What One Fiction Book That You Till Own Do You Think Would Offend The Most People? (8/28/22)

[Marc]

Of the novels you still own, which do you think would offend the most people?

[Stacia]

Hmmm. Interesting question.

Maybe Motherfucking Sharks?

It's hard to say, though, as many of the books I own are books that I have not yet read.

[Jennifer]

I think :

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.

My mom offered sage advice after she read this. (view spoiler)[ if its between starvation and a blow job, you give the blow job (hide spoiler)]

Thats just the first book that comes to mind.

[Marc]

I'll go with Hogg (Samuel Delaney). Plenty I own but haven't read, as well, Stacia, but I don't think any of them have the rep this book has. I was unable to rate or review it.

Nothing like some good motherly advice, Jennifer. :D

[Bill]

A lot of what people might find offensive just bores me. I just read Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse for the first time. Maybe all the lavish details of gay sex and serial killings were pretty radical/offensive for genre fiction in the '90s, but I thought it was more than a bit tired by now.

I haven't read Hogg in decades, but I can imagine lots of people finding it offensive. I don't recall Motherfucking Sharks being particularly shocking though.

[Marc]

I think that if you are at all interested in transgressive or banned fiction, you are less likely than the average person (whatever that means) to be offended. Sometimes it's a level of racism or misogyny that offends, but the stronger responses seem to be to extreme violence or sexual "depravity". Abuse of children and animals almost always offends someone.

I'm not sure I personally take offense to art. I might dislike it or feel it's merely trying to cause a reaction by being gratuitous (which seems like a low bar for which to shoot), but I don't feel offended.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I've got The Killer Inside Me and Pop. 1280 both by Jim Thompson and I don't think I'd read either of them out loud at Sunday School.

[Whitney]

The Turner Diaries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tur...

I win.

[Robert]

How about Alice Nutting's Tampa - that was one heck of an uncomfortable read.

Also Simona Vinci's a Game we Play was not pleasant at all - the depictions of abuse are just horrendous. I was offended myself when reading it.

[Bill]

Robert wrote: "How about Alice Nutting's Tampa - that was one heck of an uncomfortable read."

I thought Tampa was droll. But as I mentioned, I hardly ever get offended.

I do get upset about what I consider bad prose. Argh.

[Tracy]

Watchmen by Alan Moore- there’s a scene that is a big ol’ trigger warning.

[Tracy]

Whitney wrote: "The Turner Diaries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tur...

I win."

Wow- you do win. What’s scariest is how much influence it’s had. It’s almost prophetic.

[Stacia]

Bill wrote: "I do get upset about what I consider bad prose. Argh."

Lol.

[Marc]

I feel like I should have heard of The Turner Diaries... (it can't be something I've forgotten... it just can't...)

I do think Tampa would offend some/many, but something about the gender reversal made it less upsetting (I'm not saying that's a fair reaction in any sense; it's just a gut kind of reaction).

[Jennifer]

I have not read Tampa , but I did read The End of Alice. As a parent who read it with a young boy about the same age it was hard. But having said that, I gave it 4 stars.

The Turner Diaries sounds terrible. Like my stomach hurt just reading the wiki page. It scared me.

[Alwynne]

I'm not sure, I own some de Sade novels which I think have offended a fair few people in the past, and then I suppose books like Michel Tournier's The Ogre were quite notorious on first publication, as was The SCUM Manifesto. The books that bother me are more in the "Bridget Jones" category or ones that celebrate rampant consumerism.

[Lesley]

Well, I still own a copy of The Satanic Verses which has to be a contender, if it’s not too obvious to mention.
I have an old childhood copy of a Bessie Bunter (sister of Billy) that I was going to put in a local free children’s library, then thought perhaps better not.
Geek Love would probably offend some.
Personally I found parts of 1Q84 uncomfortable reading.

[Paul]

I Know These Dictators a quite astonishing piece of history, given to me by a friend, who was bequeathed it in turn by his grandfather, who passed it on with the admonition, "less we forget".

Written in 1937 - just two years before the World War broke out - and by a senior journalist at the British newspaper the Daily Mail, I Know These Dictators is based on the author's personal acquaintance with, and largely admiration of, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

[Erika]

Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings ....

[Simona]

George Bataille's "Story of the eye" .

[Marc]

Paul, it's always fascinating what gets passed along. My late mother-in-law gave us a copy of the The Story of Little Black Sambo (which I think originally was seen as a positive portrayal of a young black main character but later was seen as a children's story full of racism; it was not helped by the illustrations either).

Erka and Simona,
de Sade and Bataille---those two sure seem to know how to push people's buttons well after their deaths!

[Hugh]

We were brought up on Little Black Sambo. One of them mystifyingly featured a polar bear...

[Alwynne]

Marc wrote: "Paul, it's always fascinating what gets passed along. My late mother-in-law gave us a copy of the The Story of Little Black Sambo (which I think originally was seen as a positive port..."

The parents being named 'Mumbo' and 'Jumbo' a bit of a tip-off in terms of the author's level of sensitivity, I feel. I'd never read it, unsurprisingly in terms of classics this was not a book that was celebrated in my family, although did have a copy of The Snowy Day which I still love.

But looked up the Bannerman online, would be interested to read a study of its publishing history, there seem to have been so many different editions, the early ones all seem to have the same text. But a number have particularly offensive illustrations, like this version from 1908:
https://archive.org/details/storyofli...

[Robert]

I loved The Snowy Day - my kindergarten teacher used to read it to us a lot. The whole class ( the first 9 years of my life were in a Métis reservation- I was the only European - I hesitate to say white as Malta straddles both Europe and Africa ) loved it.

As for Black Sambo, I was given an anthology of classic stories as part of being a member of a mail order book club and that was in it. The illustrations were questionable, I remember everyone looking cherubic with 1930 Betty Boop style eyes.

[Whitney]

I think every kid over a certain age had a copy of Little Black Sambo. It was primarily the illustrations that made it so bad, classic "pickaninny" portrayals; which was odd as the story was supposed to be set in India. I remember eating at Sambo's restaurant as well, which had the same cringy decor throughout.

And because we never did half measures on racism when I was a kid, every other pet black cat seemed to be named Sambo. At the shelter where I worked, there was an awkward silence when a black cat showed up to be neutered that the intake person had named Sambo. She had no idea of the context, just remembered her cat with that name from when she was a wee child. Needless to say, we renamed the cat.

[Kathleen]

Whitney wrote: "I think every kid over a certain age had a copy of Little Black Sambo. It was primarily the illustrations that made it so bad, classic "pickaninny" portrayals; which was odd as the story was suppos..."

Yes, we too had the book, and I remember the restaurant! Had to look it up, and found it was a chain started in Santa Barbara, of all places. And they have changed the name--but get this--not until 2020!

As Marc said, "it's always fascinating what gets passed along."

[Alwynne]

Whitney wrote: "I think every kid over a certain age had a copy of Little Black Sambo. It was primarily the illustrations that made it so bad, classic "pickaninny" portrayals; which was odd as the story was suppos..."

That's interesting Whitney but presumably by "every kid" you mean mostly white kids? I don't know anyone in my community regardless of age who owned or liked that book.

[Whitney]

Alwynne wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I think every kid over a certain age had a copy of Little Black Sambo. It was primarily the illustrations that made it so bad, classic "pickaninny" portrayals; which was odd as the ..."

That's a good point, and I suspect you're right that the primary consumers were white people, especially of the later, intentionally and overtly, racist versions.

Thankfully, by the time I would have been old to enough to understand how horrific the book was, it (and Sambo's restaurant) were already on the way out. I was born in 1966, and I was still a small child when they started closing and I stopped seeing references to the book.

I do know the book was crazy popular in Japan (not exactly known for their racial tolerance, either). And black people who protested the content discussed being exposed to it as children, but it's probably hard not to be when racial caricatures are staring at you from roadside restaurants.

[Maggie]

Whitney wrote: "I think every kid over a certain age had a copy of Little Black Sambo. It was primarily the illustrations that made it so bad, classic "pickaninny" portrayals; which was odd as the story was suppos..."
I'm 77 and as a kid had a viewfinder
and the Sambo story on a reel. I was surprised to see the viewfinder is still a thing!