Obscenity & The Arts

Pariah Press, Manchester & London, 2018 Only 200 copies were issued with Andrew Biswell's signature. He is one of the contributors to this this small and beautifully formed book. It deserves wide readership among people who care about censorship and admire Burgess. Vocal minorities are always out there telling us what we should do, think or see. It's difficult for anyone who thinks independently of Twitter and other social media groups. The appalling certainties instantly spouted against this and for that, the whining thoughtless shrieks, threaten to destroy our hard won freedoms. This is a very welcome rebuttal from a bloody great writer. And this copy is one of only 200 copies signed by Andrew Biswell, one of the contributors, on the page which has been stamped by the Censor of Malta. It has a small selection of 'snapshots' taken on Malta. A brilliant addition to the works on censorship and as you finish the lecture piece by Burgess - never previously available - you may well get back to reading the key works of the great Anthony Burgess himself. Obscenity & the Arts is the first new work from Anthony Burgess in over twenty years. The story of his struggle with censorship, religious conservatism and a vengeful government on the island of Malta between 1968 & 1974 has never been told before. Renowned authors Germaine Greer (The Female Eunuch and The Whole Woman) and Andrew Biswell (The Real Life of Anthony Burgess) provide newly commissioned essays on the wider themes provoked by Burgesss difficulties in Maltawhich still resonate today: how to define and discern obscenity and pornography, and the recurring problem of state censorship. The fulcrum of the work is a full transcript of Burgesss lecture at the University of Malta in 1970previously printed as a short-run pamphlet from the Malta Library Association in 1973 but, made available here to an international readership for the first time. The book also incorporates previously unseen archive documentation and photography (including images taken by the author himself) which emphasise Burgesss extraordinary term in Lija. Obscenity & the Arts is a non-fiction compendium of source materials and learned explication. A pocket-size work of virtuosity and craft.. Signed by Author. Limited Edition.. Soft cover. As New.