There is no better time to be a library student and obsessed with sex. . .

. . . than Banned Books Week. So, I decided to let my worlds collide and feature a banned book every day this week. (You know, for the rest of them since I was slack on Monday). Of course, these won't be just any banned books, but those that were targeted for being obscene. I hope some of you will decide to read a sexy banned book this week and maybe even get aroused. . . in the name of freedom. I'll start with the banned book that I chose to enlighten myself with this week.



Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Miller has been renowned for years for being a disgusting pervert and a brilliant author. Lauded as one of the finest in the 20th century, some don't realize that his book Tropic of Cancer was banned in the US for 27 years for being obscene. First published in Paris in 1934, the ban was not lifted until 1961.

Written as an autobiographical look at his own life as an expatriate in Paris in the 1930s, the book reveals the underbelly of Miller's life, what he sees as infintite decay. Tropic of Cancer is obsessed with female sexuality and features many encounters with women which Miller tends to describe with a certain lush desperation. Miller's writing still speaks best for itself though:

Mona at the window waving goodbye. White heavy face, hair streaming wild. And now it is a heavy bedroom, breathing regularly through the gills, sap still oozing from between her legs, a warm feline odor and her hair in my mouth. My eyes are closed. We breath warmly into each other's mouth. Close together, America three thousand miles away. I never want to see it again. To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth - I count that something of a miracle. Nothing can happen now till morning. . .

Is there any doubt now why Nerve Magazine has named their award for sexy literature after this man?