9 OCTOBER 1971, Page 29

Sir: in your issue of September 18 Tony Palmer attempts

to draw a comparison between Zola's Earth and the magazine Oz, in that they were both prosecuted for obscenity and their attitude alarmed people.

Yet Earth was proscribed by a Victorian interpretation of obscenity whilst Oz was prosecuted in a vastly different climate. Further, it was hardly Zola's attitude which alarmed people but rather his stark portrayal of peasant-life reality (e.g. a scene describing the serving of a cow). Oz promotes a dis tinct anti-authoritarian creed through its sexual passages.

Apart from the above minor points, to string a literary masterpiece upon the same line as a puerile composition seems an illdrawn remark.

Bede Nalson 7 Bell Vue Terrace, Bank Top, Southowram, Halifax, Yorks