'Arrest him, he's indecent, he's obscene what's more!' The poems and paintings of D H Lawrence as part of cultural history and moral outrage

The line, taken from “Neptune’s Little Affair With Freedom” which forms the title of this paper, gives rise instantly to the issue of the relationship between the allied notions of indecency and obscenity. Implicit in the outburst is the notion that somehow, albeit uncertainly, there is a gradation between indecency and obscenity. Few people would disagree that such is, indeed, the case, but ascertaining how the distinction can, initially, be drawn and, thereafter, be accurately and appropriately maintained is another issue. Yet there have been attempts which might help to cast light both on the topic of the paper at large and on the specific contribution of the poems and paintings of D H Lawrence to cultural history and moral outrage. It is, though, immediately important to identify notions of indecency and obscenity as they generate moral outrage and to ask why they should or do.