[分享] 關於Allen Ginsberg: Howl
10月4日紐約時報報導關於Howl這首詩引發官司的五十週年紀念
Pacifica.org 在網路上可以聽到這首詩的原聲錄音，引發相關爭議。
Pacifica.org位置
http://www.pacifica.org/program-guide/op,segment-page/station_id,4/segment_id,469/
原文：
‘How'in an Era That Fears Indecency
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/books/04howl.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin
October 4, 2007
‘Howl’ in an Era That Fears Indecency
By PATRICIA COHEN
Correction Appended
Those who happened to click on Pacifica.org <http://pacifica.org/>
yesterday could hear Allen Ginsberg intoning, “I saw the best minds of
my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” along
with the rest of his classic poem “Howl.”
The occasion was the 50th anniversary of a court ruling that found the poem
had “redeeming social importance” and was thus not obscene.
Yet Ginsberg, who died in 1997, was heard online and not on the New York
radio station WBAI-FM, affiliated with the Pacifica network, because the
station, according to an article on Wednesday, feared that by broadcasting
"Howl” it could run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission’s
interpretation of indecency and incur bankrupting fines.
Janet Coleman, WBAI’s arts director, said that when the idea of airing the
poem to test the law was proposed, “I said, ‘Yes, let’s try it.’” The
radio station has a history of championing the First Amendment, having
broadcast the comedian George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” routine that
resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling on indecency. But after several harsh
F.C.C. rulings in 2004 — against CBS for a glimpse of Janet Jackson’s
breast during the Super Bowl halftime show and against Fox for curse words
used during the Billboard Music Awards — “our lawyer felt it was too risky,
” Ms. Coleman said. The commission can impose “draconian fines,” she said,
that could put WBAI out of business.
In 2005 Congress raised limits on fines for obscenity, enabling the F.C.C. to
charge up to $325,000 for every violation of its standards. The commission
marks the hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. as a time when the airwaves should
be free of offensive language.
“It seems like déjà vu all over again,” said Al Bendich, one of the
lawyers who argued the case in 1957.
WBAI, which is part of the Pacifica network, decided to run “Howl Against
Censorship” yesterday on the Pacifica Web site because the Internet,
satellite programming and cable TV are not regulated by the F.C.C. The show
included a 24-minute recording from 1959 of Ginsberg reading his poem; an
interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the original publisher of “Howl” and
the defendant in the 1957 case; and a panel on the First Amendment. WBAI's
decision was reported yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Since 2004 there’s really been a sea change,” said Ronald Collins, a
First Amendment lawyer and an author, referring to changes since the Janet
Jackson incident. “Howl” has been repeatedly broadcast, but now “it’s a
completely different era,” he said. “The F.C.C. made it clear it has a
zero-tolerance policy for offensive language and images.”
Mr. Collins was among a group of people, including Mr. Ferlinghetti and Mr.
Bendich, who approached WBAI about airing the poem. They could have tried to
get a preliminary judgment from the F.C.C., but Mr. Collins said that the
commission doesn’t respond to such requests.
When asked about the broadcasting of the poem, Mary Diamond, a spokeswoman
for the commission, referred to the agency’s fact sheet: “The F.C.C. is
barred by law from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view.” It
goes on to say, “However, the Commission does have enforcement
responsibilities in certain limited instances.”
In June the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled against the
F.C.C. in the Fox case, but the commission has indicated that it will appeal
to the Supreme Court. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has not ruled in the
CBS case. Mr. Collins said that the First Amendment issues raised by these
cases would ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
Mr. Ferlinghetti, 88, who owns the landmark City Lights bookstore in San
Francisco, said that when “Howl” was labeled obscene, first by United
States Customs agents and then by the San Francisco police, it “wasn’t
really the four-letter words.” He added, “It was that it was a direct
attack on American society and the American way of life.”
Mr. Ferlinghetti quoted the unpublished 1957 opinion by San Francisco
Municipal Judge Clayton W. Horn, whom he noted was “a God-fearing Sunday
school teacher”: “Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must
reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemism?” Judge Horn wrote. “An
author should be real in treating his subject and be allowed to express his
thoughts and ideas in his own words.”
Correction: October 6, 2007
An article in The Arts on Thursday about a decision by the New York radio
station WBAI-FM not to broadcast a reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl”
because it feared being fined by the Federal Communications Commission
misspelled the surname of a lawyer who commented on the decision and who
argued in a 1957 trial that “Howl” was not obscene. He is Al Bendich, not
Bendichs.
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