Candide: The shocking passages
Condemned by the French government and the Catholic Church: Read the controversial passages from Voltaire’s Candide (1759)
BOOK: CANDIDE
Why Voltaire mocked Canada as ‘a few acres of snow’?
He also called it the land of ‘barbarians, bears and beavers’
BOOK: CANDIDE
Voltaire’s radical views on race and slavery
Understanding Voltaire’s view on race and slavery through the eyes of Candide
BOOK: CANDIDE
In Britain ‘it is good to kill an admiral from time to time’
The tragic story of Admiral John Byng (1704–1757)
BOOK: CANDIDE
Ironically Candide—a satire on optimism—should make you optimistic
Looking back at Candide’s misfortunes 270 years later. How likely are they to happen today?
BOOK: CANDIDE
The Problem of Evil in one Infographic
Visual representation of solutions to the Problem of Evil and Theodicy
BOOK: CANDIDE
The Problem of Evil Simplified: Four approaches to explain human suffering
Understand the classic philosophical dilemma that haunted believers for thousands of years
BOOK: CANDIDE
Voltaire’s Mahomet: Why Christians found it offensive and Muslims still do
A summary of Voltaire’s play, about the prophet Mohammed, that was banned in France, then endorsed by the Pope
BOOK: MAHOMET
Voltaire wrote perhaps the best sarcastically sycophantic letter to a pope
How Voltaire got the Church to approve of his play, Mahomet the Prophet?
BOOK: MAHOMET
Of Mice and Men: The shocking passages
What makes John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men controversial?
BOOK: OF MICE AND MEN
Loneliness is inevitable for everyone
The path to solitude starts with accepting loneliness
BOOK: OF MICE AND MEN
Some of your dreams won’t come true and that’s OK
The fine line between inspiring dreams and pointless fantasies
BOOK: OF MICE AND MEN
Madame Bovary: The scandalous scenes
Why Gustave Flaubert was put on trial for Madame Bovary?
BOOK: MADAME BOVARY
Women in 19th-century novels: Rebellious wives had to die!
Why the heroines of Madame Bovary, The Awakening and Anna Karenina commit suicide?
BOOK: MADAME BOVARY
Beware of books! Madame Bovary and the old anxieties about women who read
Why men were once uneasy about their wives and daughters reading books? Flaubert’s Madame Bovary helps explain
BOOK: MADAME BOVARY
Through art: Sexist views of women who read from yesteryear
What art can tell us about the social anxiety towards women who read
BOOK: MADAME BOVARY
The Awakening: The shocking passages
What makes Kate Chopin’s The Awakening controversial?
BOOK: THE AWAKENING
The tragic history of motherhood working against women
Why today we have the most empowered generation of mothers yet?
BOOK: THE AWAKENING
The Sorrows of Young Werther: The passages that inspired copycat suicide
Read the once-banned words behind a wave of suicides in Europe
BOOK: THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER
Carrie: The bloody parts
Why Stephen King’s Carrie is controversial? Read here all the controversial passages from the book
BOOK: CARRIE
A Light in the Attic: The controversial poems
Read the controversial poems by Shel Silverstein deemed by some parents and teachers too controversial for children
BOOK: A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
The Giver: The passages about euthanasia and suicide
Why the dystopian novel was considered inappropriate for its young audience? Read the passages on euthanasia and suicide
BOOK: THE GIVER
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: Why was it banned?
A girl seeks religion while dealing with puberty: her first bra, first period, and first crush. Was the book really anti-Christian?
BOOK: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET
A Wrinkle in Time: Is it blasphemous or too Christian?
Two reasons Madeleine L’Engle’s book was challenged by religious conservatives
BOOK: A WRINKLE IN TIME
Zero to One: Do not compete, build a monopoly instead
The passages that instigated hot debates around Peter Thiel’s business book
BOOK: ZERO TO ONE
Is Peter Thiel correct that monopoly is good and competition is for losers?
Are monopolies good for business and society?
BOOK: ZERO TO ONE
When wealthy conservative men tell you higher education is worthless
What’s behind that alarming trend and ten reasons why they’re wrong
BOOK: ZERO TO ONE
The Little Red Schoolbook: The challenging bits on education
Controversial advice from the schoolchildren’s book on education
BOOK: THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLBOOK
The Little Red Schoolbook: The challenging bits on sex and drugs
Controversial advice on sex and drugs from the schoolchildren’s book
BOOK: THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLBOOK
When “flower children” spurred kids to abandon childhood
The Children’s Revolt: How the counterculture changed childhood
BOOK: THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLBOOK
What does the Communist Manifesto actually say?
Why The Communist Manifesto is one of the most controversial books of all time? Read the revolutionary and controversial words
BOOK: THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
The Communist Manifesto in 35 historical photos
The book that inspired revolutions globally brought to life in 35 historical photos
BOOK: THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
Why Marx attacked rival socialists as ‘reactionary’ and ‘utopian’?
The Communist Manifesto’s criticism of other kinds of socialism
BOOK: THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
The most important pre-Marx socialists
Five great figures: a philosopher, an agitator and three utopianists
BOOK: THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
The Metamorphosis: Why Kafka’s final scene is even more haunting than the first
Why Nazi and Soviet authorities banned Kafka’s novel?
BOOK: THE METAMORPHOSIS
Code Noir: Read the ‘humane’ laws written to protect slaves
Black Code: One of the earliest and most important legal documents on slavery in the West
BOOK: CODE NOIR
White Niggers of America: A call to arms by a Quebec terrorist
Summary of the book by Pierre Vallières, one of the leaders of Front de libération du Québec. Read the controversial quotes
BOOK: WHITE NIGGERS OF AMERICA
Timeline of Quebec separatist movement
A brief historical outline of Quebec’s attempts at independence
BOOK: WHITE NIGGERS OF AMERICA
How Karl Marx inspired a French-Canadian terrorist
Seven communist ideas in White Niggers of America (1968) could be traced to the writings of Karl Marx
BOOK: WHITE NIGGERS OF AMERICA
Ars amatoria: Controversial advice on love, sex and date rape from ancient Rome
Why The Art of Love by Ovid was repeatedly censored: burnt in Florence, banned in England and seized in the U.S.?
BOOK: THE ART OF LOVE
Ovid’s Art of Love: How to seduce and manipulate him with sex
Ancient controversial advice: Why you should play tricks on him and when to offer your body as a “thank-you”
BOOK: THE ART OF LOVE
Read Ovid’s immoral dating guide for a balanced insight into the #MeToo movement
The Art of Love shows how the courtship game, once played by all, has changed
BOOK: THE ART OF LOVE
Why Ovid’s Ars Amatoria is a challenging book to read
The Roman “love guru” covered seduction, deception, jealousy, adultery, forceful sex and good sex
BOOK: THE ART OF LOVE
Story of O: The sadomasochistic passages
Why was the 1950s French novel banned? It begins with O’s lover sexually training her: She is stripped, whipped and “gangbanged”
BOOK: STORY OF O
O for objectification: When a woman allows men to use her
Why Story of O (1954) is a morally repugnant book?
BOOK: STORY OF O
The jihadi manifesto: Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones
Summary and excerpts from the radical text that inspired terror attacks over the last 40 years
BOOK: MILESTONES
Milestones: The jihadi manifesto in 10 photos
Photos show how a 1964 text laid the foundations of Islamic terrorism
BOOK: MILESTONES
Who is the Muslim Brotherhood that the founder of jihadism belonged to?
BOOK: MILESTONES
In a nutshell: What is the big deal about Shari’ah?
Why some Muslims are fighting to the death to implement Shari’ah?
BOOK: MILESTONES
Six types of Muslims in one diagram: Mainstream, Islamists and Jihadists
What is the difference between a Jihadi, a Wahabi and a Salafi Muslim?
BOOK: MILESTONES
Me, Inc.: Gene Simmons’ contrarian tips on success in life
KISS co-founder shares controversial advice in his book on how to become rich
BOOK: ME INC.
Why Italy banned Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms?
Hemingway’s depiction of Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto of WWI was too painful to publish
BOOK: A FAREWELL TO ARMS
A Farewell to Arms: The dirty words you won’t find in the novel
Hemingway’s work was banned despite replacing the “vulgar” words with dashes
BOOK: A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Gloriously masculine and mechanical: The Futurist Manifesto
The three themes of their manifesto show how the Futurists envisioned the modern world a century ago
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Futurism: On turning speed into a pseudo-religious experience
‘Speed is Divine’: Why the Italian poet Marinetti spoke of speed in religious terms
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Italian Futurists: The first to love and worship the machine
The machine demonized, deified, humanized and eventually merged with us
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
The misogynist who supported feminist causes—mostly inadvertently
The Italian Futurist poet, F. T. Marinetti, was a misogynist and a proto-feminist all at once
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
‘Destroy museums!’–Why an Italian waged war against the past
Those who embraced state-sponsored iconoclasm as a fast track to modernization
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Erasing history: Iconic photos of eight types of iconoclasm
The motives of iconoclasm range from politics, religion, war, vengeance to art
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Three possible reasons why Italy lagged behind Europe for centuries
Why Italy’s modernization has been, and continues to be, problematic?
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
The Futurist Manifesto by Filippo T. Marinetti – Full Text
The sensational manifesto as it was published on the front page of Le Figaro in 1909
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Mussolini and Marinetti: A Timeline of the Fascist-Futurist alliance
The uneasy coalition between a poet and a dictator ended up in destroyed dreams
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Was Futurism proto-fascism?
The most important elements of Fascism could be traced to Italian Futurist writings years earlier
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Futurists vs Romantics: Extreme views on technology and nature
Gazing at the stars, from Goethe, Marinetti to Google Sky
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Is it ever justified for a people to destroy their cultural heritage?
How to deal with symbols of hate?
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
The Italian poet who detested romantic love
Why the Italian poet, Marinetti, considered romantic love “a sickness”?
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Mafarka: Summary & analysis plus all the controversial passages
Read the obscene parts of the first two chapters that sent the Italian author to court
BOOK: MAFARKA THE FUTURIST
Why Mafarka is one of the most misogynist novels ever written?
Not welcome as mothers or lovers!
BOOK: MAFARKA THE FUTURIST
The racist myth of Japanese grinding human bones into gunpowder
Its possible origins and why the founder of Futurism admired it
ARTICLE: THE FUTURIST MANIFESTO
Between facts and fables: Biblical timeline of Jewish history
Timeline of kingdoms, milestones in Jewish history and the fate of Jerusalem
BOOK: THE BIBLE
How Roman Emperors viewed the Jewish people?
The Roman Emperors in the lead-up to the destruction of Jerusalem
BOOK: THE BIBLE
Portnoy’s Complaint: A guide to the filthiest and funniest Jewish novel
Why Philip Roth’s book is considered one of the dirtiest books ever published? He was also accused of Jewish self-hatred
BOOK: PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT
Roald Dahl’s The Witches: The paragraphs critics called sexist
Why feminist critics accused Dahl of being a misogynist? In its opening, Dahl wrote “all witches are women”
BOOK: THE WITCHES
The 1970 separatist manifesto by FLQ (Quebec Liberation Front) – Full Text
The most important text by the militant Marxist movement of Canada
ARTICLE: THE FLQ MANIFESTO
Let’s be honest: 5 reasons why we still love print books
Despite all predictions, ebooks never replaced their “antiquated” rivals!
TOPIC: EVOLUTION OF BOOKS
Romantic love: The most common delusion in Western culture
How one popular Western myth took over literature, music and movies?
BOOK: The Sorrows of Young Werther
On Writing Bad Propaganda: What to do When the Russians Come
A fine line between disgraceful propaganda material and rational warnings about the enemy
BOOK: WHAT TO DO WHEN THE RUSSIANS COME
