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Apologies for the title, but I couldn't think of a better term for the books I wanted to describe. :p I love to read books which disturb, or which concern disturbed minds. For example,
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Anything by Chuck Palahniuk
Etc.
I've just ordered 120 Days Of Sodom because I heard it's of a similar nature - does anyone else have any recommendations? Thank you in advance.
120 days of sodomy is definatly a messed up book, and yet it's fairly well written (ah, Sade, you crazy Marquis). It gets a bit wordy at times - until you et to the list.
probably a bad suggestion but - gone with the wind? it's the only book i've ever read which makes you like and hate the main character at the same time. or the Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - if that's what it's called - and Flowers for Algernon, which is a short story that's sort of about a disturbed mind, and an amazing piece in itself. Catcher in the Rye might be good, too . . .
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Originally Posted by Marmaduke
I also love to watch the movie version (if any) as well. But I think the movie version of American Psycho is not as good as the book version .
Look into the short stories of Flannery O'Connor. (Shudder ooooo shudder.)
William Faulkner can also provide you with the degradation that you seek. These two authors have a definite grasp on true human cruelty.
The 120 Days of Sodom surely ranks at the top of the list, perhaps the uppermost. Sade seems to have covered every sexual aberration the human mind can conceive.
Maldoror by Lautreamont - Perhaps the first Surrealist masterpiece, the author gives free rein to his imagination and delves in the beauteous as well as the most horrible aspects of man's nature.
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs - The tales of a homosexual drug addict are certainly something that would worry your mother if she finds out your reading such.
Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine - Black humor at it's peak and one of a kind, but Dr. Destouches' vulgarity and his relentless and unyielding pessimism would be too much for a member of the Jane Austen Book Club.
Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Tales of Ordinary Madness, and The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and Other Stories by Charles Bukowski - This trilogy of below the radar classics is akin to a guilty peek at the wrong side of town: you don't mind seeing it, but you're glad you aren't there.
The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll - Basketball, drug addiction, gay hustling, juvenile crime; all experienced from the eyes of a talented and precocious teen in the Big Apple during the 1960's.
The Poems of Catullus - His woman treated him like crap but he couldn't think of anything better to do so he let it go on way longer than any reasonable person should.
The Poems of Propertius - This one upped the ante: his woman violated him literally, and he loved it.
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille - Sex involving murder, eggs, and urine. Yummy!
The Decadent Reader ( Anthology ) - Fetishisms, gender reversal, deviance, woman as ultimate corruptor, incurable illnesses, etc., in late 19th-Century France.
These are books that I haven't read yet but would certainly qualify as "disturbing" reads:
Hunger by Knut Hamsun - The day to day travails of a down and out individual in 19th-Century Scandinavia.
Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch - Male submission to female dominance at it's most extreme. The author who's name gave us the word masochism.
Story of O by Pauline Reage - Same as above, with the roles reversed.
The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau - Evil femme fatales playing host in exotic locales thriving on depraved lust and calculated suffering.
A good selection to read to your little nephews and nieces by the fireplace when they come over to visit.
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. I'll be maxing out my card on Amazon haha.
The Poems and Art of Adolf Wolfli - Admiring the work of this mental institution patient and pedophile is like ingesting lethal amounts of acid without having to do so. For the mind-bending and consciousness-altering-stretching connoisseur, this stuff is hard to beat.
Even the mere thought of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs still unsettles me; anyone who has read it knows of what I speak. Though a far less disturbing film remake, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty had some really seemingly 'messed up' parts, if that interests you.
Unfortunately, I cannot think of much more, though I will likely recall during another visit to the forum; as Nightwalk mentioned the poetry of Charles Bukowski, however, I also felt reminded of the other earlier beat poets, like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Keruoac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Richard Brautigan.
I say you should read The End Of Alice...by AM Homes, methinks. 'Tis a veddy twisted book, so I think you will like it :D It's good to know that I'm not the only one into disturbing books! You could also give the True Crime section a look. I know I loved Helter Skelter!
And looking at the Vladimir Nabokov section, I suppose you can put Lolita into this category, as well.
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Originally Posted by mono
I saw it online today and after reading the synopsis (again), I included in my cart. Already read/heard so much about this book.
More people should appreciate the contributions of the bad boys and bad girls of literature. They truly are one of a kind.Quote:
It's good to know that I'm not the only one into disturbing books!
I was just wandering ... did you read Venus in Furs? I am reading it right now and i would like to hear another opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marmaduke
Also Bitter moon by Pascal Brukner is disturbing and soooo different.
Oh, I have collected yet another list of must reads. If you want messed up literature that's majorly screwed and FUBARed try anything by Carlton Mellick III or Bighead by Edward Lee (the latter has gone straight into the horror genre and hasn't delivered anything up to par since).
I have books packed away in boxes,
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Available in mmpb. Inspired by a true kidnapping. Shocking!
The Collector by Fowles - Story of a kidnapping (One of the best books I have read)
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - story of a disturbed teen - the line between the reality and fantasy is often blurred.
Infinite Jest By David Foster Wallace is sprinkled with absurdity and horrific imagery. Scenes such as a crack addled prostitute, cradling her dead baby (still attached by the umbilical cord) and turning tricks so she can continue to chase her addiction (until the stench of the rotting infant causes the police and child social services to arrest her) are just some of the lovely imagery the Wallace uses in his novel. There's plenty more if you're interested, but it's also genius in its idea and execution, and really critiques societies addiction for entertainment in its many facets. It's a witty and ironic a masterpiece, but I'll digress before this becomes a 'Reading Rainbow' pitch for twisted literature...
I agree, The Collector by Fowles is a very good reading although I consider The Magus to be the best novel he wrote.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Also you might enjoy The Divine Child - Pascal Bruckner - about a child that does not want to be born in this world and stays in his mother's womb for a few years while reading a lot and interacting with the outside world. Funny, inteligent, original ......
I haven't read The Magus yet... Can that be considered 'messed up Literature' as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moira
I have also read French Lieutenant's Woman by Fowles, which was an excellent read.
The Turn of the Screw is pretty disturbing, not because of the 'ghost story' but more the psychological stuff. Dean Koontz has written some really disturbing books that are very good reads.
And anything by Palahniuk is basically trippy.
It's hard to define "messed up' but here go my picks: Naked Lunch, IT, American Psycho, Lolita, Dracula, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Filth, Crime And Punishment, Trainspotting, Tropic Of Cancer, Sleepers, Battle Royale, etc etc. There are really too many to list but some of these are still masterpieces.
I don't think The Magus should be considered messed up lit although it is hard to define 'messed up'. French Lieutenant's Woman was a very good read too but The Magus surpasses everything Fowles ever wrote.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I've read so many things on this site about Nacked Lunch that i really should give it a try. There was a movie made after the book, right? Does anyone know if it is good?
Everybody's got that one book that you finished and said "wow, that was bizzare". Tell us about it.
For example:
When I was younger, I read the book Lizard Music by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. I know it was fantasy, but still... Synopsis: a young boy stays up late watching tv. When it goes off the air (it's the 70s), strange lizards appear and play hypnotizing music. He goes on what appears to be a drug-induced adventure with a man who has a chicken for a pet. The End
Your turn...
Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem
It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. A guy by the name of Chaos embarks on a journey throughout the United States to find his identity as well as the cause for the breakdown of society.
The book ends rather abruptly leaving all the questions left unanswered.
Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers. I have no idea what it was about.
Probably Burroughs' cut-up novels, they look like they should be going somewhere, and they are ,ostly grammatical, but they are gibberish.
by far it has to be "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brian
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings- Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
Hmmm...define "weird." Hard to say, really....The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is wierd. So is A Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinsi...Kafka's "Metamorpohsis" is weird too...and anything by James Joyce...
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
I'm an Ishiguro junkkie, because I believe he writes beautifully, but he really was into something when he wrote this book- it's about this really good pianist who comes to a town to play for the grand opening of something, and he stays in a hotel. All of a sudden this hotel guy, who just a while ago he greeted as a stranger, is now his father, some woman is his wife, so... anyway, it's like these two full days of something that I could just compare to when we dream and wird ideas just merge together, one after the other.
Weird, well written, but what drove me really crazy was that the main character was always being late or disregarding previous meetings when new 'weird associations' sprung up and he was dragged elsewhere.
Jane Austen's 'Emma'.well i read her pride and prejudice and was immensely pleased with it. then i thought to read her other novels.I get started with emma and i felt furious.its characters are not as intense as the former one.the 486 pages novel with numerous characters not having a sub plot not other setting except the highbery in uk.Reffering emma in each chapter.i felt its something the novelists personal revelation on some personal issues.i couldn't get what.I learned something from the novel---Always read the famous novels of a particular writer or you will get dissapointed.
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan, and
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
Those two caused great nausea when I was reading them so I decided never to read any book by him again. If I ever had, I think it would be the third item on this list. :p
The Trial by kafka
But that wasn't wierd at all! Just original and perhaps a bit unusual.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Ours, we would think would be Lord Malquist and Mister Moon by Stoppard, although there could be even more wierd things we have read.
And yes, Kafka is quite high on our wierdometer too.
And I quote:Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptureLife
"...thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips. Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the
Gold pinnacled hair.
Trilling, trilling: I dolores.
Peep! Who's in the... peepofgold?
Tink cried to bronze in pity.
And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.
Decoy. Soft word. But look! The bright stars fade. O rose! Notes chirruping answer. Castille. The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.
Coin rang. Clock clacked...
Jingle. Bloo."
Recognize it? Ulysses. Now that was bizzare. Consider: what would become of us if we wrote all our posts in stream-of-consciousness. No I say no I will no.
The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. That was a weird book. A librarian saw me reading it at the library and asked me to tell her what I thought of it when I finished. It was just...odd. Went totally against my faith and was just bizarre.
Same with Morning Girl by Michael Banks, I think. Never really make sense to me.
I'm thinking . . . probably one of the weirdest books I've read is The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino. I really like Calvino, but this book I was unable to understand, which is probably why I'm calling it weird. If I understood what was going on it, it might not have seemed as weird to me . . .
I'm just sure there must be something else extremely weird that I've read. But I can't think of anything else.
that book wasn't weird it was STUPID .Quote:
Originally Posted by andave_ya
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks so :nod:
Tuesdays with Morrie was stupid too...I hated that book
the weirdest book i read was "the wayward bus" by stienbek ... i just couldn't find the story ...!