Several things caught my attention that afternoon. Someone I really admire told me that the works exposed in that museum were from very creative and distinguished writers, so I started having a keened attention for every piece of work. A work with a “CENSURED” label attracted me immediately it was titled: “Tropic of Cancer, Unexpurgated Edition”. This book was prohibited in the United States before 1964 by the Massachusetts Obscene Literature Control Commission (MOLCC). This book was strongly criticized by most people because of its “obscene” language because it contained explicit words referred to sexuality.
[By the way –words- just symbols… some specific combinations of symbols, placed together, so powerful as to create all kinds of connections in the brains of those who can understand its language, and then create infinite images in our minds and emotions in our bodies.]
Many critics said that it would represent the perdition of youth and future generations, a social and moral disaster…
Later I read the authors response to the critics –an article republished by Playboy (1962). Henry Miller, the author of this book who fought for 30 years for the freedom of speech against the MOLCC, ends the article saying “Show me your clean hands, your clean heart, your clean conscience, I defy you!”
After spending a considerable amount of time hearing an interview in which this books and similar kinds of readings were criticized, after reading the above response from Miller, and after copying some details to search more on it later, I walked to another area of the museum in which I saw a huge image of the cover of Tropic of Cancer, next to it there was a small area dedicated to the Book Burning. Some ipods were standing there, tempting me to listen at them, and so I did. It was a story that the radio in the U.S. transmitted about the Nazi Book Burning. They were reproducing that terrible scene as if it were happening in the U.S. The narration was marvelous, using just the right amount of comical narrations without losing a spot of the tremendously pernicious situation, a master work.
I could feel –again thanks to the combination of symbols, translated in sounds, and my understanding of the language- the terrifying sensation of the symbolism of this tragic scene. In my mind I could see that moment, as a castrated witness. I could feel the horror… The horror of the intention of those human beings to murder history, intellectuality, knowledge, freedom… especially freedom, of the speech, of the action.. of the mind… a murder of wisdom. “Lincoln, to the fire; Einstein, to the fire” The intention of the Nazi was to kill every molecule of liberty, freedom and courage that could bring to life any human intention to develop such marvelous and wise concepts.
The narration was based on a book called “They Burned the Books” by Stephen Vincent Benét.
Now, why did I talk this much about such different readings?
Well.. the Books Burning happened in 1933… They Burned the Books was published and transmitted in 1942… Tropic of Cancer was PROHIBITED in the United States of America until 1964.. that’s 31 years after the Book Burning and tree decades after the American critic transmission of They Burned the Books
I will let you conclude my thoughts by asking you to relate the function of the U.S.’s MOLCC with that of the Nazi.
Call it prohibition, call it a burning.. both are different ways –words- referred to the murdering of freedom.
Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.
-- Dalai Lama
excellent food for thought!
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