Eight books restricted

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 12

Eight books restricted

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 24. Eight books, including a paperback edition of “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” by Hubert Selby, Jnr, were classified by the Indecent Publications Tribunal today as indecent in the hands of persons under 18.

The Tribunal said that on November 1,1967, it had held a hard-covered edition of "Last Exit to Brooklyn,” to be indecent except in the hands of adults doing work or research in sociological and related fields. Mr R. A. Heron, in submissions in support of the application, had invited the Tribunal to take into account the passage of time since the

decision on the hard-cover edition, and to consider whether public standards had changed sufficiently for a less restrictive classification to be appropriate. Mr Heron had directed the Tribunal’s attention to the prosecution of the publishers of the book in England. The book had been neither condemned nor exonerated by the English Court, and the decision was of little persuasiveforcein New Zealand.

“We are, however, inclined to accept Mr Heron's contention that in terms of our act and at the present time the book, even in paperback form should not be classified as restrictively as we classified it in 1967,” the Tribunal said. The Tribunal classified the hard-cover edition of “Commander Amanda Nightingale," by George Revell), published by New England Library, London, as indecent in the

hands of persons under 18. It said that the book told the story of a heroine of World War 11, who was flown into occupied France, and was quickly captured and imprisoned in an abandoned schoolhouse by two German Army officers and their female companion. “The novel is grossly sadistic, and is a story of sexual brutality and torture, which the heorine comes to crave, making a kind of double perversion.” This emphasis on sadistic practices and perversion made the book unsuitable for general reading by young people. The tribunal also held a paperback edition of “Venus in India” by Captain Charles Devereaux, to be indecent in the hands of persons under 18.

It said that the novel dealt with the adventures of an Army officer posted to India during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The book consisted of a tiresome recital of sexual Intrigue and conquests, written tn a style of prurient artificiality and coy gentility. It might have some intrest for students of Victorian erotica.

The tribunal said that "Erotic Fantazia," published by Grove Press, New York, was a work by two wellknown practising psychotherapists. It was said to be the result of a systematic review of erotic underground literature undertaken as part of their research into the role of fantasy in human sex psychology. It was underisable that the book should be taken up by young readers. Other books which the Tribunal held to be indecent in the hands of persons under 18 were: “Fetishisms,” by George Simon and Hans Freudel, published by Softcover Library, New York; “More Walter,” published by Momtide, Ltd, London; “491,” by Lars Garling, published by Sphere Books, Ltd; “The Soft Machine,” by William Burroughs, published by Transworld Publishers, Ltd.