"it may be emetic, but it's no aphrodisiac" Ah, the human obsession with 'intent'. Makes all the difference, and that is very bizarre and fascinting to me. I had no idea that a work of literature was that controversial, in 'non-totalitarian' Western Civ.
I'm curious whether being written by an irish-catholic author had anything to do with that. As 'Catholics' were (are?) heretical pagans in the perception of Protestantism.