Oh come on, that's got to be the greatest literary poop of all time.

The great turning point in Catcher in the Rye was Holden's bout of diarrhea in the museum bathroom.

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you

and loved the sorrows of your changing face

Ow. Old memories there. Ah, the passion of youth.

t making list of books that are going to the end of the Must Read list

Call me unintellectual, but I think those are all scenes I can miss.

Tep, man, I can't believe I forgot that. Holden was my guy once.(Once I got over "What the Hell has this to do with John Lennon?" of course.) You guys can fake surprise now...

Sorry, JohnSweden, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories... I just love those lines so much, I couldn't resist.

The only contenders are Pantagruel wiping his ass with a live goose

You forgot an even better one from the same book: Gargantua shows his cleverness at an early age by fashioning an asswipe. I once had to translate that chapter, and as I recall, it's much ruder in the original (certainly ruder than the rather gentle translation to which I linked.) Difficult translation, too, since my Larousse didn't have all those words for "asshole". Luckily, Mr. Nadler was there to guide me.

Hey, if we're talking literary potty humor, we can't forget The Miller's Tale.

I once had to translate that chapter, and as I recall, it's much ruder in the original

Oh, man. Yes. Yes, it really is.

I sat next to my college age sister, about 9 years my senior, working toward her masters in French, as she tore out handfuls of already-fragile red hair and tried to decide whether translating Rabelais would cause her to lose more or less hair than translating Proust.

I don't remember what she decided in the end, but I do remember her reading bits of the Rabelais and muttering "Holy SHIT" under her breath repeatedly as I laughed like a loon.

Hey, if we're talking literary potty humor, we can't forget The Miller's Tale.

Absalom wiped his mouth very dry;
the night was dark as pitch or coal,
and she stuck her hole out the window,
and Absalom got neither better nor worse:
before he knew what he was doing, he passionately
kissed her naked arse with his mouth.

He jumped back and thought that something was wrong,
for he well knew that a woman doesn't have a beard;
he felt something that was all rough and long-haired,
and said, "Damn it, what have I done?"

"Teehee," she said, and slammed the window shut;
and Absalom went off with sorry steps.

(The rest of the tale can be found here.)

You forgot an even better one from the same book: Gargantua shows his cleverness at an early age by fashioning an asswipe.

Heh. No, that's the Rabelais I meant. And I had a 50/50 shot at naming the character properly!