Pornography and Obscenity

This 40-page tract by D.H. Lawrence, published in 1930 by Alfred A. Knopf, takes aim at the "dirty-little-secret" pornography of the day, those films and novels that no censor touches because of their patina of purity but which serve only to provoke an unhealthy sexuality -- specifically, masturbation. By contrast, Lawrence finds the healthy and open attitude toward sex found in, say, Boccaccio, praiseworthy. He blames the whole destructive attitude toward sex on the "gray ones" of the 19th century, "the eunuch century, the century of the mealy-mouthed lie." And he offers a forceful and philosophical argument against masturbation, an act which produces "nothing but loss." He laments its effects on culture: "The sentimentalism and the niggling analysis, often self-analysis, of most of our modern literature, is a sign of self-abuse. The author never escapes himself, he pads along within a vicious circle of himself." An exhilarating book.