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THE CORNELL DAILY SUNTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10,19^FootnoteObscenity and the Public ___ — Ronald E BerenbeimThe November 5 obscenity conviction of sometimes comedian benny [)ruW.oecastoned no«rc^ regret for those of us who had come to know l. m well. Bruce parlayed his two assete-a loud mouth and a total lack of taste-into national faime.The first issue involved is the fundamental c .. between the public's standards of good taste and the author's quest for complete personal freedom of expression. Looking at this problem from a historical perspective we can find many ^stances where a great work of art d.d not fall within ! the realm of good taste, The nude figurw rn I Michelangelo's Last Judgement in the Stetta* I Chapel so incensed the Pope that he commanded I him to paint robes on them immediately. In our I own time the sale of James Joyce's “Ulysses \ has undergone continual restrictions and prohlbi-! lions. .I do not mean to infer that Lenny Bruce isa Michelangelo or a Janies Joyce. Having seen the particular performance for which he was ar* ; raigned. I would say that Lenny Bruce is not ’ an artist of any stature, but 1 would add that Bruce was not guilty of obscenity His performance was an extremely boring, sometimes in • 5 tractive inquiry into the nature of the human ; mind, which was about as funny, and for that I matter as obscene, as the basic writings of ! Sigmund Freud. If his performance violated ! standards of good taste and morality, then so do ! the subtle, inner workings of the human mind. Iffk.nfnnriitfnr gif ftlA Cafp Au (ifl Go.lieves that he is, then the community, which supported Bruce’s endeavors handsomely, shares that guilt. Lenny Bruce could be accused of giving a boring performance, but not an obscene one Judge J. Randall Creel voted for Bruce’s acquit tal on the grounds that we do not have “com-munity standards” for obscenity, and that the absence of such standards makes Bruce’s eon. viction unconstitutional. This decision raises an important question -- should there be absolute community standards for good taste? Would it be right to punish an artist for violating these standards? Surely, any society that can condemn Walt Whitman for obscenity and then restore him to a pre-eminent position among her poets must realize that “community standards'* are far more transitory than the individual artistic goals of creativity and self-expression. Unlimited self-expression for artists should be a guarantee in a democratic society.Instead of establishing absolute standards of “good taste” the public should distinguish between obsceniiy and pornography, and between the motives of artistic expression and pure profit. Furthermore, the so called “pious pomograph-era,” namely, certain digests and some women's magazine, are smut purveyors par excellence To establish “community standards” that fa. pose limitations on artistic expression would be sheer hypocrisy for a republic that has clearly sanctioned, in fact, supported handsomely, a large number of magazines who appeal either eon-
Newspaper Details
Ithaca Cornell Daily Sun
Ithaca, New York, US
Tue, Nov 10, 1964
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Pope B.
USA 12 Apr 2025
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