Censored

Latest Episodes:

Sadism: Michael Arlen, ‘Hell! Said the Duchess’ (1934) Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

Why would Irish censors object to a satire of the English upper-classes? They probably wouldn’t but Arlen wrote something far creepier. With Dr Laura Ludtke.

He's merciless on the role of sport in creating Englishman. Aoife Bhreatnach
I have to admit, the introduction of Mosley as the Minister of War in a fascist conservative coalition government led by Winston Churchill did throw me for a bit. Laura Ludtke
To use the narrator's own terms, there is something damn queer about the case. Laura Ludtke
These are powerful mammaries. Aoife Bhreatnach

Laura's podcast

Laura's previous turn on this pod

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Gritty: Richard Wright 'Black Boy' (1945) Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

There’s lots of indecency in this memoir – vile racism, horrific violence – but readers shouldn’t be protected from Wright’s rage and bitterness.

On the floor of the US senate, a Theodore Bilbo said "It is the dirtiest, filthiest, lousiest, most obscene piece of writing that I have ever seen in print.”
Wright’s memoir is emotionally and narratively like many published in the last 20 years.
And the Irish weren’t the only ones who’ve struggled with this book – this text has an epic history of censorship

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Supreme Court case featuring 'Black Boy'

Richard Wright

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Filthy Films: a Teaser Jun 16, 2023

Show notes

What do you do when you’ve read a lot of smutty books? Watch dirty films, of course. This season is about films that annoyed the censors. And, to double your fun, there are now two hosts: Aoife Bhreatnach and Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston. Here’s a taste of what to expect from us.

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Libellous: what is indecency? Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

When Patrick Mulloy, author of Jackets Green, heard his book was banned he did something unusual – he sued for libel. But why was this censorship trial held in London? This is a true crime special, but with banned books instead of dead bodies.

Read about the violent 1920s here https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/ireland-1922/

Síobhra Aiken, Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (2022)

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Teasing: Mae West 'She Done Him Wrong' (1932) May 25, 2023

Show notes

Mae West is remembered for her cracking one-liners but she was a helluva writer too. Guest: Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide.

Her sexual persona that she creates in the film She Done Him Wrong means the Irish censors interpret this book as essentially indecent. Aoife Bhreatnach
One of the things West seems to thinking about in the novel is: how do you replace that immediate kind of visual vivid iconography with a kind of a linguistic equivalent? Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide
It’s really quite a vivid rendering of a particularly ugly, corrupt world in which both crime, politics, money, and sex and alcohol are all very deeply intertwined. Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide

Muireann’s previous censored appearance

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Radical: Ethel Mannin 'Confessions and Impressions' (1930) May 11, 2023

Show notes

A prolific novelist and memoirist, Ethel Mannin cleverly smuggled lots of controversial ideas into this best-selling autobiography.

Freud’s influence on Mannin is clear at various points in the book because she is deeply interested in childhood as a political and cultural idea.
Her chapters on schooling are very focused on telling readers about the vulnerability of children to scolding, humiliation and physical violence.
She told her school teacher that her flag was the red flag – an incendiary statement if ever there was one.

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Sensational: Roberta Cowell's Story, by herself (1954) Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

Written by a woman (and her ghost writer) hiding in an Italian villa to escape the paparazzi, this is a short, sometimes shocking memoir.

This is a type of celebrity memoir, a text written by someone in the eye of a media storm.
The relationship between homosexuality and heterosexuality creates a lot of anxiety for Roberta.
What really jars with me, a reader in 2023, is the biological argument Roberta makes.

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Intimate: Reitman 'Sister of the Road' (1937) Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

Let Box-Car Bertha show you the American underworld, where the homeless and rootless struggle to survive. An uncensored story that, unsurprisingly, was censored.

In the publishing landscape of the mid 20th century, uncensored obviously means salaciousness but also a type of honesty that is tough and uncompromising.
Bertha’s mother believes in ‘free love’ a phrase I thought originated in the 1960s but obviously dates from much earlier.
The stories of hundreds of poor individuals appear here – all sorted by name, gender, occupation, ethnicity and ‘type’.

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Dot, Dot, Dot: Anon., WAAC: the Woman's Story of the War (1930) Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

One of many books about the First World War on the censor’s blacklist, this one claims to offer a new, fresh perspective about the British army. But how much truth can a memoir written by ‘anonymous’ tell? With Dr Andrew Frayn.

For a novel that's meant to be from a women's point of view, it's often very uncharitable about them. Andrew Frayn
People are walked up to the door of the bedroom, told it is a bedroom, and then left to imagine for themselves. Aoife Bhreatnach
It's a generic novel at a moment when this kind of war book is becoming generic. Andrew Frayn

Andrew Frayn & Fiona Houston, The War Books Boom in Britain

‘WAAC: the Woman’s Story of the War’ (1930)

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Gunning for you: Frank Harris 'My Life and Loves' (1922) Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Written by an old man reflecting on his life in sex, this notorious memoir was banned almost everywhere.

It’s nice to know I’m not the imagined reader of this book – wrong gender, wrong gonads
Harris thinks pandering to girl readers stripped English literature of its earthy Shakespearean soul
His curious yoking together of philosophy and porn isn’t always successful

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Frank Harris, ‘My Life and Loves, Volume One’ (1922)

Frank Harris

Previous episodes mentioned here:

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton

The Lustful Turk

Exchange and Mart

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