Podcast
99% Invisible
The hosts introduced the novel, explained its plot about an aristocratic woman and her gamekeeper, and noted its historic bans for obscenity, including a heated 1930 Senate debate over its content.
Are you familiar with the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover?
— Episode: Constitution Breakdown #2: Rep Sharice D...
Episode: Constitution Breakdown #2: Rep Sharice Davids
The hosts introduced the novel, explained its plot about an aristocratic woman and her gamekeeper, and noted its historic bans for obscenity, including a heated 1930 Senate debate over its content.
Are you familiar with the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover?
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel written by the British author D.H. Lawrence in 1928. The plot revolves around an affair between an upperclass woman, Lady Chatterley, and a workingclass man, Oliver Mellors, her gamekeeper.
It was controversial for that explicitness. Lady Chatterley's Lover was subjected to bans in different countries for being indecent or obscene, and British readers could not actually buy the novel legally until 1960, when it finally became a bestseller.
One senator stood on the Senate floor and stated that Lady Chatterley's Lover was so disgusting, so dirty, and vile that the reading of one page was enough for me.
Senator Bronson Cutting from New Mexico supported an amendment to eliminate the censorship. He listed titles like Joy Stories, Paris Nights, Hot Dog, Hot Lines for Flaming Youth, Jim Jam Gems, and Whiz Bang.