Can someone explain why it’s so controversial? I bought it at a yard sale a while back but finally got around to reading it recently (I have a literal mountain of books that need to be read) and it wasn’t bad but I know it was banned at one point in time. Or maybe it’s like when my grandmother told me that Elvis swiveling his hips was scandalous and when I first saw footage of Elvis it seemed tame compared to the rap videos that were out at the time or the early 50s R&B song 60 Minute Man
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I believe it was, for the time, the swearing and the misanthropic attitude it depicts that was so disliked. Definitely one of those things that has just become so mainstream that its almost boring how plain he is.
It also doesn't help that a bunch of killers were big into the book, and cited it directly as part of their crimes. Though that happened later, it helped keep the controversial status well past its expiration date. Otherwise it probably would have been just another forgotten about book from the 50s.
Oh yea. The guy who killed John Lenin was carrying that book right?
And the Virginia Tech shooter made an entire video about how he related to it.
It's a shitty nihilistic love letter to teen angst
3 day’s suspension? Wow. What did your parents say?
Kinda sounds like what happened when my mom caught me in the store when I was 13 looking at magazines with women in bikinis. We got home and she was upset and telling my dad, and my dad quietly said “at least he is looking at women” and my mom dropped it. I guess they had been concerned about me. Lol
"Dis nigga like readin n' shit? You fuck a yt boi wit all recessive genes or somethin'?" - your father
I was going to dindupost Smith's comment, but you beat me to it. Good job 👌
How times change. It was assigned reading for me in 10th grade English.
The book was so boring that a bunch of 4th graders decided to write one that really was controversial - something about Scrotey McBoogerballs or something.
South Park episode. That episode made me look for it
Totally. It's a great episode, this post instantly made me think of it. Now I have to read Catcher in the Rye.
I found the book a bit depressing.
It was. I thought it was ok but I was expecting something super controversial and edgy
I think it was more controversial that all of my male English teachers identified with hime.
Fun fact: The author refused any and all attempts to get him to sell the movie rights.
That's why it was never made a movie.
They were eventually sold...after he died. But it's been in development hell for years.
It's controversial because it sucks, and no one wants to admit it.
It’s essentially Menace to Society but for the 1940s. The kid is at a bar picking up a hooker at one point iirc. Then there’s the whole John Lennon thing where it just seemed like it was confirmed as bad news
...All I know is that the fact you got more than a couple chapters in before wanting to reach through the page and strangle the main character puts you above me...
Keep in mind, I'm a person who, if I read more than a paragraph or two into a book and it doesn't grab me, normally I'll put it down because otherwise, I almost have to finish it, itll drive me crazy if i don't, and I couldn't finish the damn thing... I got (maybe) four chapters in,a nd couldn't force myself to read anymore...
It’s hard for me to stop reading a book. I feel like I have to finish if I start it.
ditto, but this one...
I think that was mentioned in an episode. But I notice a lot of intellectuals like it
For people like that, I think that at least half the time, if you ask them about their favourite passage, you'll realize that they either never read it or only read the wikipedia summary.
I haven't read this work, so maybe it's specific to this, but I don't think I could name you my 'favorite passage' in any work that I have read.
Really?
Well, what have you read? I'd be curious to see if you've at least read something in which you had a passage you preferred.
Imp comments mostly.
I generally don't read fiction, so the list isn't enormous. Basically LOTR, first few books of GOT, and some Shakespeare. I could not tell you 'favorite passages' from any, although Shakespeare obviously has some quotables.
Well, I wouldn't mind going into discussions about those books, but tbh, I don't really think that this is the best medium for this. I prefer those kinds of discussions in person, rather than writing a message and only getting a response hours later, or perhaps a day later.
Every discussion is better in person. Except with an NPC. I'm just surprise that people can name 'favorite passages' off the top of their head.
The quality of mercy is not strained...
That is a warning sign. "Intellectuals" rarely like anything good.
I’ve always seen the opposite. Lames on book forums pretty much parroting the family guy bit.