Tomorrow in class we'll begin the Six Degrees of Separation Project. So that's the fun part. But we'll also return to our essays on 1st Amendment Rights. I stated that I'd offer three bios on people who play into the Freedom of Speech piece. My first was Jim Morrison, who defied the authorities and lost. His public nudity and lewd behavior crossed over the boundary, and at the time there was no "Miller Test" to save him. Lenny Bruce was bio 2. Lenny was vindicated by Governor George Pataki in the late 1990s and posthumously all charges were dropped (he died in 1966). Last I'll present Henry Miller. Miller was the author of a pair of novels called the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Both were published in Paris in the 1930s. It wasn't until this American author's works were finally published in the US that any indecency charges arose. America wasn't ready for Miller. Well, outwardly America wasn't ready. Interesting to note that Tropic of Cancer sold more than 2 1/2 million copies. Somebody was ready for it. Miller's novel changed the way that Americans viewed literature. It was OK suddenly to write about the things we all say and do. Today we share an openness and freedom that was unheard of before Henry Miller. He died in California in 1980.


Miller, like Bruce and Morrison would have benefitted greatly from the Miller Test of Obscenity (the shared name is a coincidence). Although the 1st Amendment's protection of Freedom of Speech is tested every day, it now seems that great energy and expense was wasted frivolously in the name of decency. People are not decent or even indecent because of what they read. Literature and works of art can only enrich our lives; it is up to the individual, as guaranteed by the Constitution, to decide what is worthy of our attention.

On Wednesday I will give you the essay prompt. My advice is that you, on your own, start researching banned books, that list of books that ranges from Ullyses to "Little Red Riding Hood" to Harry Potter. Get busy.