From Mein Kampf to The Unabomber Manifesto, what is the best banned book or controversial book you have read? This could also be something you don't agree with but still think is worth reading.
From Mein Kampf to The Unabomber Manifesto, what is the best banned book or controversial book you have read? This could also be something you don't agree with but still think is worth reading.
Basing my answer of this banned books list: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica
I'd go with Grapes of Wrath, I like Winter of Discontent better though.
I feel like most books I've read had were controversial at one time or another.
I used to read a lot of Loompanics books when I was younger, I would not say they were very good though.
I think "A Confederacy of Dunces" is the best piece of satire in the modern era and only becomes more and more relevant as time goes on.
Conferacy of Dunces is hilarious.
“I really don't have the time to discuss the errors of your value judgements.”
Oh yes! So happy to know there are other people in the world that appreciate the irreverent satire of John Kennedy Toole. I believe Confederacy of Dunces is on yootoob as a full audiobook; it's dated and the voice is a bit wearing but the novel is complete with all it's spot-on 60's social observations.
Lolita by the great Vladimir Nabokov. Please don't label me! I am not a pervoid! Nabokov is a genius with words and it is a magnificently written book. Yeah there are a couple disgusting moments but the book itself is pure genius.
No labeling here. What amazes me about authors such as Nabokov and Conrad is that they're able to write literature in multiple languages. Writing another language is difficult enough, so only a genius could write literature a foreign tongue.
Fahrenheit 451, just for the amount of irony that some schools would ban such a book.
Top 3, in no particular order:
Well, there was nothing in there that should have been controversial, but since Jordan Peterson is pretty controversial on both the far Left and Right, I guess I'd put 12 Rules For Life on this list.
Ride the Tiger by Julius Evola.
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.
Mein Kampf was dull and the fact he was pacing up a down a cell while ranting comes through very well, don’t know why they bother banning it. Only part way through Das Kapital by Marx but it seems overly whiney and contemptuous. Probably the most retarded things I’ve read come from peer reviewed and published feminist research literature. It’s so unscientific it hurts and it’s all about twisting words.
Well that answers which controversial books are overrated, but which are good in your opinion?
I’m trying to think of some. I’d lean towards some of the manosphere shit like The Game by Strauss or The Book of Pook etc. A lot of bullshit in there but some hard truths as well.
The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson is probably my go to answer on this question. It's easier to read than The Illuminatus! Trilogy (though it still requires a bit of period knowledge) and is arguably one of the more profound social commentary pieces/quantum puzzles that's ever been presented in literary form. Pretty much everyone I have handed this book to has handed it back to me after about 60 pages, telling me that it's unreadable. Except for the last person...which explains why I do not have a printed copy of it at the moment.
If you've read it, there are actually individual unabridged versions of the books out there. I have never laid eyes on them, but they allegedly contain quite a bit more material and are a wholly different experience to paw through.
I've only read his Prometheus Rising. I definitely want more RAW in my life.
RAW is the man! He lives on! His mission accomplished, we still talk of him!
He really is awesome. I find myself holding the same philosophy (or absence of) the more I go through life.
Anarchist Cookbook.
It was very primitive by todays standard. But it was an encyclopedia of the black arts when it was published.
It helped lay a solid foundation for my delinquency.
Hitlers Table Talk pretty interesting insight into fairly mundane subject matter.
Stranger In A Strange Land is one of my favorites.