420
PARTISAN REVIEW
swer would be that for any number of excellent reasons, the federal
government should probably do nothing.
I see no reason, however, why a local community of whatever
size-from, say, Newport Beach, California to New York City–
should not establish if it wishes that
Hustler
be sold under the counter
and not exhibited. A political community can, of course, zone its
acreage to suit its idea of itself, and it does not have to accept a tan–
nery on its Main Street.
It
can exclude alcohol, as does Ocean
Grove, New Jersey, a fact which gives a unique serenity to that
seacoast town. The press freedoms of the First Amendment do not
give me the right to pin the photograph of Denise McConnell to the
front of the Supreme Court bench.
My central point, however, is that all of human experience
from birth through death, including the joys, the pains, the am–
biguities of the erotic, ought to be available to artistic representation
in the various media: narrative, painting, sculpture, photography ,
and so forth. When we use the term "pornography," we are not really
talking about the specific object before us, but about our often
unanalyzed intentions toward it.
