Pornographic Visual Culture -or- Fanny Hill in the Global Village

The Miller Test -or- Lady Chaterley's Lover

What is erotic literature and art? What is pornographic, obscene and grotesque? The social tastes and meanings of erotic words and arousing body images have changed over time, usually as a political function of the prevailing Western wind of the body politic and censorship laws. 

Fanny Hill by John Cleland is considered the first modern English pornographic novel and became known as being poetic short hand for the obscene. In 1960 the obscenity trial over the publication of D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was a test of new legislation in Britain. In the United States the Supreme Court in "Miller vs California" (1973) found three guidelines to what is today known as the Miller test determining what is erotic and what is a product of the obscene imagination and therefore subject to censorship. 

Many erotic and obscene dreams have been sent to the International Institute for Dream Research (IIDR) and many interpretations (see below) posted at the IIDR website. Using the "Miller Test", I will let you the reader decide in the court of public opinion what is erotic and what is obscene. 

Freedom of Speech, Hate Speech and Censorship in the Global Village 

The psychological test that I often employ is; the erotic is a rhetorical product of "freedom of speech and expression". The obscene is a rhetorical product of "hate speech" which is "harmful"  to both individuals as well as the community. Hate speech cannot and must not enjoy the political and civil protection of freedom of speech. In Canada, censorship is strongly linked to hate crime legislation. Here are the dreams; 

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