Most Controversial Fiction Book Ever?

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 07 Jan 2007, 17:44

A lot of books cause controversy, many times various special interest groups protest the books. In many cases, books get banned even from certain places. Take for example, Fahrenheit 451.

What do you think was the most controversial fiction book ever?

bchbmjohn9 · Post by **bchbmjohn9** » 08 Jan 2007, 13:00

I remember The Last Temptation of Christ caused alot of controversy in my school. I personally liked it because it made Jesus look exactly like God planned - human.

Nessa Marie · Post by **Nessa Marie** » 09 Jan 2007, 18:22

The Da Vinci Code. People flipped out over that book.Which I personally don't understand , I'm catholic and wasn't offended at all I loved the book, but it was FICTION. I was reading it while at a table with friends and one of them , a very religiously involved boy, asked why I would read a "devil" book like that. People amaze me.

gulp · Post by **gulp** » 09 Jan 2007, 23:16

It wasn't the most controversial because nothing is truly outrageous anymore but the most disturbing book I ever read was American Psycho. I think either Lolita or Ulysses was historically the most controversial. Lolita still gets to people today and Ulysses because of the Supreme Court obscenity case.

knightss · Post by **knightss** » 09 Jan 2007, 23:49

I thought American Psycho was great. i read it a few times. i like brett easton ellis.. the ending of his books could be a little better though.
i did like the ending of American Psycho though: This is not and exit.

Holly Fipps · Post by **Holly Fipps** » 10 Jan 2007, 00:01

I know it's won several awards as a children's book, but the most controversial book should be THE AMBER SPYGLASS (the last book in HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY) because one of the main characters is trying to kill the Great Authority a.k.a. God, and he succeeds.[/i]

lasfnychick · Post by **lasfnychick** » 11 Jan 2007, 21:58

Going along with some of the books already mentioned in some of the posts, I would have to go with three in specific: The DaVinci Code, American Psycho,Farenheit 451 and Brave New World.
I myself could not believe why The DaVinci Code was so controversial and so many documentaries had to be made to see if there was really any truth to the story, when in fact it was FICTION. It was a very good book, definitely a page turner. I finished that book in two days and I came to the same conclusion after I read it: it is FICTION. Definitely a great take on the way things might have happened, but in the end it merely a story, a theory at best.
American Psycho is insane. I couldn't put that book down either. It really truly amazed me at how someone could come up with a story like that; to create a character that would do such things to other humans; but the unforutnate thing is that people in real life do do those things to others, even worse.
I read Farenheit 451 in highschool and didn't really get the true meaning the story and what it was trying to get across, until after I finished high school. That book and Brave New World, I also didn't get the true significance of what it was trying to say. Both of these books, I think, are ever more important today with all of the advances of technology and science. And as of right now, we may not have to worry about government regualtions in controlling what we read, there may be a time when we will go back to the government censoring what we take in. They are doing it right now with current policies. I think it is just a matter of time before they may extend that to what is being published, once again, and what we may be able to read.

Dynamo Dan · Post by **Dynamo Dan** » 17 Jan 2007, 14:44

Maelstrom Of Madness www.lulu.com/content/414075

LoveHatesYou · Post by **LoveHatesYou** » 17 Jan 2007, 15:08

I'm going to have to agree with Lolita. It still get's people. In it's time context- Madame Bovary. Her behavior was shocking to those who read it at the time of publishing. Women=whores. And I' like to add a play, one of Shakespeare's only flops after becoming successful- Titus Andronicus- there is some seriously f'ed up stuff going on in that play. I mean really. I don't want to spoil it, but it is gross and disturbing and wonderfully graphic. I loved it, but audiences everywhere thought he went mad. They made a movie about 10 years ago, Anthony Hopkins was in it.

sleepydumpling · Post by **sleepydumpling** » 18 Jan 2007, 04:52

I have to mention Lady Chatterly's Lover - that one certainly caused a furore for it's time.

But I couldn't say what book has been the most controversial EVER.

Kiki · Post by **Kiki** » 25 Jan 2007, 15:28

Irvine Welsh can court controversy quite well. I'm not sure whether he has been published in the US, have you guys heard of / read Trainspotting? (heroin novel)

Or perhaps it would be 'The Satanic Verses' by Salman Rushdie. It's a hard one to call as how do you define controversy - public reaction or content? The content of TSV was really timid to most people, but a fatwa on its author is pretty controversial!

Irvine Welsh's content was most definately contraversial, but didn't stir up even half as much fuss.

sleepydumpling · Post by **sleepydumpling** » 25 Jan 2007, 18:46

Norma Khouri could fall in this category. Simply because of the reaction to finding out that her book Forbidden Love (Honor Lost in the US) was a fabrication. Or Helen Darvill/Demidenko - another author who fabricated some of her past for the sake of her work.

Niphredil · Post by **Niphredil** » 22 Mar 2007, 08:39

Controversy is such a strange thing. There a books like Madame Bovary, that just don't shock us anymore but were really controversial in their time, even getting their authors arrested. A Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence to put Wilde in jail.

But then, there are so many books that caused little more than a ripple when published but afterwards have been questioned. A Little White Bird by JM Barrie was a bestseller when published, but now anyone reading it would find it very hard not to view it as paedophilic. And the victorians! They found controversy where no one even considered it before, which is why so many people seem to think people were so sexually frustrated in the past (I doubt they were somehow

).

It's all about context isnt it...controversy is so hard these days, Dan Brown might have actually acheived something in stirring up so mcuh (*cough*perhaps his only achievement*cough*).

jess · Post by **jess** » 24 Mar 2007, 04:46

The Book With No Name by Anonymous, claims to cause the death of everyone who reads it.

sleepydumpling · Post by **sleepydumpling** » 24 Mar 2007, 05:16

The Bride Stripped Bare had a lot of fuss about it. I read it, but it was pretty purple. I felt like all the "rude bits" were just tacked on to shock.