The Tropics Create Controversy

I originally wanted to write about the press conference that was held yesterday, but I have recently decided otherwise. In my Media Law class this morning we had a guest speaker, Mangus Toren. He is the foremost expert on a man named Henry Miller. For those of you that are unaware, Henry Miller was a writer in the '50s and '60s. His most famous books Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn were banned, citing that the book did not promote puritan values. Miller fought a long and hard battle over the issue of censorship and it is this case that has changed the world of censorship.

Now, I had honestly never heard of Henry Miller before this class and I still have yet to read his books, but our guest speaker did read a passage from the book; a passage that was only on page five of the book, but was the reason that many people on the side of the prosecution decided to, in fact, prosecute Miller. At the time that these books were published and Miller was prosecuted, the society was much different from today. It was not as open and, in a sense, understanding as today (not to say that today's society is understanding, just more so).

As I said, I had never heard of these books before, but my interest is now sparked and I look forward to finding out why people wanted this books banned. It seems to me that the more people try to prevent you from doing something, the more you want to do it. And in this case, I specially hold that to be true. Maybe you'll be like me too and have some new reading material.