Dear Editors and List,

As a transgressor, I know that different eras (and areas) have different transgressions. Wotsisname, whose facile essay started this thread, should have known that too.

Today, in a South African satirical column I may freely use a slang term, which in a literal French translation would be "tailler une pipe".

But a column of mine was spiked because I used the Freudian term "anal retentive" to describe a certain African president not known for his warmth. And I once submitted a column published in South Africa to the List, because it took poshlost as its theme. But our previous editor Don diplomatically turned it down, saying that it would only sow discord if it were posted. It made passing reference to a certain New World president, and the final plosive-popping sentence read: "Because he is the very personification of poshlost -- a provincial politician".

I'm sure that Don was right. The "F-word" made Eisenhower-era publishers and readers blush or blanch. But 50 years later a different category of words is regarded as "outrageous and disgustful" (to quote the 1968 Rhodesian Censorship Act).

Regards,

Tom (Rymour)

Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm

Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies