![]() ![]() So, it was in a way not just the sex alone, but also the issues it fed into. “But that really frank discussion of the taboo was something that was going to be quite a catalyst, because debates around sex and autonomy were rife in Australia at this time. That was the basis for not bringing it into Australia and disallowing it,” Mullins says. “The language and the use of sex in the book were the features that the censors took most umbrage with. ![]() Portnoy's Complaint tells the humorous monologue of a lust-ridden young Jewish bachelor who confesses to his psychoanalyst his most intimate, shameful secrets. It caused a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props, including excrement. ![]() "It was a moment of quite seminal change, both in how literature is treated and understood, but also in the rights and freedoms we get from these kind of battles.” “It was in many respects an Australian version of the Lady Chatterley's trials in the UK," he says. His new book The Trials of Portnoyis about the saga of the publishing of Philip Roth's novel, and the cast iron response of the government of the day. ![]() Listen to the full interview with Patrick MullinsĪustralian award-winning author, Patrick Mullins, tells Kathryn Ryan the publication by Penguin was the nail in the coffin of the country's censorship system. ![]()
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