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“It is hard to understand why the modern West has been so much more troubled by sexual images than by violent ones. Murder has always been illegal in the West, but the representation of murder has rarely inspired the kind of hue and cry generated by the depiction of adults having sex. Those who claim that pornography will impel children to engage in sexual conduct seem not the least bit concerned that war stories and Westerns will encourage children to kill their neighbors. For all the talk of "sex and violence" on television, no one seems to blink at the amount of blood spilled in a boxing match, but one can only imagine the outcry that would follow if a similar amount of semen were shown in a bedroom scene of a daytime soap opera.”
― Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History
― Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History
“Gold is the excrement of the gods.”
― Terra Nostra
― Terra Nostra
“You cannot change the world with ideas. People with few ideas are less likely to make mistakes; they follow what everyone else does and are no trouble to anyone; they're successful, make money, find good jobs, enter politics, receive honours; they become famous writers, academics, journalists. Can anyone who is so good at looking after their own interests really be stupid? I'm the stupid one, the one who wanted to go tilting at windmills.”
― The Prague Cemetery
― The Prague Cemetery
“So it was with the various eccentrics she discovered in the next years. Some she went home with, some she didn't; some she photographed, others she just talked to, but everyone impressed her. Like the irate lady who appeared to Diane one night pulling a kiddy's red express wagon trimmed with bells and filled with cats in fancy hats and dresses. Like the man in Brooklyn who called himself the Mystic Barber who teleported himself to Mars and said he was dead and wore a copper band around his forehead with antennae on it to receive instructions from the Martians. Or the lady in the Bronx who trained herself to eat and sleep underwater or the black who carried a rose and noose around with him at all times, or the person who invented a noiseless soup spoon, or the man from New Jersey who'd collected string for twenty years, winding it into a ball that was now five feet in diameter, sitting monstrous and splendid in his living room.”
― Diane Arbus: A Biography
― Diane Arbus: A Biography
“There was an element of secrecy in a home library. It breathed of intellectual anarchy.”
― Earth Is Room Enough
― Earth Is Room Enough
Transgressive Fiction
— 1344 members
— last activity Aug 14, 2025 05:26PM
wikipedia: "Transgressive fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and w ...more
The Gonzo Nihilist
— 325 members
— last activity Jun 25, 2018 04:11PM
Is nothing good enough, or weird enough? Read on. This group is for the out there, the freaky, the mental adventurers. What books do you like that tak ...more
Cult Books
— 54 members
— last activity Feb 06, 2012 08:59AM
Books inspire all sorts of reactions, from disgust to slavish devotion. I am interested in books which have had the effect of turning readers into "co ...more
I Love My Humor Dark. No Sugar, No Cream
— 583 members
— last activity Nov 09, 2025 12:31AM
A celebration and conversation of all literature that is of the intelligent dark humor or satirical variety.
Dirty realism
— 112 members
— last activity Sep 19, 2020 06:51AM
"Dirty realism is a term coined by Bill Buford of Granta magazine to define a North American literary movement. Writers in this sub-category of realis ...more
Jason’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Jason’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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