Weird Books

[atiguhya padma]

I'd like to start a new thread on weird and unusual fiction. Here is list of what I consider to be really weird:

Lanark by Alasdair Gray
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
The Bridge by Iain Banks
Exhibitionism by Toby Litt
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
House of Leaves by Mark(?) Danielewski
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
**** and Bull by Will Self
The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self

As you can see, most of my offering is contemporary literature. Anyone got any good recommendations of contemporary / classic fiction that's really weird? I've often heard people recommend HP Lovecraft, but never read anything of his.

[IWilKikU]

Lovecraft definatley is wierd. Also Chuck Palahniuk is weird. He wrote Fight Club, Choke, Invisable Monsters, Lullabye, Diary. Fight Club is obviously his best known book but Invisable Monsters is probably his best.

[crisaor]

I've always wanted to read Fight Club and other works of Palahniuk, but it's fu**ing impossible to get any of his works here without resorting to import it (which is somewhat expensive).
IWilKikU, could you tell me some more about him?

[sloegin]

Try some 18th and 19th century, doctors' reports from an asylum. It should make for an interesting read.

[serpico]

House of Leaves was the most obscure, narcissistic attempt at postmodern literature that I've ever had the misfortune of reading. It gave me awful headaches that penetrated deeply and unmercifully.

[IWilKikU]

Originally posted by crisaor
I've always wanted to read Fight Club and other works of Palahniuk, but it's fu**ing impossible to get any of his works here without resorting to import it (which is somewhat expensive).
IWilKikU, could you tell me some more about him?

Well, he likes to through big shocker plot twists into the last couple chapters. You can see what I mean if you saw Fight Club. He likes to have like a little catchphrase that he uses over and over again. Like in Fight Club its "I am Jack's _____". In Choke its "Not quite what that word means, but close enough" or somthing like that. Whenever you come accross his little sig sentance it makes the corner of your mouth turn upwords, but not quite smile. <-- like this guys mouth. He also isnt affraid to get vulgar. Theres a whole chapter in Choke about which airplanes have the best bathrooms to f*ck in and why. He also doesnt hold alot sacred. Religeon, sex, politics, whatever. He just writes alot of stuff that makes you say "oh damn, I cant believe I just read that!"

And that's all I have to say about Chuck Palahniuk




for now...

[crisaor]

I've seen Fight Club (loved it) and I think I know what you mean. It's a good review and it confirms what I thought about his works. I'll try to get my hands on one of his books if I can.
Btw, is there any major difference between Fight Club the book and Fight Club the movie?

[subterranean]

What sort of book is considered as weird ?
Saw Fight Club and indeed it is a weird movie.

House of Leaves was the most obscure, narcissistic attempt at postmodern literature that I've ever had the misfortune of reading. It gave me awful headaches that penetrated deeply and unmercifully.

Is it book that give such effect?

[Shea]

Since I'm very inexperienced in contemporary lit, I would have to say that most of Poe is pretty weird, what with blazing eyes and immense teeth and all. Some of Hawthorne can be strange too, especially Rappacini's Daughter and Young Goodman Brown.

[Kirsty]

I guess a book that stuck in my mind is John Colliers, "His Monkey Wife". About a guy who falls in love with his pet Chimp!! Sounds gross but it well written, good story and very subtle with the monkey loving! Thankfully, otherwise it would be something else entirely!!
Kobo Abe, writes some interesting stuff, wierd scenarios usually featuring some type of doctor/scientist type chap, who are usually pretty uptight charactors. The Face of Another, about a scientist whose face is melted in an accident, recreates a face, creates a double life and then attempts to seduce his wife. Kind of creepy. He did Women in the Dunes, which I like the best. All of his books have this wierd male/female dynamics which is kind of old fashioned/rigid to me so his books sort of have a certian tension.
Flann O'Brien - definately wierd. The Dalkey Archives, a mad scientist attempts to destroy the world through an attempt to deprive the atmosphere of oxygen. Have not yet read this one. His has written some other corkers as well.
There is a lot of odd stuff out there, I kind of like it, keeps the imagination open I guess.
New York Trilogy pretty good. House of Leaves, I also fought my way through this, damn footnotes full of crap!! It had its creepy moments though.

[simon]

Here's a few for intrigue:
The Lives of the Monster Dogs - dogs with developed brians and mechanical arms and legs, dressed like german aristocrats break out of their contained northern canadain center and move to New York city.

The Minotaur Takes a Ciggarette Break - The Minotaur is still alive and lives in South America working as an assembly line cook and livin gin a trailer park for a fee of fixing broken down cars.

Frisco Pigeon Mambo - an experiment on smoking and sherry drinking pigeons is halted when the pigeons escape and wreak havoc in the air of New York grabbing ciggarettes out of peoples's hands and plan liquer stor robberies.

[trismegistus]

Here's a few for intrigue:
The Lives of the Monster Dogs - dogs with developed brians and mechanical arms and legs, dressed like german aristocrats break out of their contained northern canadain center and move to New York city.

Pretty decent book. Both the prose and plot are straightforward, but the concept is indeed weird. I read it a couple of years ago and remember liking it pretty well.

The last two sound interesting. Do you recommend them, Simon?

[Stanislaw]

Jonathen Segal Chicken; Its an odd book, a satireish thing form the 70's?

The weirdest I have ever read is the futurological congress by Stanislaw Lem, its an odd book, the matrix touches slightly on its oddness but doesnt go deep enough into the so called "Rabbit Hole"

[simon]

Well Trismegistus, I do recomend them for their shear weirdness of plot and logicality of storyt telling such things as a minotaur who deals with the difficulty of having a huge head and horns, ebing unable to speak without grunts and finding love interests. And the pigeon one is told from the point of view of the alcoholic pigeons who must get a fix and live on thiere own out in the big city. So yes I recomend them, though for thier ingenuity not their prose as the writing was not as good as Lives of the Monster Dogs.

And to add another book to the list as well, I find Metamorphosis by Kafka to be a weird book, the dreamy writing style and the odd concepts, dung beetles on a beach stroll?