Bash Compactor: Chewing The Crud

What do Naked Lunch and Harry Potter have in common? The answer is that both books have been banned at either the school or state level, and both were celebrated last Thursday night at Housing Works Bookstore for the third annual Banned Book Party.

The stage was set with a microphone, Theremin, keyboard and bongo drums manned by original Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert, who, when asked about his favorite banned book, proudly exclaimed, “Naked Lunch!” Former Screw and High Times editor Mike Edison (a beloved New York Press contributor), hosted the event, kicking off the night by reciting a once-banned nursery rhyme written by Roald Dahl. Afterward, Edison schooled the crowd on book-banning history, clarifying that those responsible for banning books are usually parents, then proceeding to shoot off a list of once-banned books including The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies.

The evening’s first speaker was attorney Herald Price Fahringer, sporting a dark suit with a perfectly folded handkerchief and a pink tie. Fahringer famously defended the First Amendment when obscenity trials were all the rage in New York, and described how undercover cops used to go into the porn bookshops to buy a naughty book and cuff the cashier as soon as they got their change. I took the first opportunity available to ask Fahringer if he believed that there was ever such a thing as a warranted obscenity trial. “I’m an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment. I think all things should be allowed and it should be up the public to decide what’s good or bad,” he said.

Former Soft Skull Press publisher and free speech advocate Richard Nash spoke next, illuminating what all this talk of banned books meant to the modern world. In Nash’s mind, the new threat to our freedom of speech lies in the issue of Net Neutrality. He cited how Apple’s App store most recently added to their criteria for App Developers that potential apps not be “obscene.” As a result, a graphic novel version of James Joyce’s Ulysses was rejected because it contained nudity.

As Nash wrapped up his speech, Edison took the stage to play “Name that banned book,” reading passages from different banned books for the audience to identify. As the event wound down and the crowd dispersed, I bee-lined for Nash, who was already surrounded by people. I waited my turn and asked about Net Neutrality and the idea that there will one day be a “premium Internet” for only high-quality, paid content.

“I will defy all the naysayers who say the Internet produces a lot of crud to name me any form of media that hasn’t produced a lot of crud. Our mouths produce crud. Human beings produce crud all the time, the Internet just makes it more visible.”