Avatar Doesn't Offend, Classicist Tells Court

"Only a remarkable clod could be offended by Avatar," Charles R. Beye, head of the B.U. classics department, said in Middlesex Superior Court yesterday.

He was the first of a number of expert witnesses scheduled to testify in the trial of 32 Avatar salesmen, including seven Harvard students, charged with selling obscene literature.

Beye, a witness for the defense, stated that Avatarprints four-letter words to show the paradoxes in modern society between "love and hostility."

"Although much of Avatar is dull and boring, it is playful in tone and has a social value, for it deals with issues of concern to youth, such as the relationship between sex and love," Beye said.

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"The Anglo-Saxon swear words no longer evoke their original imagery or symbolism. Avatar tries to show by parody the hypocrisy of people who commonly speak these words, but refuse to allow them in print. I find most of Avataramusing, especially the classified ads, because they are so outrageous,"

For the prosecution, Thomas P. Mc-Govern a school psychologist in Wiburn, testified that isolated words in Avatar, such as "analism," and "fellatio," could excite an adolescent to "research their meaning and try them." Such exposure, he said, could corrupt the morals of youth.