I just started reading Blood Meridan for the first time and I was kinda shocked to see the casual use of one of the worst slurs in the English language. I’m just wondering if this is a Huckleberry Finn thing and “justified” in some way? Or more like a Pulp Fiction situation where Tarantino seemed to throw it in there just because he could? Because honestly, I know this is close to being a modern-day classic but there are a lot of amazing books out there I’ve not yet read and I don’t know if it’s worth it to pollute my brain like that or just move on to something else.
The only book that I’ve read that has included the n-word where it wasn’t used well was Freakonomics and that’s because it wasn’t from a fictional character, and also it was an audiobook so it came out of nowhere. Pretty much every other time it’s spoken by characters that are portrayed as horrible, racist people.