A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
4 BSCENE," says the Concise Oxford Dictionary—" repul- sive, filthy, ,indecent, lewd." I looked up the definition
in order to decide whether " obscene " was the just epithet to apply to the American novel The Naked and the Dead, to which some reference was made by my rempiaccrnt in this column last week. And since a great part of the book is without any question repulsive, filthy, indecent and lewd—whether or not within the meaning of the law as well as of ordinary usage—there can certainly be no hesitation about calling it obscene. With those who claim that the book possesses certain literary qualities I do not disagree for a moment. Its description of the operations of American soldiers attacking a Japanese island is striking—well above the level of the average war-book. And the stark crudity of the language in this sphere needs little apology. But that is not the outstanding feature of the book. The outstanding feature is its filth. No doubt American soldiers talk as these American soldiers are made to talk ; no doubt someone will be found to claim that a faithful and detailed repro- duction of the language of the barrack-room and the brothel is of some kind of literary or artistic benefit to mankind. No doubt some- one will ardently defend the technique of the author in taking each of his characters one by one and recounting, in terminology so esoteric as to be beyond the range of many readers, their various illicit sexual experiences. Ordinary people, with no pretence to puritanism, will, I imagine, feel primarily disgust at a book more intrinsically disgusting—apart from the purely military story—than any other I have ever read. It may do little actual harm. As someone has well said, its effect is emetic rather than aphrodisiac. But it is not encouraging to find a publisher willing to offer it for sale in this country and make money out of what, if such a thing as obscenity exists at all, is plain obscenity and nothing else.
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