“…As a new court ruling overturns the rules on TV cussing … a look back at the comic who helped start the debate
Thirty-two years after the Supreme Court ruled on a free speech case sparked by the George Carlin routine “Filthy Words” …
… profanity and the First Amendment are in the news again.
A ruling handed down this week by the New York-based Second Court of Appeals all but torpedoed the Federal Communications Commission’s recent attempts to regulate so-called fleeting profanity on TV.
Carlin, a First Amendment absolutist who died in 2008, would have gotten a kick out of the court’s decision (and a new routine as well).
The ruling is a handy excuse to appreciate Carlin and praise a couple of excellent books about the comic: …
… One is James Sullivan’s new biography “7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin.”
The other is “Last Words,” a posthumous autobiography by Carlin and Tony Hendra that came out last November.
Both are insightful stand-alone portraits of Carlin.
But put them together and you get more than a multifaceted account of a comic’s career.
You get a chronicle of a man’s psychological evolution –
– a slow unfurling of self-awareness that transformed Carlin from the colorful but safe performer he once believed he was fated to be …
… into the unique and courageous artist that he ultimately became…”
go to source/story>>>George Carlin: Rethinking a free speech icon – Biography – Salon.com
