Why should it surprise me that Pacifica Radio doesn't want to broadcast Allan Ginsburg reading his poem "Howl" - one of the greatest of poems in the American canon - because they are scared of being fined by the FCC.
It's all due to crackdowns since the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, apparently. It is amazing that despite the poem being the subject of a celebrated 1957 obscenity case, some 50 years later it is again being repressed, in effect.
Watching the U.S. from the other side of the Atlantic, I can't help wondering: What the hell is going on over there? Secret legal decisions advocating torture, no health insurance for poor kids, puritanical censorship - I understand that people aren't out in the streets demanding change - there are so many awful things happening at once it's overwhelming.
The Swedish word for the day is avsky. It means disgust.
- by Francis S.
Friday, October 05, 2007
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