by Grania
On this day in 1960 Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in R v Penguin Books Ltd. The novel in question was Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
The prosecution asked whether this was the sort of book “you would wish your wife or servants to read”? One’s wives and servants were presumably too delicate to have an opinion of their own. The book was the subject of several court cases around the world, and not all countries agreed with the UK decision.
It’s also the birthday of k.d. lang (1961) so in her honor here’s one of her more famous songs Miss Chatelaine
And one more, her cover of the Cole Porter song So In Love recorded for the Red Hot + Blue album to benefit AIDS research.
In Poland Hili is discovering an unsettling truth.
Hili: Is there anything I don’t know?
A: Plenty.
Hili: Just as I suspected.
In Polish
Hili: Czy jest coś o czym nie wiem?
Ja: Bardzo wiele.
Hili: Tak podejrzewałam.
As a lagniappe, we get a Monologue from that most solemn of tabbies, Leon.
Leon: Is it raining where you are as well?
One of the minor classics of American magazine writing was the book review of “Lady Chatterly” by Ed Zern, humorist at Field & Stream. He noted that the book “contains many passages on pheasant raising, the apprehending of poachers,” etc., but Zern laments that “one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material.”
Here is an appreciation, with the review printed in full:
http://www.booktryst.com/2011/12/when-field-and-stream-magazine-reviewed.html
Crazy. Just where we go for our book reviews. I wonder if they reviewed the far more disgusting book – The Art of the Deal?
I love the spoof review, and feel it opens up great possibilities. Perhaps a review of Fifty Shades of Grey by Fine Art Magazine?
I suppose one’s servants might have got ideas & started rogering one’s wife! If they were not already…
I cannot stomach tedious relationship novels, though I understand he is appreciated by some!
😉
“tedious relationship novels” — Hey, c’mon now, LCL ain’t exactly a harlequin romance. 🙂
I love this story about K.D. Laing. Keith Richards was playing the Stones’ song “Anybody seen my baby?”, when his teenage daughter pointed out its similarity to Laing’s “Constant craving”. To avoid complications, the Stones gave writing co-credits to Laing. In typically gracious fashion, her response was “I’m completely honored and flattered”.
I’d never noticed the similarity before. I much prefer Constant Craving – more intense, and sweeping.
My dad was a big KD Lang fan when I was a teenager and he played Ingenue and Even Cowgirls…(?) relentlessly in the car. I remember liking it all, although I relistened recently and Constant Craving was the one song that stood out a mile as an all-time great. The accordion line that runs through it is just utter, utter genius.
I’m guessing the glimmer twins saw what happened to George with “He’s So Fine” and “My Sweet Lord” and figured they’d be better off getting in front of the issue.
Smart move, all around.
Right, a judge is the penultimate authority on the similarity of melodic lines.
The following songs have the same first three notes in their melodies:
“Misty,” “Ebb Tide,” and theme from the U.S. soap opera, “Days of Our Lives.” I wonder why their composers/copyright holders are not suing one another.
I’m assured to know Hili accepts her own ignorance. After all, that is the fundamental stance of the scientific outlook.
Hitch: “I want to live my life taking the risk – all the time – that I don’t know anything like-enough yet, that I haven’t understood enough, that I can’t know enough…”
Presumably they were concerned that one’s wife and one’s servant might be inspired to get jiggy with it, like Lady Chatterley and Mellors, the gamekeeper.
K.D.’s ‘So in Love’ video is surprisingly dark. I wonder about the back story. And the song is sooo much better than the similarly titled but completely insipid ‘So Much in Love’ song that used to play over and over on the raydidio. I still want to vomit when I hear that one as it reminds me of an especially sucky time in my life.
K.D. Lang is what I will be listening to the rest of the day. Many thanks.
Yes it is raining near Chicago, and heavily.
kd lang trivia
Chatelaine is a Canada women’s magazine
kd was on the cover
and they photoshopped make up on her
so that she appeared to be femme
A fairly decent movie about the Chatterley trial is “The Chatterley Affair” made for the BBC. It focuses on two fictional jurors who start an affair during the proceedings.
Lady Chatterley has been filmed four times, three of them by French production companies.
“One’s wives and servants were presumably too delicate to have an opinion of their own.”
I’m sure one’s wife could have coped but not if one was lucky enough to have more than one wife!