JournalismnPenthouse’s Respectability PitchnA publication entitled Client/MedianNews appears in contemporary Manhattan.nNothing peculiar in this, the tradenpress has its well-appointed role in thencomplex society of today. Occasionally,nit also reveals the brutal hypocrisy usednto forward some special economic interestsnof the publishing industry, andnwhat moral price the society may pay fornthe unmitigated and uncontrollable greednof smut peddlers and pornographic polluters.nHere are excerpts from a sales presentationnoutline provided by Penthouse fornthe use of Client/Media News operativesnwhose task is to sell the ad space to advertisersnin magazines:n”The fact is that Penthouse not onlynconforms to community standards ofnresponsible journalism, but in manyncommunities it’s the largest sellingnmonthly magazine and has every rightnto be considered the community standardnin and of itself.'”n”Penthouse became an instant success.nIts audience was young, wellneducated and well heeled. These werenyoung people who weren ‘t satisifednPolemics & Exchangesnwith dreaming about their fantasies;nthey wanted to live them. Penthousenwas a magazine of controversy, notnfantasy, and this audience had grownnup on controversy. Far from beingnthe post-McCarthy silent generation,nthis was a generation of open debate,nthe kind of debate that brought annend to an unpopular war and causednthe fall of two presidents.”n”Far from being permissive, theynwere, if anything, honest and opennabout their lifestyle, their goals andntheir aspirations for the nation. Theynturned to Penthouse because it represented,nin its controversy, a kind ofndecency they could understand. Frankntalk about national issues, honesty inndress, manners and social relationships,nand frank discourse about sexn— these attitudes have turned into anstable, widely accepted lifestyle.nOver 30% c/Penthouse readers arenmarried, and these people, men andnwomen, look to the publication as annimportant aspect of their taste makingnand lifestyle. Today, in large and smallncommunities throughout the UnitednStates, this Penthouse lifestyle co­nOn Percy’s Lancelotnand the Literature of the SouthnWi /e learned, nearly forty years ago,nfrom W.J. Cash that the essence ofnSouthern culture lies in its history. Southernnliterature, as a rule, dwells on thenpast, or its consequences, whether in thenrural tragedy of Faulkner, whose poornMr. Walsh of the U.S. Industrial Councilnhas a degree in English from St. AnselmnCollege and served in the U. S. MarinenCorps.n24 inChronicles of Culturenwhites struggle with the meanness ofnbackwater settlements mired in untoldnepics, or the existential pessimism ofnFlannery O’Connor, or Twain’s twangiernsteamboat stories, where the dark shroudnof the bygone times hangs heavily.nWalker Percy’s new novel, Lancelot,nis flavored with his literary heritage as anSoutherner, but only faintly. He concedesnhis cultural identity grudgingly, uses itnas a literary gimmick, or tries, and endsnup failing. His protagonist, LancelotnLamar, narrates the novel from his cellnnnexists with a more traditional, conservativenview. From a marketer’snstandpoint, this is the most interestingnphenomenon of all.”n”Hustler has gone beyond what thisncountry is willing to accept at thisntime. Look at what happened innDenmark when they lifted all censorshipnaround 10years ago. About 200npublications sprang forth, each onenworse than the next. The only waynwe could compete with them was withnquality. We made it better, more elegant,nmore beautiful, with betternphotography and added more creative,nexciting elements. We couldn ‘t shownanything more in terms of nuditynbecause there wasn ‘t anything left tonshow.”n”We rely very heavily on thenYankelovich studies which measurensocial change as it influences consumernbehavior . . . Bob Guccionen(Penthousepublisher) has always beenna very good judge. He travels a lotnand is always talking to cab driversnand university students.” Dnin a New Orleans insane asylum. Thenlistener is described as what Percy calls anpriest-psychologist, covering all bases.nWe learn much about Lancelot’s troubles,nenough to wonder where southern fictionnis going, if, as advertised, Percy is a writernof the South.nBut then we must wonder, too, if it isnvalid to characterize literature by geography.nIt may be, as Cash suggested, thatnthe quasi-feudal gentility of the OldnSouthern elite was mostly fantasy. Thenaristocratic Virginians, who included then