"Satanic Verses" and Bad Tango

I got to hear Salman Rushdie speak on Friday evening!! How awesome is that? I love his books and he's a wonderful public speaker-- very dry, witty and highly opinionated. He spoke not so much about his books but, rather what the role of the author is in modern society. Based on his own reputation, he is clearly a writer in favor of "shaking things up" and using writing to make the public think critically. He poked fun at: Bush, Dan Brown, the Ayatollah Khomeini (who put out a fatwa, or death threat out on him for Satanic Verses), Republicans, J.K. Rowling, etc. There is an obvious attraction for him to the controversial. I must say, his treatment of the Q&A section was rather light (joking about the questions more than answering them) but, he did seem to be responding as honestly and bluntly as possible. I wish I had been able to meet him personally (he was signing autographs and chatting at the reception prior to the lecture) but I thoroughly enjoyed his speech. I highly recommend his work to anyone out there that likes mysticism, religion, history and a heavy dose of political incorrectness.


Later that evening, I went with a few friends to a tango demonstration at a local park. I really like tango music so, I was really looking forward to seeing a dance troupe perform it. However, I was rather disappointed. Most of the time was spent on instructing participants on the basic steps of tango--- which took forever. Then, they made a laundry list of announcements about the group...blah, blah, blah. FINALLY, they got to the tango performances....and, frankly, they weren't very good. I know, I know, who am I to judge? I am by no means a tango dancer nor a professional dancer in any capacity. However, one doesn't have to be able to draw to recognize a good rendering of a landscape--- you just know how it should look. I've watched the film Tango from Argentina so, I'm rather well-acquainted with how the dance should look....and it didn't look like that, at all. Oh well, it was a tantalizing prospect anyway.


So, I have two questions for everyone this time: What is your favorite "bad" book? A book that crosses the line, so to speak, and pushes the limits of polite literary society-- perhaps a banned book? Secondly, have you ever experienced something that received lots of hype only to be sorely disappointed at the actual results?