James Joyce, Cardi B and the Censorship of the Arts

 In 1933, Judge John M. Woolsey famously found that James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was neither pornographic nor obscene despite, for instance, a scene in which the chief protagonist, Leopold Bloom, masturbates within his pants in sight of a young lady who has encouraged his sexual act by lifting her skirts. 

This, by the way, appears to have been informed by an incident in Joyce's own life. On his first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle performed a similar service in a park not far from where the scene involving Bloom took place and at about the same time in the early evening.

Woolsey's ruling, which was upheld upon appeal and built upon by various subsequent rulings, opened the door to a much wider range of literary expression than had been the case previously, resulting, for instance, in books such as "50  Shades of Grey" being published without incident.

Now comes Cardi B and her collaborator Megan Thee Stallion with their recent hit "WAP," song a recent New York Times article identified as "brazenly graphic" and "uninhibited raunch." Well, if one reads the lyrics, that's putting it mildly.

Before I go on, some readers might contend there is a difference between a song and literature. Well, not any more.  Bob Dylan, one might recall, was recently awarded the Novel Prize in Literature for the "poetic expressions" contained within his song lyrics.

So what has Cardi B's song got to do with "Ulysses?"  Censorship lifted in the case of the latter and censorship imposed in the case of the former, but not by public authorities seeking to protect public morality and the established order of things.

In the case of "WAP," the censorship is voluntary and aimed at maximizing revenue, money apparently being more important to the creators than freedom of artistic expression. That's one for the Nobel folks to ponder if Cardi B eventually comes up for consideration.

As the NYT reports, 

While "WAP" with its original lyrics is free to stream and in so doing, managed to command the top spot on "Billboard's Hot 100" for four straight weeks, receiving over a billion clicks in the process, it needed to be cleaned up, which is to say censored, before it could be played on commercial radio.

"Today, most major releases that have some naughty words -- including the latest from Taylor Swift and even Stevie Wonder -- also come out in censored versions," the NYT article said. "Decades ago, that may have been done in part to avoid political controversy. Now business is the driving force, as labels chase down every click and playlist placement to maximize songs' streaming revenue."

"There is definitely a market for edited content," Jim Roppo, general manager of Republic Records, told the NYT.  "If you are eliminating yourself from that market, then you are leaving money on the table."

Perish the thought, and especially in the name of artistic integrity -- giving Ms. B and Ms Stallion the benefit of the doubt here.