Weird, creepy, disturbing books?

I'm looking for a strange book that's going to keep me up all night reading it, and make me think for hours or days after reading it.

The first weird disturbing book I read was A Clockwork Orange (it's actually one of my favorite books), so that's a good example on the kind of taste I have.

 

Anything by William S. Burroughs. Naked Lunch would be a good starting point.

 

Just looked it up. Sounds interesting. Thanks I'm making a list of books to check out.

 

Dhalgren


Already started a thread...

 

"Running with Scissors" by Augustin Burroughs. I read it 4 years ago and I still think about how weird it was from time to time. The weirdest part is that it is a memoir.

 

J.K.Huysmans "Against the Grain". The title is an inexact translation of the French "a rebors", and other editions are titled "Against Nature".

This has to be one of the most weird books ever written. Its a product of the late 19th century "decadent" movement, which greatly influenced Oscar Wilde.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm writing them down. Anyone have any titles for books that are basically like an acid trip? So weird that you think the author must have been out of it when he/she wrote it?

 

The book I listed above. And it was written under the influence of hallucinogens and other drugs long before those drugs became popular. Burroughs was taking drugs and writing about it long before any real drug culture existed. Naked Lunch was written in the mid-50s.

 

Anything by Michel Houellebecq...Especially "The Map and The Territory".He's a French writer but very well translated into English....Also Anything by Paul Auster.He's an American writer.Start of with "The New York Trilogy"...Guaranteed to blow your mind.

 

Id second pressed rat on Burroughs if drug influenced writing is what you are after.
IMO "Naked Lunch" is a masterpiece, but its not as accessible as some of Burroughs later work."Cities of the Red Night" is one Id recommend if youre new to Burroughs.

 

On the other hand, if its "disturbing" you want, check out the Marquis de Sade. "Justine" is a good place to start.

 

You mean long before any real drug culture was heavily advertised... released prior to Naked Lunch by a few years, there was even the film The Man with the Golden Arm starring Frank Sinatra which portrayed nearly every facet of heroin addiction accurately to a degree that even today is reflected in reality. There has been a drug culture and indeed even a drug-taking 'underground' for a very, very long time; opium taking and hashish rituals of the Scythians are detailed by Herodotus in the 5th CE BC. There are numerous precedents to Burroughs work in each of it's general points of peculiarity, from collage to psychedelia &c, and if it is something properly psychedelic released before the psychedelic counterculture developed that one is after, then I can recommend what would be considered the quintessential masterpiece of that variety, if only people were more readily willing to test their boundaries, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, published in 1939. That book is so profoundly disorienting and surreal that most people can't make it past the first few pages, and there are numerous reasons for this, but the primary one I should suggest is because it challenges the intellect in a way which makes most intellectuals highly uncomfortable.

From what I understand, and admittedly I'm much more a fan of Burrough's voice than his prose, he was not very much fond of psychedelics or stimulants and came ultimately to prefer opiates alone, and in this sense he (and all who followed) have their debt of gratitude owed to Thomas De Quincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater first published in 1821. There is also of course the works of Aleister Crowley, whose very first published book was his Diary of a Drug Fiend, and those of Aldous Huxley, as well as many more obscure authors who documented experiences with mescaline. Burroughs was certainly influential in experimental letters but his style was derived from painting and musical techniques that were being mastered before he was even born (Erik Satie, for example). I'm not knocking Burroughs contribution to literature or your recommendation Matt, I'm only suggesting that he was certainly not as original as he is commonly thought to have been, and in fact I believe that Burroughs was before all else a con-artist, and he himself openly spoke about taking his ideas from elsewhere in the art world. To my thinking, his genius lies in the fact that he was able to bullshit the literary and counterculture world for his entire life, largely to support his drug habit, lol.

 

You make a lot of good points, John, and I actually don't disagree with you entirely. I am too tired and lazy to elaborate, though.

 

I understand!
I also understood what you meant in your post, and didn't want to come off as if I felt like I was standing miles above you.. I know you are aware of the history as much as I am. Nobody is 'truly' without precedent, at the end of the day

 

I can't wait to check out Burrough's writing for sure. Think I could find him at the library?

 

Grant Hart was a good friend of William Burroughs.Burroughs was no fake.He was the real deal.Of course we all beg borrow and steal.That's how we know who we are.For those who don't know,Grant sings lead on this song.I think the sentiment of "shoot" is a subtle interplay on the notion of shooting heroin and perhaps also a nod to revolutionary activity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evm8we0k7WU"]Nova Mob - Shoot Your Way To Freedom - YouTube

 

It's hard to say. I would say it depends on the location. You can definitely find his books at any bookstore, though.

 

Burroughs reading "Junky" his first novel.

http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/09/william-burroughs-reads-junky-audio.html

 

Thanks for the recommendation :2thumbsup:

 

Yes, any Barnes and Nobles will stock the good part of his work, at least the big novels and probably Interzone as well.