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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/26/philip-roth-how-portnoys-complaint-made-australia-a-better-place
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| How Portnoy's Complaint made Australia a better place | How Portnoy's Complaint made Australia a better place |
| (14 days later) | |
| The death of Philip Roth can’t go by without celebrating the part he played nearly 50 years ago in ending the grip of the moral bullies who decided what books we could read in this country. | The death of Philip Roth can’t go by without celebrating the part he played nearly 50 years ago in ending the grip of the moral bullies who decided what books we could read in this country. |
| 'An astonishing force field': Philip Roth, as remembered by authors and friends | 'An astonishing force field': Philip Roth, as remembered by authors and friends |
| Across Australia politicians, police, columnists, headmistresses, radio loudmouths, preachers and priests had united in declaring Roth’s 1969 scatological masterpiece Portnoy’s Complaint a danger to the morals of the nation. | Across Australia politicians, police, columnists, headmistresses, radio loudmouths, preachers and priests had united in declaring Roth’s 1969 scatological masterpiece Portnoy’s Complaint a danger to the morals of the nation. |
| Roth’s book was enjoying a huge success around the world. But John Gorton’s government banned it at the border and when Penguin Books printed a local edition – with smuggled plates? – the novel was branded obscene in every state of the nation except New South Wales. | Roth’s book was enjoying a huge success around the world. But John Gorton’s government banned it at the border and when Penguin Books printed a local edition – with smuggled plates? – the novel was branded obscene in every state of the nation except New South Wales. |
| Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon | Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon |
| Australia was a joke. On the map of world censorship, this country was another Ireland down in the South Pacific. | Australia was a joke. On the map of world censorship, this country was another Ireland down in the South Pacific. |
| Canberra was in the business of banning novels available all over the English-speaking world: Ulysses, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lolita, Peyton Place, The Carpetbaggers and James Baldwin’s Another Country. Sex was suspect. Gay sex was absolutely beyond the pale. | Canberra was in the business of banning novels available all over the English-speaking world: Ulysses, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lolita, Peyton Place, The Carpetbaggers and James Baldwin’s Another Country. Sex was suspect. Gay sex was absolutely beyond the pale. |
| The list of films banned or hacked to preserve the modesty of the Australian people was also long. Around the time Portnoy was sinbinned by Canberra, six minutes was cut was from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and three from Midnight Cowboy. Easy Rider was first banned, then butchered. | The list of films banned or hacked to preserve the modesty of the Australian people was also long. Around the time Portnoy was sinbinned by Canberra, six minutes was cut was from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and three from Midnight Cowboy. Easy Rider was first banned, then butchered. |
| But Portnoy was too much. Penguin Books decided to take a stand. The company’s heroic defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover had seen the novel released in Britain 30 years after its first publication. That transformed British writing. | But Portnoy was too much. Penguin Books decided to take a stand. The company’s heroic defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover had seen the novel released in Britain 30 years after its first publication. That transformed British writing. |
| Bill Deane was superb. He made poor sick Portnoy sound like St Augustine with a dash of Jerry Seinfeld | Bill Deane was superb. He made poor sick Portnoy sound like St Augustine with a dash of Jerry Seinfeld |
| Now there was work to do in Australia. | Now there was work to do in Australia. |
| After suffering losses across the country at the hands of magistrates and juries, Penguin’s last stand was a grubby room in the Central criminal courts in Sydney’s Taylor Square. I was the dogsbody of the defence team, fetching books and herding witnesses. Portnoy was the highlight of my brief legal career. | After suffering losses across the country at the hands of magistrates and juries, Penguin’s last stand was a grubby room in the Central criminal courts in Sydney’s Taylor Square. I was the dogsbody of the defence team, fetching books and herding witnesses. Portnoy was the highlight of my brief legal career. |
| Penguin’s only hope was to persuade the little jury that despite the foul language and hilariously detailed tales of masturbation, this book had literary merit. For that we needed a silver-tongued QC. Hired for the job was the man who would one day be governor general, Bill Deane. | Penguin’s only hope was to persuade the little jury that despite the foul language and hilariously detailed tales of masturbation, this book had literary merit. For that we needed a silver-tongued QC. Hired for the job was the man who would one day be governor general, Bill Deane. |
| And we needed big name writers to attest to the great skill and high purpose of the novelist. Among these was Patrick White. I met him for the first time on a hot morning in the corridors of the courts. We were running late and my orders were to go out and keep the old man calm. | And we needed big name writers to attest to the great skill and high purpose of the novelist. Among these was Patrick White. I met him for the first time on a hot morning in the corridors of the courts. We were running late and my orders were to go out and keep the old man calm. |
| He didn’t need me. The defence of Portnoy was one of the first times he broke cover to take a stand on a great public issue. The cause was just and, though nervous, he was determined to stand for liberty in the witness box. | He didn’t need me. The defence of Portnoy was one of the first times he broke cover to take a stand on a great public issue. The cause was just and, though nervous, he was determined to stand for liberty in the witness box. |
| I can still hear the gravel-voiced prosecutor reading him the grubbiest passage in the novel – the one about a woman shitting on a glass table while our hero lay beneath masturbating. What did he think of that? White drawled: “Worse things happen in Sydney.” | I can still hear the gravel-voiced prosecutor reading him the grubbiest passage in the novel – the one about a woman shitting on a glass table while our hero lay beneath masturbating. What did he think of that? White drawled: “Worse things happen in Sydney.” |
| Writer after writer followed him into the box. Deane was superb. He made poor sick Portnoy sound like St Augustine with a dash of Jerry Seinfeld. Two Sydney juries refused to convict. That’s all we needed. If you couldn’t ban a book in NSW it couldn’t be banned effectively anywhere. | Writer after writer followed him into the box. Deane was superb. He made poor sick Portnoy sound like St Augustine with a dash of Jerry Seinfeld. Two Sydney juries refused to convict. That’s all we needed. If you couldn’t ban a book in NSW it couldn’t be banned effectively anywhere. |
| We have no idea if the anonymous men and women in those two juries fairly represented the Australian community. We don’t even know how they voted. But back in 1970 they ended book censorship in Australia. Soon after, the new minister for customs Don Chipp, gave us the R certificate and that was the end of brutal censorship of film. | We have no idea if the anonymous men and women in those two juries fairly represented the Australian community. We don’t even know how they voted. But back in 1970 they ended book censorship in Australia. Soon after, the new minister for customs Don Chipp, gave us the R certificate and that was the end of brutal censorship of film. |
| Censorship didn’t end entirely. For years, television was the big battleground. | Censorship didn’t end entirely. For years, television was the big battleground. |
| The appetite of conservative politicians and radio moralisers to block and censor has never disappeared. John Howard banned a few books, though he was intent on saving the nation from drugs, not sex. It didn’t last. The internet and Amazon Books came along to make such efforts futile. | The appetite of conservative politicians and radio moralisers to block and censor has never disappeared. John Howard banned a few books, though he was intent on saving the nation from drugs, not sex. It didn’t last. The internet and Amazon Books came along to make such efforts futile. |
| But Portnoy and Penguin broke the old regime. Canberra could no longer stand between Australian readers and the world. Australia was a better place. The floodgates had opened. | But Portnoy and Penguin broke the old regime. Canberra could no longer stand between Australian readers and the world. Australia was a better place. The floodgates had opened. |
| Philip Roth | Philip Roth |
| Censorship | Censorship |
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