Definition of Obscenity
The Comstock Act clearly hinges on definitions, particularly of obscenity. Though the courts originally adopted the British Hicklin test, an American test was finally set down in Roth v. United States, in which it was determined that obscenity was material whose "dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" to the "average person, applying contemporary community standards," and was, "utterly without redeeming social importance."
Read more about this topic: Comstock Laws
Famous quotes containing the words definition of, definition and/or obscenity:
“The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places. The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Since obscenity is the truth of our passion today, it is the only stuff of art—or almost the only stuff.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)