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.