Do You Know the Courage Man?

The Avatar staff has itself a chuckle every once or twice a week. That’s how often the dirty books come in the mail. The Cambridge police tried to ban Avatar for obscenity last spring (a centerfold of four letter words was found “offensive”), and only succeeded in creating a cause célèbre. The publicity was considerable; Avatar became Boston’s leading underground newspaper and subsequently acquired, to use one editor’s words, “a somewhat neurotic reputation.” Ergo, free introductory offers from the dirty book people.

The members of the staff find this kind of thing amusing probably because the sex-obscenity-free speech syndrome just isn’t that important to them. “We are not,” they make it clear, “on a sex trip or a dirty-word trip or a political trip or any of that crap. We’re above it.” And they are. Anyone searching for a nice, normal, drug-crazed, left-wing, hippie-oriented, underground newspaper must be disappointed with Avatar.

AR

About the Author

Anthony R. Dolan

Featured Tags

The Avatar staff has itself a chuckle every once or twice a week. That’s how often the dirty books come in the mail. The Cambridge police tried to ban Avatar for obscenity last spring (a centerfold of four letter words was found “offensive”), and only succeeded in creating a cause célèbre. The publicity was considerable; Avatar became Boston’s leading underground newspaper and subsequently acquired, to use one editor’s words, “a somewhat neurotic reputation.” Ergo, free introductory offers from the dirty book people.

The members of the staff find this kind of thing amusing probably because the sex-obscenity-free speech syndrome just isn’t that important to them. “We are not,” they make it clear, “on a sex trip or a dirty-word trip or a political trip or any of that crap. We’re above it.” And they are. Anyone searching for a nice, normal, drug-crazed, left-wing, hippie-oriented, underground newspaper must be disappointed with Avatar.