A2 - Sunday, May 30, 1982 - North Shore News

strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

NOW THAT HARDCORE video tapes are openly
selling on the North Shore, it was worth reflecting
on the changes that have occurred in the ob-
scenity laws in the last couple of decades.

It’s not just video tapes, of
course, that are the result of
relaxed attitudes toward
obscenity. There are also the
sex shops and the books and
magazines that appear even
in your corner grocery store.

There are also the in-
credibly filthy jokes that are
passed casually back and
forth, even in “mixed
company.” (Quaint term,
what?) And, of course, the
line-ups at Blaine to see the
porno flicks.

Values have changed, all
right. Gone alli to hell, some

Zoning

FROM PAGE A1

out by pressure of com-
plaints that a sawmill 1s in-
compatible with a business
community.

Tuesday's council meeting
was at odds over whether to
accept the plan as it would
mean redesigning the af-
fected area from port
oriented uses (industnal) to
hight residential.

Canadian Occidental’s
(Hooker Chemicals) chlonne
manufactumng plant and
other industnmes in the same
area would be unaffected by

the plan, which sees that
sector staying heavily in.
dustnalhized

TAX LOSS

But Nova and ERC© are
located ino an area further
east which the plan projects
as being hight industrial in its
objective of scaling down
industry towards the multi
use centre ERCQO wants to
see the boundanes on the
plan include the company tn
the sector for
dustry

heavy tn

“LT strongly
that the
remain
Lakes

recommend
industrial zoning
the same” said
“And if it doesnt. 1

might say. Either that or
we've become civilized, as
others might argue. Me, I
think it’s a little of both.

But on balance, I would
have to say that what has
been gained by the
relaxation of obscenity laws
— artistic freedom — has
been essentially lost in the
stampede to exploit sex at
every possibile level.

It’s quite sad, really.

And what is most ironic
about the current situation is
that it is the artists who have
lost the most.

ruckus
up Maplewood

will result in
assessments for
Vancouver.”

Alderman Jim Ball backed
Lakes’ contentions and
remarked: “If I were an
operator of an industrial site,
I would be concerned over
becoming increasingly non-
conforming. We (District)
have a relatively small in-
dustrial tax base, but they
(industries) pay a meaningful
share.”

But Alderman Ernie Crist
threw his support behind the
scheme because ‘‘it’s
creating a community with
distinct features and there
are provisions — for
industries ”

The mult) use centre in
the eastern area of the plan,
would

lower
North

local

mcorporate a

ut that’s obscene!

In the time of D.H.
Lawrence and of James
Joyce and, finally, Henry
Miller, the artist had at his
disposal, the last resort of
obscenity with which to
shock, bludgeon or whip his
reader into a_ startled
awareness.

As Miller pointed out in
his essay, Obscenity and The
Law of Reflection, “When
obscenity crops out in art, in
literature more particularly,
it usually functions as a
technical device.

“If there is an ulterior
motive at work it is one
which goes far beyond sex.
Its purpose is to awaken, to
usher in a sense of reality.”

And that was it. To be
explicit in art about sex was

olds
Plan

shopping centre, an office
complex and recreation and
community facilities.

Mayor Bell would like to
see L and K Lumber, east of

the multi-use area, turned
over to residential
development, while per-

mitting ERCO and Nova to
stay without change.

Alderman Peter Powell
pointed out that “industres
have to recognize land uses
change” especially when
there is a demand for
residential-type property.

Mayor Bell closed the
debate with a suggestion that
the commuainty plan should
be returned to District staff
to see how the concerns of
ERCQO) and Nova could be
accommodated within” the
plan

B.C. FESTIVAL

OF THE ARTS

June 2 to June 5, 1982

June 2 5, 1982

HARRISON GALLERIES

Presents an Exhibition of recent paintings by

Ronald Okey, O.L-P.

20 32 Caraniville ‘ot

Vancouver 1 (

part of the work of being
explicit about life and its
bottomless mysteries,
contradictions, paradoxes.

I remember, back about
1960, having to smuggle a
copy of Miller's Tropic of
Cancer from New York into
Canada at the bottom of my
duffel bag, under a pile of
dirty socks, hoping that
customs wouldn't look that
far.

The book was still banned.
Today, of course, it is vir-
tually gothic, it is so clean
compared to the magazines
on display at your drugstore.

And who reads Shelley,
Swinburne, Shaw,
Shakespeare, Ovid or
Aristophanes in search of
erotic titillation — even
though all these authors
were banned at one time or
another?

Why, just slap the video
cassette into the boob tube,
sit back and watch Linda
Lovelace do her thing.
Munch homemade popcorn,
if you will.

The net effect of exposure
to all this sexual exploitation
is a degree of collective
jadedness that has never
been known on such a scale.

All the court battles that
were fought in the ‘60s to
break down the walls of
censorship were won on the
high ground of artistic
licence, freedom of speech,
democracy-in-action.

The free-thinking literary
rebels who spearheaded that
successful assault are
probably rolling over in their
graves, aware by now that
there are worse fates than
being banned. Being

ignored, for instance, in the
avalanche of porn.
Havelock Ellis,

the 19th

ee

NWA
Gj

Century English
philosopher, suggested:

“Adults need obscene
literature as much as
children need fairy tales, as a
relief from the oppressive
forces of convention.”

That may have been true
in Ellis’s time. But the forces
of convention no longer
seem to be holding anything
back. To say the least, the

pendulum has swung to the
other extreme.

lt has been said — rightly
— that censorship defeats
itself. But in view of the
experience since censorship
effectively died, it must also
be said that utter lack of
censorship can also defeat
itself.

We are being smothered
in junk, not art.

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