The best minds of our generation

On Oct. 3, 1957 — 50 years ago this week — Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems” was found to have “redeeming social importance” by San Francisco Municipal Judge Clayton W. Horn in a landmark civil case. “Howl” had been impounded by U.S. customs officials and its publisher, City Lights Books, had been charged with obscenity; Horn’s decision helped pave the way for a much more open culture, in which dissenting viewpoints, language and aesthetics might become part of the mainstream.

And yet, five decades later, it looks as if we’re back to fighting at least some of the same battles, even where an acknowledged classic such as “Howl” is concerned. Earlier this week, rather than air a 1959 recording of Ginsberg reading his poem, New York radio station WBAI-FM chose to stream the material on the Internet. The logic? WBAI and its parent organization, the Pacifica Radio network, were concerned that the Federal Communications Commission, which in 2005 was given congressional approval to significantly increase penalties for indecency, would level “draconian ... fines” that might potentially lead to bankruptcy.

It doesn’t take a genius to see the real obscenity here: the use of amorphous standards of “decency “and “decorum” to restrict diversity of speech. The fact that it involves “Howl” — long a symbol of free expression — only adds insult to irony. Haven’t we already worked this out as a culture? Don’t we have more pressing issues to take on? Apparently, this is how we honor an American masterpiece, by keeping it off the public airwaves, even though it’s been read there many times over the last half a century.

David L. Ulin