The First Amendment right guaranteeing free speech is the issue here, even though it’s being obscured by the FCC’s self-important view of what constitutes “acceptable” speech. But even though the situation highlights the true dunderheaded silliness of the FCC’s point of view, all is not bad, because the censorship of an artistic event by the government usually results in unruly fame for that event.
Poetry is not much read in the United States, and without the 1957 trial, “Howl” would probably have remained an important work by an obscure poet, read only by students in the academy and the struggling few who actually write poetry themselves. But because of the trial, Howl, And Other Poems has now sold almost a million copies, and continues to sell briskly. Happily, it is such a fine poem, so terrifying a view of contemporary society, and one so beautifully written that it is my opinion that few who read it will be unaffected by it.
Ginsberg was culturally prescient as well. In the second section of the poem, a long accusation of American industrial/government rapaciousness, he uses the figure of Moloch as a symbol of corporate indifference to the individual.
“Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose
blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!”
The biblical Moloch was one of the princes of Hell. A terrifying demon, he is described by John Milton in "Paradise Lost" as "besmeared with blood/Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears," a fearsome devil who eats the children of the faithful. Ginsberg’s Moloch is the self-serving corporate entity who, for money, foments armed conflict. A more accurate metaphor for the current war footing of the United States cannot be found.
Perhaps the muffling of “Howl” in 2007 will bring about the same firestorm of wild enthusiasm on the part of a general public that the 1957 trial caused. This would be a humorous and good thing, and it may just happen. One hopes that imaginative minds will prevail against the FCC watchdogs of your personal morals, in the way that Judge Clayton W. Horn prevailed, who officiated at the 1957 “Howl” obscenity trial. He wrote in his opinion, “Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemism?”
The answer, of course, is no.
Article comments
1 - Kevin Eagan
Excellent opinion piece on such an excellent poem, a poem that still rings true today. I'll let some of my fellow poetry students know about this recent development with the FCC, not surprising though.
2 - bliffle
My friends and I all read "Howl" in 1957 and knew immediately that it was about us and was a call to rebellion.
So we did.
Then the system seeks to drown everything under their bland blanket of manipulation. And mostly succeeds.
But "Howl" comes to life again. One wonders what these 2007 people will do with it.
3 - Jon Sobel
Great piece and worthy of note. I hadn't heard this news anywhere else. It's amazing that 50 years later this classic work can be censored. But when you think about it, passages of Shakespeare and the Bible have been excised in this nutty country too.
4 - The Haze
When fear of reprisal is the motivating factor to cower and do nothing,the resulting fate is well deserved.
5 - Mark Saleski
great piece.
it's really sad how the fcc has basically given free reign to do whatever they'd like.
6 - Baronius
It's an amazing poem, but it is appropriate for radio broadcast? Really? I get the symbolism of "Howl" being censored (although it's not actual censorship). But the poem isn't fit for all ages.
7 - Mark Saleski
for community radio? yeah, they should play it.
and no, it's not direct sensorship, but self-sensorship, since there appear to be no actual rules about these things.
8 - Jose
This is really good. Honestly, I'm happy someone wrote about Howl, because I've been trying to find out what the big deal was with this poem. Well written, too.
jose
9 - laura
About Howl and wbai. WBAI is bankrupt. Dan Siegel of the Pacifica National Board is corrupt. He has been temporarily placed on the national board for one month to sabotage the elections and allow the WBAI and Justice and Unity corruption to continue.
10 - bliffle
Of course it's quite easy to find Ginsberg reading "Howl" on youtube.
While there, the enthusiastic reader of poetry might find it interesting to taste other vigorous poems of the era by Kerouac, Corso, Kenneth Patchens "The Artists Duty".
Maybe I've found the obscenity in "Howl": they
"...who bared their brains to Heaven..."