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What are the most f*cked up books you've ever read? Here are mine: The Wasp Factory by Iian M Banks Hogg by Samual Delaney Room by Hubert Selby Jr Eden Eden Eden by Pierre Guyotat Frisk by Dennis Cooper
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Apr 2, 2023 02:42
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The Rama sequels written by Gentry Lee & (allegedly) Arthur C. Clarke are possibly the most hosed-up books I've ever read:Farmer Crack-rear end posted:okay, so at the end of rama 2, there are three humans who are on the rama spacecraft as it leaves our solar system. you've got the young scientist nerd guy, the young scientist woman, and the older ex-military astronaut (mid-late 60s?) Farmer Crack-rear end posted:
Lamprey Cannon posted:This isn't even including the fact that the finale, the climactic sendoff to the thousand pages of Gentry Lee's writing, the payoff to the mystery of the builders of the cylinders and their true purpose, is literally 'God did it'. No pussyfooting around the issue, just 'God did it. Here's a video recording of the Big Bang, and of this station (where the cylinders were built and are coordinated from) popping into existence a microsecond later. Hope you enjoyed!'.
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Apr 2, 2023 03:09
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:The Rama sequels written by Gentry Lee & (allegedly) Arthur C. Clarke are possibly the most hosed-up books I've ever read: lmfao I honestly had no idea the Rama sequels went so far off the rails The original is one of my favorites of all time, but the sequels sound like nightmares
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Apr 2, 2023 03:38
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Rat by Andzej Zaniewski. It is a birth to death biography of a city rat told in the first person. It is disgusting in the material, blood and guts and filth, but thematically poignant and beautiful. The contrast is intense but seamless, and makes for a heavy reading experience. It's a pretty short book and definitely best read in one sitting.
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Apr 2, 2023 03:46
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I'm not sure what book it starts really going off the rails on but Neverness/A Requiem for Homo Sapiens gets hosed up in the way that old guy 60s-80s sci fi gets hosed up: Neverness is a cool (iirc, its been a while) sci fi story that takes place in a sort of hard science arthurian mythic setting, where ftl travel is only possible via pilot-knights going hyperspace math in dangerous dimensions, some godlike ais floating around out there, a grail-analogue quest. pretty neat! the sequels (the requiem for homo sapiens trilogy? quadrilogy?) have a significant part about the hero having to uncover mysteries hidden in the human genetic code by getting extremely horny for his super hot cousin, then making his family get gene-edited into these neanderthal kind of guys so they all can go live with a primitive tribe in the wilderness with the cousin who has to have sex with all the neanderthals etc etc etc and that's where I gave up. I don't know what it is about old sci fi guys but as soon as they start to run out of ideas they sit down and ask themselves what weird pervert thing makes them insanely horny then write a million pages about it. ringworld was the same way -- fine, kind of goofy sci fi with some interesting ideas then like 4 books about how all the quasi-human species on the ringworld love to gently caress each other and its how they say hello and all the semi human alien babes want to gently caress the author self-insert guy and it's fine ok its normal
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Apr 2, 2023 04:46
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Cormac McCarthy's Child of God is pretty deeply hosed up in a kind of Lovecraftian "people living in rural poverty are subhuman" kind of way. Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled is hosed up in that I genuinely believe the book gave me an anxiety disorder.
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Apr 2, 2023 05:15
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the bible. just kidding
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Apr 2, 2023 06:05
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 I read this book when I was in like, fourth grade? And oh man, I don't remember anything about it except that it made me feel like I was delirious like I had a fever. I remember reading a single page over and over again and not processing any of it, getting so completely confused by whatever the hell was going on with this mom-eating Christmas tree that when I finished the book I completely blanked all of it from my memory. Most I can remember is that the Christmas tree was actually a portal to some kind of hell world. I've never found another copy of it since and it's bugged me that this book hosed my brain so bad but I'll never remember what exactly what it was. Oh poo poo never mind, while I was writing this post I found out that it's on OpenLibrary. I'm going to see if nine year old me was right E: Okay, yeah, it was that hosed up. It's written horribly with everything being extremely stilted dialog so there's no wonder kid me couldn't follow it for poo poo. It's like a David Lynch movie for kids, everybody's constantly upset and yelling and aware of things that are impossible for them to know unless it's a deliberate metatextual choice. I do feel somewhat dizzy after reading all of that in a single sitting but kid me is 100% vindicated for having this book stick with me to this day Youremother fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 06:28
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Chuck Palanuik's Haunted. It's a short story anthology with a narrative weaving them all together, but the common thread is basically 'what's the most hosed up poo poo I, chuck palanuik, can imagine'. It's a hosed up book both in content but also in the concept that it's a pretty shameless and indulgent book for an already shameless and indulgent writer.
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Apr 2, 2023 06:34
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Probably blood meridian since Im a basic bitch. Last exit to Brooklyn was just unpleasant to read though
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Apr 2, 2023 09:01
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Naked Lunch, but I was 17 at the time so I might not find it as hosed up nowadays, idk
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Apr 2, 2023 09:32
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Dr. Rat by William Kotzwinkle, vivisection from the POV of a rat who thinks its a great idea because it advances science...
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Apr 2, 2023 10:03
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Honestly, I'm almost finished it now and Moby Dick is up there. To say nothing of its relentless verbosity, it is uh, definitely a product of its time. Melville was as racist as the next guy in 1851, and he still thought whales were fish. There's also way more 'scientific' musings and description of how to butcher a whale than I care to read. All I can think half the time is drat, I know it smell crazy in there. House of Leaves was kinda hosed-up in a different way, Truant's narration treaded very close to being edgelord stuff but retained its composure by throwing you right back into some Zampaño poo poo. The DUNE sequels, obviously favourites of mine, had too much questionable pedo stuff. I am not well-read.
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Apr 2, 2023 10:07
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The third Ringworld book starts off with a section introducing various populations derived from a distant ancestral human population, which have adapted to different ecological niches and evolutionarily radiated into distinct species. Then they all get together and have a very vividly described bestiality gangbang. When I reached this point I stopped looking at the words, looked at the book in my hands, and thought to myself "What the gently caress am I reading?"
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Apr 2, 2023 11:35
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It's a bit of a different angle on it, but the only book I remember having to consciously set down and take breaks from was Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, because it's about how a bunch of regular guys from Germany murdered thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, and reading it was so emotionally taxing because it's such a hosed up thing to learn about.
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Apr 2, 2023 12:00
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Setting aside nonfiction… Geek Love
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Apr 2, 2023 12:33
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I think for twisted ideas American Psycho is still one of the more shocking fiction books I've made it through, stabbing a kid to death at the zoo is definitely an idea that the author decided to explore alright there is an entire genre of gory books called "splatterpunk" that try to be shocking but stuff like The Man wanting to make sure he saves a bullet so that he is able to kill his own son if things somehow got bleaker in The Road is more disturbing to me than outright gore Daikatana Ritsu posted:lmfao I cant think of like... a single sci-fi book that was made better by the author deciding to put his ideas about sex or love in there. It just ruins books, I get that you ("you" meaning the author) have some real new ideas about age of consent laws here in modern society but just because your editor didn't read more than 30 pages into your book before putting it in the 'publish' pile doesn't mean that the majority of people don't hate reading that part of your book. Tumble fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 13:01
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Tumble posted:
The scene where he's instructing his son how to shoot himself really hosed me up. I still haven't seen the movie, I'm too scared to see it put to film.
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Apr 2, 2023 13:11
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Hell Hound, a 1970s pulp novel about a kid who loves his (possibly posessed) pitbull and Hitler, in that order.
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Apr 2, 2023 15:25
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children of hiroshima
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Apr 2, 2023 16:44
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Mister Speaker posted:Honestly, I'm almost finished it now and Moby Dick is up there. To say nothing of its relentless verbosity, it is uh, definitely a product of its time He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it. Stranger in a Strange Land gave a much younger me an inkling of how the wage paid to those who espouse ideals of empathy would always be death.
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Apr 2, 2023 18:26
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One of Stephen Baxter's Manifold series has a homo habilus or homo erectus getting a handy from his mom for no goddamn reason. The Light of Other Days by Baxter and Clarke is just an entire novel of hosed up poo poo people do when they have technology to see anywhere, including back in time. Flux by Baxter (Wait, I might see a pattern here) starts with a human living inside a neutron star.... taking a poo poo.
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Apr 2, 2023 20:08
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vyelkin posted:It's a bit of a different angle on it, but the only book I remember having to consciously set down and take breaks from was Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, because it's about how a bunch of regular guys from Germany murdered thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, and reading it was so emotionally taxing because it's such a hosed up thing to learn about. I was going to post about Ordinary Men as well; it was actually nauseating. It may also give better examples for the "banality of evil" than anything Arendt wrote; e.g., many of the men said* they continued to participate in atrocities because they were afraid that refusing would jeopardize their careers in the police force** (which is where many of them ended up working after the war). It also appeared that there was a conspiracy of silence among the men of this police battalion, which resulted in very few convictions for crimes against humanity (essentially only in the cases where there were survivors to give testimony). *Although they had an incentive to misrepresent their motivations in postwar interviews, so the author does not recommend taking that at face value. **Though Browning also notes that the very few men who did refuse were not retaliated against.
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Apr 2, 2023 20:16
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Probably many of the Jack olsen true crime books but the one i remember and do genuinly recommend is "Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell" the whole thing is about a town full of conservative mormans and other and mostly follows the various victims and how some evangelical dickhead conservative general care doctor managed to rape alot of the town because the church and others care more about ignoring it and pushing it under the rug, he does get found guilty finally but half the town sides with him and its just whole lovely hosed up mess. most of jack olsens books are "here is how rape culture is real and how weird pathetic sacks of poo poo get away with tons of awful crimes because of that and the cops being helpful is a coin toss". the other worst thing i ever read(in a different way) was a fanfiction but thats not book it was called blue moon nursery. i saw on a youtube channel i like. its supposed to be weird and cutsy but it turns into weird dissasociated abuse poo poo with some really hosed up fetish writing "undertone" the worst part are the comments(because its on a forum and being written in stages) all scream and yell about how innocent and great it is. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 20:22
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Shrecknet posted:Hell Hound, a 1970s pulp novel about a kid who loves his (possibly posessed) pitbull and Hitler, in that order. wasnt that a venture brothers joke?
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Apr 2, 2023 20:24
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Austerlitz (v good book) features long sections which are like 3 levels deep of reported speech, like "he said she recounted he replied". through some weird magic it is still comprehensible
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Apr 2, 2023 20:27
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Dapper_Swindler posted:Probably many of the Jack olsen true crime books but the one i remember and do genuinly recommend is "Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell" I remember the tiers of the townspeople's defense of the doctor going around in circles from that these Mormon women are just too stupid to even know what sex is, to that they actually wanted it from him because their husbands are too stupid to know what sex is, to straight denial he did anything and then blase acceptance saying who cares, he's a good man! Whatever the reason, he can't possibly face any consequences for his actions. Fucker was canny enough to deny everything the whole way which let him hold onto his supporters to the bitter end even after conviction. edit: oh yeah it was also a Mormon conspiracy against the good doctor, trying to tear a Christian pillar of the community down
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Apr 2, 2023 21:26
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I remember The Addictive Personality by Craig Nakken loving with me after reading it. It's just a model of how addiction works, how it progresses, and how it can be addressed, written by an addiction counselor. But it portrays addiction as this rabies level personality altering disease, that turns every person it touches into the same swampthing-like creature of slime and misery. And as someone with personal life worries along those lines, it really scared the poo poo out of me to read.
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Apr 2, 2023 22:20
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Sir Mat of Dickie posted:I was going to post about Ordinary Men as well; it was actually nauseating. It may also give better examples for the "banality of evil" than anything Arendt wrote; e.g., many of the men said* they continued to participate in atrocities because they were afraid that refusing would jeopardize their careers in the police force** (which is where many of them ended up working after the war). It also appeared that there was a conspiracy of silence among the men of this police battalion, which resulted in very few convictions for crimes against humanity (essentially only in the cases where there were survivors to give testimony). You mentioned this so I'll elaborate on it a little, for me one of the most distressing parts was learning that a handful of the men refused to take part in the mass killings and weren't retaliated against, and then making the connection that even after it was clear they could opt out, the rest of the men didn't join them.
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Apr 2, 2023 22:20
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Filth, by Irvine Welsh. Depraved, debased, and a major motion picture!
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Apr 2, 2023 23:57
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Dr. Jerrold Coe posted:I remember the tiers of the townspeople's defense of the doctor going around in circles from that these Mormon women are just too stupid to even know what sex is, to that they actually wanted it from him because their husbands are too stupid to know what sex is, to straight denial he did anything and then blase acceptance saying who cares, he's a good man! Whatever the reason, he can't possibly face any consequences for his actions. Fucker was canny enough to deny everything the whole way which let him hold onto his supporters to the bitter end even after conviction. yeah, the book makes it super clear the doctor did the rapes as a hosed up hate crime partly, he mostly targeted morman women along with poor people and migrants passing through(who he considered parasites because he was very hard right psycho).
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Apr 3, 2023 00:07
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Hogg
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Apr 3, 2023 00:13
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Dapper_Swindler posted:yeah, the book makes it super clear the doctor did the rapes as a hosed up hate crime partly, he mostly targeted morman women along with poor people and migrants passing through(who he considered parasites because he was very hard right psycho).  Jack Olsen is an incredible writer and I hesitate to even call him "true crime" even though he is, because his stuff is so much better than the dregs of that genre. Even a "simple" book of his like Night of the Grizzlies is written with care and purpose.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:17
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Richard Matheson's Hell House had a little too much ghost rape for my taste. e: Oh, and not a full book, but I also was really disturbed by the Harlan Ellison short story "Bleeding Stones." A bunch of gargoyles come to life and start brutally killing everyone in New York in extremely graphic detail. I wasn't a fan of that one, either. BeastOfTheEdelwood fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 00:54
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definitely some non-fiction, ordinary men is up there, also 'the price of glory: verdun 1916' by alistair horne because of the descriptions of just how upsettingly awful the actual battle was. 'the devil's arithmetic' was also extremely upsetting as a 13 year old.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:58
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When I was in high school, a friend's mother saw me reading Sword of Shannara, and suggested I try Piers Anthony's Xanth series. Yeah, those got real fuckin creepy. A couple of Koontz's books had a lot of hypno-rape stuff that seemed overly pervy to me.
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Apr 3, 2023 01:22
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Yeah I kept getting donated the Xanth books by someone who earnestly thought that because I was into fantasy I'd like them. Yech.
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Apr 3, 2023 01:44
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Upgrade posted:definitely some non-fiction, ordinary men is up there, also 'the price of glory: verdun 1916' by alistair horne because of the descriptions of just how upsettingly awful the actual battle was. Von Falkenhayn creating his own Gotterdammerung was some cold-blooded poo poo.
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Apr 3, 2023 02:34
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Dr. Jerrold Coe posted:
yeah, him and harold schecter are the only two true crime authors i like because they either focus on the victims and the pathetiness of the perpatraitors or like shecter focus on the historical context of everything and how weird a nuts poo poo was back in the day and also the pathecticniss of the criminals. jack olsens other good book is Son, just because kevin coe is such a weird pathetic gently caress and his mom is psycho.
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Apr 3, 2023 03:18
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Dapper_Swindler posted:jack olsens other good book is Son, just because kevin coe is such a weird pathetic gently caress and his mom is psycho. Oh yah that's another good one. I liked Cold Kill too, another portrait of pointless sociopathy and a real window in the nasty gritty 80s.
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Apr 3, 2023 03:48
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