/lit/ - Literature

My diary, to be honest.

>>12896963
Read Platform and Child of God recently
Didn't came across as dark as disturbing anyhow
Platform with its oversaturated and tepid depictions of sex, with a final blow delivered unexpectedly that threw me off balance
Child of God was surprisingly goofy
Chuckled every bit with the 'gorier' bits and every blurt of the word NIGGER

>>12896963
master and margarita

>>12897104
I thought The Master and Margarita was a comedy?
Or is it more like a The Trial-like dark comedy?

>>12896963
Most fucked up one on the list is probably Eden Eden Eden
Absolutely overbearing, considering the book was written in a single sentence and goes on ad infinitum (paedophilia, bestiality, extreme violence, the word 'jissom' on every page, homosex, wormy sex, scatology, you name it pal) The level of grim alone is a feat if you think of the era it was written without the bombastic Internet exposure to obscenities and the mind that is capable of conjuring such a wide compendium of the most vulgar and blasphemous

>>12897214
Which ones on the list have you read? I know that Sotos can be extremely heavy at times

>>12897214
To choose this and not Tomb is a pretty big fuckup. The English translator for Tomb of the 500,000 had a mental breakdown because of the book’s content. It’s also the more famous of the two from Pierre.

I’ve read This Way to the Gas...it bears little resemblance to many of the more explicit works on this list.

>>12897557
What's your opinion on This Way to the Gas?

>>12897557
What is Tomb about?

>>12896963
>complete guide to suicide is a real book
sasuga nippon! my husband reads that all the time in the manga/anime, didn't realize it was a thing. Of course it really exists. God bless the Japanese.

>>12897158
It is more of a comedy. I didn’t see it as dark in any way.

>>12897214
there is nothing disturbing about pedophilia you dumb faggot

>>12896963

>>12897994
Fuck outta here with your self-advertising shit

>>12898010

>>12898010

>Titus Andronicus
Often considered to be one of Shakespeare's lesser plays but I think it has great strength in just how excessively insane it gets. The 1999 film adaptation accentuates it perfectly.
>Story of the Eye
It's a great novella. I wouldn't call it that "disturbing" but it had moments that did make me wince (mainly regarding broken glass and eyes)
>Child of God
Has some pretty fucked parts but the ending was surprisingly funny. And of course the prose is excellent.

>The sandman not on the list
Pseud

>>12898149
Thanks, that is exactly the info I'm looking for

Anyone else read some of the books on the list? I'm curious about your opinions on them

Anyone else want to reply to some of this? I would love to hear more about some of these books.

>>12898010

>>12896963
Love Ligotti, how is Wasp Factory?

Just started pic related and it’s very good so far, should be on that chart.

>>12898971
what is behead all satans? I can't find any samples of it online anywhere.

>>12898067
>>12898019
>>12897994
can i have a copy

>>12899067
>>12899078
SOON

>>12897707
It was a standard holocaust tale without much going on. It’s not worth read imo

>>12898465
Haven’t most people read A Modest Proposal? Anyways, it’s a satirical political essay where Swift suggests the Irish sell their children to be cannibalized by the English as a means of solving their poverty.

Story of the Eye is more disturbing that the other guy was giving it credit for. Because it’s mainly a work of pornography, but the sexual content is so depraved and violent it puts the reader on an unsure footing for the duration.

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, is a collection of Holocaust stories. Maybe it’s just that I’ve read too many holocaust stories before but these did not particularly shock or disturb me any more than any other holocaust account has.

The Atrocity Exhibition is good, but it’s very experimental and not nearly as viscerally disturbing as Crash is. I’d read that first.

Songs of a Dead Dreamer/Grimscibe, weirdly the only straight up and down horror on this list as far as I can tell. I love Ligotti, but he doesn’t fit in with the other books on this list. Most of the stuff here is transgressive lit, and while Ligotti is dark, occasionally depressing, and very creepy, he’s not viscerally disturbing in the same way. Ligotti is the dark ambient Lustmord, while the General atmosphere of these other books is Cannibal Corpse. I can’t recommend him enough, but if you want gory thrills, you are going to be disappointed.

American Psycho is vast boring swaths of banter from extremely repulsive businessmen, punctuated by some of the most disgusting murder scenes I’ve ever read.

>>12899103
Story of the Eye is almost too umm, I don't know a lot of it is just not very shocking. It feels too dated to have much impact to someone desensitized by places like 4chan. It is probably one of the least disturbing things on this list.

>>12899067
a meme that doesn't exists

>>12899296
Then what it is that I would be buying if I clicked one of these 'purchase now' links that seem to exist for it?

>A Modest Proposal
Not really dark or disturbing but it's silly and you can read it in a few minutes do why not.
>Story of the Eye
One of the worst books I've ever read.
>Celine
Love Journey so I want to read this one soon.
>American Psycho
Funny but could be a lot shorter. I liked the movie better because it took the best dialogue and scenes from the book and didn't go overboard on the gore.
>The Tunnel
One of my favorite books. Beautiful prose. Almost dropped it but apparently the beginning is supposed to be hard to get through.

>>12899338
cialis pills

>>12899481

>>12898987
Wasp Factory is a strange one, but it's pretty good and well written. The narrator is a kid living on a Scottish island with his father, with delusions that he is an omnopotent god because he can set traps for animals and see the resulting deaths. Worth reading

>>12898987
What is it about, and how is the feeling of the book?

Second that opinion on Wasp Factory. The plot is unlike anything else I've read, but it's a good story. Iain Banks said that he wanted to write sci-fi, but publishing those stories was very difficult so he wrote The Wasp Factoy, as a kind of a realistic version of what could have been a sci-fi story.

I also agree with >>12899103 that Ligotti is strange on this list, because even though it's dark, it's the only real 'horror' horror novel (maybe Girl Next Door is so as well, but I haven't read it so I can't make a good judgement on this)

>>12896963
The most disturbing thing I ever read was Petrolio by Pasolini

>>12900630
Can you elaborate on that? Do you think it should be on this list?

>>12900657
To my knowledge there is no translation of it, and it's incomplete in the first place.
But it has a considerable shock value, there is incest, gender bender, rape, homosexuality, orgies, pedophilia, lost youths, drug trips.

>>12900721
I found out it was translated.
In that case yes, I believe it belongs on that chart.

>>12896963
>Ligotti knows how to write.

Lmao, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe is fucking abysmal, it's an edgy teen's horror fanfic of Labyrinths. Genuinely bad book.

>>12900952
What dark and/or disturbing books do you recommend?

>>12896963
Story of the Eye, American Psycho, Babyfucker,
One the whole I think this one of the best lit charts around; I'm not sure whether everything is equally "dark and disturbing" but it has a lot of quality books and authors on it that are otherwise not discussed enough here (Sade, Huysmans, Mirbeau, Lautréamont, Guyotat)

>>12900721
>>12900766
There's an English translation of it, I believe you can borrow it on Archive.org
Apart from what anon said, there's one chapter where the protagonist sucks the cocks of like 20 adolescents in a field on the outskirts of Rome, describing each successive cock sucking for about 2 pages. Pretty based book for the most part

>>12896963
The consumer is interesting, it is not disturbing in the usual sense. While it deals with the usual topics of depravity, he tends gives a point of connection or empathy to the people doing the horrible things. It is odd, in most books dealing with such topics the person is nuts and the only thing the reader has in common is species, Gira tends to give parallels that anyone can connect with and often what you end up being disturbed by is your own sympathy.

>>12900959
You're the first one in this thread to have read Babyfucker, how is that one? And do you agree with the statements on Story of the Eye and American Psycho?

>>12900595
It’s about two serial killers falling in love with each other and then torturing and killing people. Also they are pedophiles and necrophiles, and AIDs is everywhere.

I’d argue that Chuck Palahniuk’s book Haunted should be here, at least the story “Guts”.
Also Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker.

Diary of a Rapist. It's less known but the writing is very good. It's obvious the writer had been writing from personal experience with something similar.

>>12896963
>No memoirs from either of the wars
Shit list t b h desu.

Should Cows be on this list?

>>12901344
Have you read it?

>>12901344
>>12901376
And why should it not be on the list?

>>12901057
Babyfucker has been called Beckettian, and I would agree; it ponders in that exhaustive style on the situation of the isolated protag fucking babies, or rather, on the proposition "I fuck babies"; it's more conceptual and doesn't get too explicit (apart from some imagery) but it's definitely weird and "disturbing". American Psycho I read a long time ago, one of the first "serious" literature I read, it's edgy, it has its moments, but I don't care for it. Story of the Eye disappointed me a bit: indeed it is perhaps not so shocking nowadays, but it struck me as rather juvenile. Nevertheless, there's something to it; and Bataille is an author I like a lot (Blue of Noon is a lot milder, save for the few spicy parts, and more boring imo; I would recommend My Mother or Madame Edwarda as better written stories, not pure shock, but good transgression nevertheless).

>>12896963
>Wasp Factory
This one was okay, pretty slow

>American Psycho
I enjoyed this one a lot, it's definitely a meme on /lit/ but it's actually genuinely good if you skim the page-long brand observations. Both times I read it it didn't really feel like I was reading from someone else's point of view, it felt more like I was Bateman reading my own diary or something.

>The Girl Next Door
muh edge but definitely entertaining and worth your time if you like a good ol rape story.

Fuck that baby scene on The was factory, I actually gagged. Didn't read most of these but some are on my list. Would naked lunch fit in there?

>>12901523
Which ones did you read, and what did you think of them? And I don't know about Naked Lunch since I haven't read it, but as far as I know about the book it could belong in this list. Anyone read it?

Bump for interest

>>12901592
Only read Wasp Factory, which I cant recommend enough and Songs of a dead dreamer. I like lingotti but as the others said it is not that dark and its stories are rather uneven (when it is great it is great, but when it is not it looks like stephen king).
Regarding children of god, ive not read it yet but both Blood Meridian and the road would fit the dark feeling, although I wouldnt say they are edgy.
But really, get wasp factory as soon as you can.

Are there more people who have read these books?

>>12901327

I second this.

Also, you all should read "Second skin" by John Hawkes if you like disturbing books, my friends.

>>12896963
>Which ones have you read?
Story of the Eye
Last Exit to Brooklyn
The Girl Next Door
In the Miso Soup
>Did you like them?
Yes. I like reading edgy stuff now and then. I plan to read more of it.
>What do you think of this chart, which books are missing?
bretty good. I think most of the other dark and disturbing books I've read have been from also from the authors I listed iirc.

>Which ones have you read?
Story of the Eye
Last Exit to Brooklyn
The Girl Next Door
In the Miso Soup
>Did you like them?
Yes. I like reading edgy stuff now and then. I plan to read more of it.
>What do you think of this chart, which books are missing?
bretty good. I think most of the other dark and disturbing books I've read have been from the authors I've already listed so I can't rec anything quite new

>>12896963
I have a copy of The Consumer, The Atrocity Exhibition, Steps, and Child of God and I liked them all.

Child of God was darkly comic in a really weird way, I read it for the first time pretty recently and got through it in 2 sessions on the night I got it and then the next morning. The only McCarthy books I haven't read yet are The Crossing and Cities of The Plain and though this was a quick read I think it's probably one of his better ones.

Steps was alright, it's got a really interesting structure that I'd kind of like to try my hand at one day once I'm freed up with some other projects. Essentially there's no linear plot but is constructed entirely of thematically connected events that contrast living in eastern europe under communist regime with being an immigrant fresh off the boat in america as well as a myriad of tales of graphic violence and sexual domination

The Consumer I've read a couple times, I was lucky enough to find a copy online that didn't run me hundreds of dollars (though if you want to read it you can find PDFs pretty easily). Gira is really skilled at just steeping every story in this disgusting, heavy, wet, breathing atmosphere that makes you feel unclean. Definitely the book that's given me the most visceral discomfort from reading though you definitely get desensitized to it after awhile, I will admit once you've gone through like 200 pages of the stuff it does get a little tiresome but it's still enjoyable.

The Atrocity Exhibition I got because I'm a big Ballard fan though I probably couldn't recommend it to someone who wasn't super into his stuff. There's sections of the book that I go back to pretty frequently and read but just because of the experimental nature of the writing and layout it's a bitch and a half to read straight through even though it doesn't even break 200 pages. That said, he's nothing if not prophetic and his banned-for-obscenity chapter entitled "Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan" is a pretty fun response to the growing emergence of 'media politicians' done in the style of a peer-reviewed scientific journal, with some thematic parallels I'm sure could be drawn to modern America's political landscape.

>>12903374
What did you like about the books you read?

>>12896963
of these Celine was probably my favorite, Hogg is the most revolting, In the Miso Soup and Platform are almost companion pieces, End of Alice is what nabokovfags wish they were reading, Rape: a Love Story felt stupid while i was reading it, then had me thinking about it afterwards, the color code is how extreme i felt their content was, this is my favorite /lit/ chart, i want to read all of these, if i had any to suggest they would be The Drift by John Ridley, Disagreeable Tales and Sweating Blood by Leon Bloy

>>12896963
>complete manual of suicide

Where can I actually get this book in English? It's not on amazon (not surprising if the title is to be taken literal) and not on b-ok.org either. Doubt my local bookstore or library has it. Any suggestions?

>>12903978
I'm enjoying this chart a lot. Just started Cows, it has one of the strongest first pages of any book I've read in the last two years or so, I hope it keeps the momentum going.

>>12896963
Death on the Installment Plan doesn't get nearly enough attention, everybody blows their wad over Journey and go on with their pretensions

>>12903991
I'm pretty sure its never been fully translated. I saw the intro translated a while ago, but never a full translation.

>>12896963
"Pig Island" by Mo Hayder. Creepy book.

The Nazi and the Barber by Edgar Hillsenrath

Funny book

>>12904084
Death on the Installment Plan is one of the funniest books I've ever read, to the extent that I was actually having to hold back laughter which rarely happens with literature for me. The father's meltdowns at his failure to learn the typewriter, all the trials and fuck-ups that go on at the experimental farm, Ferdinand's refusal to learn English at school, the hyperbolic, tall tale depictions of events ("it was so hot the brass knockers were melting off the doors"), it's a comic masterpiece. Much of it is making something funny out of completely squalid situations but I would have a hard time placing it on a chart along side stuff like Hogg and Sotos.

re OP, I think Joseph Heller's Something Happened is a noticeable omission from that list. It's a ridiculously bitter first-person rant that runs for a near-interminable 600 pages in which a middle-aged white collar worker broods over his failures in life and dissatisfaction with everyone around him. People are probably fed up with the white collar malaise thing since it's been done to death, but SH is a genuinely upsetting read with one of the most bleakly humorous endings ever written.

I would probably also replace Last Exit to Brooklyn with The Room. At least Last Exit has some vestiges of humanity in it. The Room is just a suffocating mess of spiraling paranoia and revenge fantasies.

>>12904380
i saw this at goodwill today, thought about getting it but already have some stuff to get through, i'll pick it up though

>>12904380
I that book supposed to be the continuation of Catch-22? I've always heard that the continuation of the story is pretty cheap and made to grab to easy cash off the prestige of catch-22.

>>12904455
Sorry for the spelling mistakes and bad phrase structure. Im really tired and my english is going down hill from lack of practice.

>>12904455

No, that's "Closing Time"

From Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite. If you want a story about AIDS and necrophilia, it’s for you.

>>12897994
where can i find a pdf of behead all satans. im curious but i refuse to give any money to the faggot who wrote it and ruins threads shilling it.

>>12904302

>>12904366

Can you tell more about these books?

OP here, thank all of you for the info on the books and recommendations that are not on the chart.

I would love to add more information to the chart, to improve it and make things more clear for future readers. For example, show which books are extreme and which are more mild (like >>12903978 did), or which ones are dark and which ones are disturbing, if that makes any sense.
I think adding info per book might be too much, but I did save all of your descriptions for my personal use: when I started reading and using this chart I basically didn't know any of these books, and having a short piece of information per book helps me out a lot, at least. (Especially the way it reads/the feeling of the books is something that I can't look up online)

I'm also not good with making charts, or else I would add some of the books you said in the chart (if most people agree it should be on this list).

It's also really interesting to see which books are read a lot (Death on the Installment Plan, American Psycho, Story of the Eye) and which ones no one has talked about in this thread.

Either way, I'm really glad a lot of you like this chart as much as I do. I hope more recommendations and review will be added to this thread, but I'm already very content with how much these books are discussed.

>>12903433
>that makes you feel unclean
That is mostly because he gives common ground between the people doing terrible things and the reader, he does not just say, they are nuts and nothing at all like you, like most 'disturbing' lit.

>>12901523
>Would naked lunch fit in there?
Naked Lunch sort of overshadows its dark and disturbing qualities with its general fucked upness. There certainly are some disturbing events in the book but they do not have much impact in that regard, it is just too abstract to really be disturbing.

>>12904154
Damn, that's too bad. Is it exactly what it says it is? Looks very fetishized too. The Japanese are some weird fucks, I remember first discovering amputation porn comics when I was 14 or so. These morbid cultural inclinations seem to have existed for centuries in Japan, it's pretty fascinating.

Do you think Wiesel's Night should be on this list?

>>12905918
The Nazi and the Barber is the story of a German SS officer who grows up the son of a German whore and Polish pedophile who tapes his cock against his leg. While he looks like a Jew with frog eyes and pubic hair on his head, his Jewish best friend is aryan in appearance.

Following the war and murder of 20,000 Jews, the mazi flees to British Palestine, disguised as his childhood best friend.

The only person talking about this book is a comedic author no one can make sense of, and I think it's due to the fact the novel really doesn't give you an easy way out of its narrative and implications. I can tell you I was laughing and crying at the same time as the nazi bragged about his crimes. The author himself being a Holocaust survivor makes the humor harder hitting.

It's very similar to another grotesque novel, Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, in which humor is used to alienate and disgust you even more from the tragedies.

>>12905972
I'm surprised that no one in the thread has really talked about Sade (or Justine specifically since it's the one on the list). The sheer monotony induced by his constant stream of descriptions of sexual torture and murder might be the most disturbing aspect; it goes to show that you can used to just about anything. That said, Justine is one of his more tame novels since most of the descriptions rely on innuendo or quaint 18th century euphemisms. He doesn't go into using words like "fuck" or "cunt" at all, which probably occupy half the word count of Juliette and 120 Days. I also can't imagine that his atheism or Hobbesian philosophy will shock any modern reader either.

I think two other solid additions to the list would be Andrea Dworkin's Mercy and Kate Millett's The Basement. Both major figures in the second wave of feminism writing grueling semi-fictionalized accounts of rape, domestic violence, murder, etc. Dworkin was hugely influential to Peter Sotos who may be the most upsetting writer on that list, although I haven't read everything there.

>>12906857
This sounds completely off the wall. Thanks for the recommendation

>>12907109
Would you say that Justine is not the best Sade novel for this list? If so, what would you include?

>>12896963
I'd say a modest proposal isn't dark/disturbing at all, as >>12899103 >>12899477 already mentioned, the only way it could be seen as disturbing is its depiction of the bleak lives of the Irish poor

>>12907335
I'd lean towards The 120 Days of Sodom if only for its infamy and single-minded approach to portraying increasingly extreme acts of sexual violence (the book was never finished and actually degenerates to a skeleton of lists of the debaucheries the characters would engage in had he had time to complete it).

great thread.
it was edgy goreful literature that got me into reading when i was 13.

my rec is Sorokin, he's almost unheard of outside of Russia, but here he's a postmodernist icon.
among his books that's been translated, i've only read pic (the day of oprichnik) and it's great. disturbing in many senses, though it's not plainl shockporn at all.
i'm thinking about translating some of his short stories (the gory ones) for this thread

>>12907121
Thanks bud, and if you like The Nazi and the Barber, his book The Story of the Last Thought is a fairytale reproduction of the Armenian Genocide

The Consumer isn't that disturbing, it's more depressing than anything.

>>12906166
You should look into Mouryou no Hako and Kara no Shoujo for an indepth look into the psychology behind mutilation obsession

>>12907728
> actually degenerates to a skeleton of lists of the debaucheries the characters would engage in
disappointed me a little when i got to this part, but imagine how lengthy and gruesome would it be if he did finish it.
120 days of Sodom film by Pasolini is great by the way. it's very book-accurate despite the changed setting, the actors fit so well you start to believe it. the colors and angles, my bloodlusting god - it's a real eyecandy.

>>12907109
>Sotos examines sadistic sexual criminals and sexually violent pornography, particularly involving children. His books are often first person narratives, taking on the point of view of the sexual predator in order to explore sadistic and pedophilic sexual impulses.
lol, 'taking on' the point of view...

>>12907728
I’d argue for Justine exactly because 120 Days is like that. There is an actual character who these things happen to. By the time you get to the worst parts of 120 Days it feels totally unreal, and the shock factor is lost in that. In Justine the fact it’s a character experiencing the pain and violence makes it less abstract.

>>12907823
I would greatly appreciate that, am yet to read the day of the oprichnik

>>12907885
I wonder how often that guy has to explain that he's not *THAT* Peter Sotos

>>12907885
Fuck Im doubleposting, but I would say that we all read this because we either relieve some sadistic desires or like to feel disgusted, jn a masochistic way. Pedophilic "drives" are however usually better repressed and I too would feel rather unconfortable with books with explicit scenes. I wouldnt say the author is a pedo, just a less repressed individual.

>>12907852
So it's more of a dark novel than a disturbing one, right?

>>12907887
I haven't read either (only seen 120 Days), but that sounds like a good argument.

>>12907874
The film is really good, completely agree with you


Have more people read either Titus Andronicus or anything by Sotos? Is Selfish, Little the 'best' book in the sense of being dark/disturbing, or does it not matter that much with Sotos since it's all insane?
There are still a number of books on the list that haven't been discussed, but loving the discussion

>>12896963
>A Modest Proposal
>Dark/Disturbing
It was satire, there wasn’t anything disturbing about it.

>>12907975
i checked the translation a while ago out of curiosity, it's got a nice flow and is pretty close in its mood to the original.
you'd probably miss a couple of cultural references, but it's minor and not really relevant. just skim through 20-21st century Russian history wiki page if your knowledge of it is really obscure

>>12896963
i hate this stupid fucking chart

>>12908402
Why is that?

>>12896963
The creator of the chart was obviously going for hipster choices. Blood Meridian, Macbeth, and 120 days are all more disturbing than Child of God, Justine, or Titus Andronicus. A modest Proposal has no reason to be on there, it was a joke at the brits.

also, since dystopia is a related genre, i'll recommend We by Zamyatin. it's a bit overlooked in favor of western dystopian books.
i've read 1984, brave new world, 451°F, and We has the best first-person perspective from someone who's happy with the regime. the book explores his suspiction and unsureness at some point as well.
it's disturbing in how well it's executed, the transparent homes, the naming system - you'll feel uneasy reading it, as if your own walls have turned into glass. (not sureif translations captions it) it''s also under 200 pages. there are no outright displays of disgusting things

>>12908433
I must dislike most charts on principle because they become mindlessly accepted flawed standards for whatever their subject is. And no chart do I see spammed than this one. The guy that made it has imposed his will with a sloppy effort and incorrect opinions.

>>12908467
This chart has actually been made in a thread, with multiple people arguing over which books should be included.
What would you change, and why?

>>12908497
>This chart has actually been made in a thread, with multiple people arguing over which books should be included.
Proof? And even so it's still not definitive by any means. A group of anons at one time don't deserve their collective opinions reposted hundreds of times over several years. I doubt any few from the discussion would be ITT.
>What would you change, and why?
How about >>12908445

>>12908219
Selfish, Little is at an intersection between the juvenile misanthropy of his earlier work and the more introspective and exceedingly esoteric ramblings of what came after it. With his writings, it's all within close degrees of disturbing, but SL captures the "best" of both worlds if someone was just looking to be unnerved, I guess.

>>12908531
I have seen the thread in archives a while ago, and that will take me a while to find.
And the changes are reasonable, are there other books you would get rid of or add?

>>12908531
If you're so bugged, why not check out The Nazi and the Barber? Why get upset when you can read a real ghastly book. And if my word ain't much, check out the only author discussing it online.

>>12907887
That's a good point. I think that unreality and alienation from any sort of human feelings or development of empathy is what disturbs me more about 120 Days, though.

>>12908402
Dude. Why don't you try and be constructive next time rather than just ripping into the chart?

Also why exactly is there a rule here of one per author? Getting rid of that might clear some dispute.

>>12908664
That would be pretty good to implement in a future chart, also giving readers the option to choose between books, and know which authors have written multiple dark books. If I could make a decent chart, I would; I've already read a lot of good criticism in this thread.

>>12896963
>down there
is it any good? what's it about?
the beardsley cover art caught my attention

>>12908683
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/353/35345/the-damned/9780140447675.html

Note that the book is also called The Damned in English, and the above link also gives a description of the book, since I haven't read it myself.

Has anyone ever read a /lit/ chart in its entirety?
be honest. no e-stats

Has anyone read Summer of Ubume? It's a Japanese book apparently about a serial killer who murders the pregnant and eats their fetus. It's apparently translated to English, but I can't find it.

>>12908817
I've tried looking for you, but the only physical copy available is $1000 on Amazon, sorry Anon

>>12908939
Yeah. I was hoping someone would have a pdf of it, from a private tracker or something.

>>12908958
Have you read any notable dark/disturbing books, by the way?

>>12897878
anyone know where to find a copy? I checked libgen

>>12908994
Nothing tops going to the fiction section on Gurochan and seeing the manifestation of the fantasies of people with genuine fetishes for murder, existential torture, insect rape, and coprophagia.

Bump for interest

Has anyone else read Maldoror? I'm reading it now, and enjoying it a lot

la carta de sagawa by juro kara

Missing: "The Obscene Bird of Night
Novel by José Donoso", The Necrophilliac by Gabrielle Wittkop, and maybe "The Devil's Workshop" by Jachym Topol

>>12910213
Oh and "The Lime Twig" by John Hawkes. This board seriously overlooks John Hawkes, he is amazing

>>12910213
The Obscene Bird of Night is on the list. Also on libgen if you are looking for it.

This list is pretty shit, I just picked a couple off of it that I had never heard of previously and read them last night and I was very disappointed.

>House Rules - 4/10
I hated this, so much detail about riding horses and taking care of horses in stables and shit, the entire thing is set in a horse stable and revolves around the keepers. They kind of rob the horse stable of tranquilizers and use them to numb this one woman so they can engage in extreme lesbian fisting. All this is pretty bland and the sexual scenes are not very extreme at all, it was amazing how tame they made it actually. It is hard to imagine how one could write this material to be this bland and uneventful given what it is. Somehow they do manage to make this all as bland as humanly possible. The story ends up going absolutely nowhere and leads to nothing. It just kind of trails off and doesn't tie up any of the story whatsoever.

>In the miso soup - 6/10
Another one that was just very boring, and I was prepared to be really really into it. It just isn't very extreme, it doesn't tell a particularly interesting story, and after it gets extreme for a short period it just stops and changes gears and does not become extreme after that. The tension built up in the first half just dissipates into nothing after a waaaay too early reveal. And then it just peters out. The structure of this book really could have used a lot of work. I was not impressed, and it was not very disturbing or extreme.

I am not a huge fan of extreme stuff, and I am not really desensitized, gore and rekt threads still make me cringe and wince. So honestly I was expecting at the very least that, at least a wince or something.

Maybe someone can recommend me one of these holocaust books on the list that will make me wince/cringe?

>>12909736
I liked it as well, it's just an all-around creepy book with some great images and language (even though it's translated). I like the surrealist elements like when his body becomes an amalgamation of sea creatures, I feel like "slightly otherworldly" is an unexplored niche in horror, everything else is mostly either realistic or full-on eldritch.

>>12910222
I loved The Lime Twig but I wouldn't call it disturbing, it's more like an unpleasant lucid dream.

i'm choosing which short story to translate. to this day the most shock-content filled book by sorokin is Blue Lard for me, maybe i'll just go for a fragment of it.
there's Earthfuckers (literal), deformed cloned writers, stalin fucked by another soviet leader and much more

>>12910758
I don't know much about the holocaust books, but The Wasp Factory is one I recommend. I've also heard that Hogg is pretty extreme. And if all else fails, you can always read Sotos

>>12911320
do you have any links for pirated Sotos? couldn't find him on libgen

>>12911351
I've got some links:

https://www.docdroid.net/cDxVCiW/peter-sotos-tick.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/yuHWWFA/peter-sotos-lazy.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/cpggjJh/peter-sotos-index.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/5Xk013O/peter-sotos-tool.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/oaFU7nw/peter-sotos-special.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/DHGGIYF/pure-1.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/bA1H5Qx/pure-2.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/xGCF3ZB/pure-3-vol1.pdf
https://www.docdroid.net/ksgyAmm/pure-3-vol2.pdf

>>12911367
thanks, fren!

>>12896963
this chart looks based OP
i've only read justine, steps and child of god
will check more of these reads out

>>12911397
What did you think of those 3?

>>12911399
justine - really liked it even though some of the descriptions of like scenery and buildings and shit seemed autistic to me. i prefer 120 days of sodom though. but, still, a great novel. i have a copy of juliette too, not sure when i'll get around to reading it...

steps - read it a lot time ago so i don't remember it very well. read it because DFW said it was one of his favourite books. got me into kosinski. i really liked it, i might have read it twice, but i don't really remember much about it.

child of god - disturbingly a lot like my own life (forcefully evicted, falsely accused of rape, etc). i didn't turn into a necrophiliac serial killer though. are mccarthey's other novels as dark/disturbing?

>>12911432
>are mccarthey's other novels as dark/disturbing?
The Road and Blood Meridian are equally (or even more) dark and disturbing. The rest are all violent and definitely dark, but in a lesser degree.

For the people interested, I've actually found the thread where they made this chart.

>>/lit/thread/S9570078#p9570262

>>12911609
what's his most fucked-up book overall?

>>12911729
Blood Meridian

>>12911743
cool i'll read it

>>12908817
same, I've been checking resupplies for years now and I'm starting to accept the fact that I will never read it.
Read some Edogawa Ranpo if you want some good fucked up fetishy japanese murder stuff, that's easier to find

>>12909009
I also went to look for it and couldn't find it. I was told it wasn't translated into english to begin with. A cursory attempt at finding the japanese version failed, but it should exist, probably. It was published in 1993 and never republished so finding books like that in digital can be difficult.
Anyway from what I can tell it's just a practical guide on suicide. Listing different methods, how painful they'll be, how likely they are to succeed, etc. There's no other commentary or anything.
I don't actually know how someone put this in the chart if it isn't available in english to begin with. I wonder if people who compose charts actually have read all the books they list or not.

>>12896963
You should read nothing from the 20th century and beyond

Satanskin by James Havoc and Motherfuckers: The Auschwitz of Oz by David Britton

>>12912360
Can you tell more about them?

None of these hold a candle to The Kindly Ones

>>12912504
Why is that?

all of the /lit/ charts are pure cringe

For those who really want to go down the depraved rabbit hole for the sake of seeing disgusting things, I recommend looking into weird fetishes on deviantart and asstr. There's no serious artistry to anything, just legitimate fetishists fully expressing their most powerful fantasies for the purpose of letting other people masturbate to them.

As far as I've seen, there are some things multiple people agree on that could be changed on the chart.

A Modest Proposal is a comedic satire, and doesn't have the dark atmosphere other novels here have.
Both Justine and 120 Days of Sodom could be on the list.
People are divided on the quality of Story of the Eye, but I feel that it belongs on this list either way.
This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen has not gotten much positive feedback regarding being on the list.
Songs of a Dead Dreamer/Grimscibe is the only horror genre novel here, and feels out of place.
People are also divided on the quality/enjoyability of American Psycho, but should still be on the list.
Child of God and Blood Meridian should both be on the list.

Other books that should be on the list are Naked Lunch and Exquisite Corpse.

Most other recommendations have been made my single people, so it is difficult to rate them.

A little extra thing, books that people really enjoyed and/or should definitely stay on this list:

Hogg
Selfish, Little
The Wasp Factory
Maldoror
The Atrocity Exhibition
The Tunnel

>>12913712
Does anyone disagree with this? Or have other recommendations to add?

Do you think that Night (by Wiesel) is a good contender for this list?

Is Lolita too tame? I found it pretty dark, especially how reality sometimes seeps through Humbert's romanticized view of the world

>>12913712
I think I mentioned it before but I would get rid of titus andronicus or replace it with Macbeth. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's brought it up before but Titus is a comedically exaggerated work of violence, there's not much to witness beyond it. Macbeth is a legit psychological horror work and probably the only Shakes play that fits the chart, if we have an obligatory Shakes spot.
>I am in blood
>Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
>Returning were as tedious as go o'er:

>>12913712
>>12896963
The list needs more writers. Writers that go light on the disturbing and writers that go hardcore with the disturbing enough to make you go oh god what am I reading.

>>12915196
People who dislike the book do not realize the narration is told from the perspective of sick fuck.

Is there a fanbase for disturbing literature ?
I am asking because one of the novels I'm working on is a story about a serial rapist/torturer but from the rapists point of view..
I'm not sure if I ever want to release it since I don't want to go to jail for writing a book.

>>12915386
yes, you got whole communities with obsessions on stuff like serial killers and the occult. I doubt your book is going to be the most disturbing thing ever made.

>>12915386
There is. Check Diary of A Rapist or Carol Oates's Zombie and you'll find there's an audience. Ourselves included.

>>12915386
Amphetamine Sulphate and Nine Banded Books (and Creation Books in a past era) are into publishing this kind of stuff and their books sell pretty well.

Never read him but apparently Tony Duvert's stuff is unpleasant to say the least.

>>12915340
That sounds very reasonable.

>>12915354
Do you have certain writers in mind? It is also difficult to rank the current books on their extremeness, simply because no one has read all of them.

What is also difficult is that this list is for both dark and disturbing, and certain books only have one of the two. Maldoror, for example, I would describe as a good, dark book, but not very disturbing, if I compare it to something like The Wasp Factory.

Another thing that I would say is important, especially with the more extreme novels, is the quality of the writing. Books that go all the way over the top tend to sacrifice quality in plot, dialogue, characters etc. in one way or another. This list should be for books that strong in a literary sense, while also being extreme. In short, it should be more than just shock value.

I was the one asking about Lolita, by the way. I think that it deserves a spot on the list.

Maybe another worthwhile addition. Borderline incomprehensible ruminations on misogyny involving a suicidal woman hiring a gay man to watch her naked in her room for four nights in a row. The festivities include the ritualistic drinking of tampon blood infused water and molestation via garden implement. Further link to the thread in that Peter Sotos provides an afterword for the English edition.

>>12915405
>>12915413
>>12915464
Thank you for the info, most of the stories I write are things I dreamt about (frequent nightmares and insomnia when I was younger) and I have the basis for some disturbing stories but I wasn't sure if anyone would even be interested in reading them.
If/when I finish one of them I'll post it here so you guys can have a read through it.

>>12912504
Post a passage or something

Okay, I think the biggest thing right now is to get more opinions on three types of books:
>Books on the list no one has talked about
>Books that might need to be removed from the list, but don't have enough opinions yet
>Books that are recommended to be added to the list, but only by one person


>Books on the list no one has talked about (in depth)
JK Huysmans - Down There (also called The Damned)
Octave Mirbeau - Torture Garden
Herman Ungar - The Maimed
Louis Aragon - Irene's Cunt
Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn
Jerzy Kosinski - Steps
Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
Elfirede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
Thierry Jonquet - Mygale
Jack Ketchum - The Girl Next Door
Katherine Dunn - Geek Love
Dennis Cooper - Frisk
Dorothy Allison - Bastard Out of Carolina
Wataru Tsurumi - The Complete Manual of Suicide
Sarah Kane - Blasted
Samuel Delaney - Hogg
Jesus I Aldapuerta - The Eyes
A M Homes - The End of Alice
Slavenka Draculic - The Taste of a Man
Houllebecq - Platform
J T LeRoy - The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Joyce Carol Oates - Rape: A Love Story
Natsuo Kirino - Grotesque
Alain Robbe-Grillet - A Sentimental Novel

>Books that might need to be removed from the list, but don't have enough opinions yet
Shakespeare - Titus Andronicus
Céline - Death on the Installment Plan
Tadeusz Borowski - This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
Michael Gira - The Consumer

(note that this is not just about the quality of the novel, but also about how dark/disturbing it is)

>Books that are recommended to be added to the list, but only by one person
Pasolini - Petrolio
Evan Connel - Diary of a Rapist
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
John Hawkes - Second Skin
John Hawkes - The Lime Twig
John Ridley - The Drift
Leon Bloy - Disagreeable Tales
Leon Bloy - Sweating Blood
Joseph Heller - Something Happened
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
Edgar Hillsenrath - The Nazi and the Barber
Sorokin - The Day of Oprichnik
Gabrielle Wittkop - The Necrophiliac
Jachym Topol - The Devil's Workshop

I colour coded the changes:
Green: will most likely stay
Orange: might be removed
Red: will be removed

Books that will definitely be added:
Sade - 120 Days of Sodom
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse

I myself lean towards removing Titus Andronicus and replace it with Macbeth, but I would like more opinions on it

>>12917188
color Cows green, it's amazing. also filled with shock content to the brim.

>>12917371
Will do! Are there other books on there that you've read or think should be on the list?

>>12917431
other Palahniuk's books, not Fight club though, it"s pretty light on gore.
Haubted should definitely be added, it's graphic as fuck and also has far greater literary value. other books are also notable

>>12897214
wtf is wormy sex

Story of the Eye was fucking juvenile shit, even Bataille admitted it lmao

Do any filmmakers capture the Hollubeque edge without embarrassing themselves (any more than he does)?

>>12917694

Yeah I mean it reads just like a porn tale, quite weak for such a heavy weight as Bataille

>>12917556
I will put Haunted along with the other to be added ones, and I will put Lolita on there as well (I forgot my own rec in the list I made lol)

Does anyone know how to make a decent chart, by the way?
I don't think we'll get to the point that we have enough information to make a decent dark/disturbing version 2, but it'd be nice to try things out.

Do I need to read Journey to the End of the Night first to get Death on Credit?

>>12917144
Sarah Kane is such an underrated writer man. Literally all of her shit is absolutely fantastic. In regards to this thread, I'd say Cleansed is far more disturbing in than Blasted, and by no means is 4.48 Psychosis an easy read by any stretch, especially given context.

Here's a short film of Skin, pretty kino imo.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3bhawg

>>12918495
Can you tell more about Cleansed, how it's a dark/disturbing book, and why it's a better pick than Blasted? And what you think of the novel in general
Thanks for the link, will check that out later!

>>12918526
So Blasted was envisioned as the first installment in a nuclear trilogy of plays that were never finished. Cleansed acts as the second part. It takes a lot of the ideas presented in Blasted and ramps them up to 11. Without spoiling too much, expect a lot general bodily mutilation, suicide etc.

I'd still put 4.48 up there as well, maybe on par with Cleansed at the least. I think what makes it so disturbing is the reality of it all, it's more of a suicide note than a play (she killed herself very shortly after completing it).

>>12917144
Hogg is easily the most nauseating book i've ever read, i had to put my hand in front of my face and peek through my fingers at the words like i was watching a horror movie, not everybody will have that reaction yet it is undeniably wretched in its content, especially if you've ever encountered individuals like the ones described, it's not even the rapes, which appear tame compared to the rest of the story, and serve only to reinforce an oppressive atmosphere, the writing isn't without occasional humor, and even moments of, dare i say, tenderness. it is still thoroughly unpleasant to read and earns a well-deserved place on the chart. The End of Alice is more subtly disturbed as it seduces the reader into indulgence. where Hogg grabs the reader by the throat, Alice lulls the reader into confidence, reassuring them that while these behaviors are, quote-unquote frowned upon, there is nothing wrong with a refinement of taste, and that certain individuals simply inherit these proclivities, are passed a torch of degeneracy. it is playful, mischievous, sexy, tragic. It is also completely perverted. it should stay. Rape: A Love Story is a curiosity on the list, when taken at face value it comes off as a self-righteous moralizing sermon, using 'eye for an eye,' kind of justice, demonizing the antagonists, presenting them as trash to be swept up and disposed of, and therein lies its disturbed quality. by the end of it the reader may be left unsure of whether or not the officer represents justice and security in a threatening, hostile world, or if in fact it is those consequence-free murders which contribute to our dread. while it has some interesting moral investigations its content doesn't really compare with the rest of these books in terms of outright shock. it leaves a lingering impression, one that makes you want to speak directly to the author and ask what they meant. Geek Love features enough descriptions of tortured, mutilated souls to warrant a place here. Platform doesn't really belong, just because prostitution is tolerated doesn't make it disturbing, the bombing at the end rings no particular bells that an average pulp crime novel doesn't provide every few pages. Death on Credit has deviations and a protagonist indifferent to the consequences, any book that makes suicide funny should be on there.
>>12917188
Blood Meridian shouldn't be on there, nor should 120 days of sodom unless the other books by the respective authors are removed, Blood Meridian is dark and gloomy but doesn't really have the 'gets under your skin' kind of quality that these others have, have one Mccarthy or the other, have on de Sade or the other

>>12917144
Here’s from Palahniuk’s Haunted


Also I’m getting back to This Way for the Gas, and it’s pretty disturbing. I guess it’s a question of whether or not we are just trying to make a list of transgressive lit, or a more broad dark fiction list. At least in the first story there is no explicit sexual content, and it’s not violent in the way that American Psycho is violent, but his way of writing the Holocaust is certainly disturbing, even for Holocaust lit.


I’d also suggest Clive Barker’s Books of Blood. They are straightforward horror, but heavy on the violence and gore.

>>12918617
>Hogg is easily the most nauseating book
Not particularly more nauseating than /r9pol/

>>12918574
Thanks! The anon below is not in favour of multiple works per author. While I was happy to put more than one work per writer in, it's understandable to keep it at one per person, so you can get a more general idea of what different authors have to offer. Is Cleansed a sequel? i.e. should that be the one to be on the list, or would you prefer 4.48?

>>12918617
Thanks for the detailed answer! First of all, do you think that Justine is the better book to pick over 120 Days? I myself haven't read either of them, so I'm relying on replies to make a decision.
Secondly, just to be sure: you'd like Platform to go, and the rest that you mentioned to stay? I'm not sure what your opinion on Rape: a Love Story is regarding the chart.
Also, out of curiosity, why do you prefer to have one book per writer?

>>12918705
The books do not have to be overly violent or sexual to be dark and/or disturbing. They have to unsettle the reader in one way or another to be on this list. It's difficult to find the line of how dark something needs to be to be on this list. I will keep This Way for the Gas on, for now.
I'll also add Clive Barker to the suggested section, if more people agree I will definitely add it. For now I won't, also because it's straight horror, and I (even though I really liked the book) am going to remove Songs of a Dead Dreamer + Grimscribe from the list, purely because it feels a bit out of place here, if that makes sense.


This is the list so far, with:
Titus Andronicus replaced by Macbeth
And further additions:
Naked Lunch
Exquisite Corpse
Haunted
One novel by Sarah Kane, so far Cleansed

>>12918422
I haven't read Death on Credit, but as far as I know you can read it by itself

Someone said that Eden Eden Eden should be replaced with The Tomb. Has anyone else read these, and which one do you think should be on the list?

>>12919638
I can’t find a copy of either, anybody have any links?

>>12919719
https://dokumen.tips/documents/pierre-guyotat-eden-eden-eden.html

Tomb:
https://mega.nz/#!64xW1ZZC!c7nA-iY-R7-5VM6zhrwI4Z99DN0nOE3Qy99Fpw-zMgM

They are not the best scans, but it's better than nothing

Are there more people who have read books from this list? >>12917144
I would like to hear what you think!

In the miso soup > American psycho

>>12920688
Why is that?

>>12920692

Psycho was more fleshed out in terms of themes and characters but honestly I think it was twice as long as it needed to be and after a while got tiring. I understand that you're meant to become desensitized to violence and brutality (or at least that's how I see it) but after a while it just becomes too much. Miso soup was far shorter and only really had one visceral scene (compared to Psycho's multiple chapters) and imo that was far more intense and effective.

>>12918869
Sarah Kane wrote plays, not novels. They are still very dark and good.

Book of Blood is quite silly and comical a lot of the time, definitely doesn't belong here.

You seem to have missed anon suggested Gabrielle Wittkop's Necrophiliac.

I'd suggest Assisted Living by Nikanor Teratologen added to the list. The book created a lot of hubbub and scandal when it got published here in Sweden. The publisher withdrew the book because of all the bad press. Told through the eyes of a 12 year old that have all kinds of sexual and violent escapades with "grandpa".

>>12918869

I vote you remove house rules, it just doesn't really fit with the rest of what is on here.

I recently read "The Eyes" by Jesús Ignacio Aldapuerta, and it blew me away. It was the first piece of transgressive fiction that I had ever read and I really didn't know how to approach it or digest it. In fact, I first found it in OP's chart. Very difficult to find it in physical format, but I managed to get a hold of a copy thanks to the library exchange program in an institution I'm currently working in. I scanned the whole book but it's divided into three PDF files and because they are so heavy I can't really merge them.

Anyway, The Eyes is a collection of short stories written by this guy Aldapuerta who may have never really existed (he may even be the pseudonym of Simon Whitechapel, another writer of transgressive fiction and also another likely pseudonym, thus making Aldapuerta the mask of a mask, the fiction of a fiction).

I'm currently writing an essay on Aldapuerta. Hopefully I'll be able to publish it either on a literary magazine or a scholarly journal, since basically nobody outside a few blog entries has ever talked about this guy. I'm even thinking about writing a Masters dissertation on him and his relation to Bataille's philosophy, since whoever wrote Aldapuerta's stories clearly knew his Bataille intimately.

>>12918869
>One novel by Sarah Kane, so far Cleansed
Sarah Kane was a playwright, not a novelist. Also, Titus Andronicus should stay alongside Macbeth. Perhaps even include Measure for Measure because of the disturbing nature of its plot and themes.

>>12896963
the jannies are niggerfaggotkikes.

>>12896963

This is right up my street. The only one on there I've actually read is Maldoror, which has a learning curve but I took notes and got the hang of it, will re-read someday in the next few years. Read the first quarter and last quarter of 120 days of Sodom (the good bits), haven't read the middle half (which is the full fleshing out of its first part). My attention to "edgy" books has more recently focused on practical/political philosophy texts (books by dictators), and I'm gearing up to read the other edgy french poets soon (have a copy of Baudelaire's Fleurs de Mal ready to read). I don't care much about fiction these days but...

Ballard holds a very slight interest because multiple musicians have albums named after his works. Metal band Locrian has a very creepy album called "The Crystal World", and rapper Danny Brown has an album with that Atrocity Exhibition namesake.

The OP's thing is focused on fiction, but I would like to suggest "edgy" books generally, in whatever genre.

>>12918869
naming one book by an author demonstrates their talent, more than one starts to look like a fan club, the list must have diversity, with all the literature in the world to suggest one writer outperformed it all twice is gratuitous, the list should have refinement, it's refreshing to see that in a list of 'dark' literature there's no mention of lovecraft, poe, jackson, the usual suspects, there should be an effort toward uncovering fringe material that doesn't already have wide acceptance and a large fan base, books that people haven't been lugging around with themselves since freshman year, introduce some new voices to the dialogue

The most disturbing one I read recently was probably Flowers in the Attic.

Usually I go for creepy, not disturbing, but that one caught me off guard.

>>12896963
Pic related should be on that list.

>>12921714
youre disgusting

Kenzaburo Oe should be on that list. Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness and Echo of Heaven are deeply unsettling and psychologically disgusting.

>>12921027
Id be very interesting in reading your future article and dissertation. The book and the fake author are quite interesting.

>>12921756
>naming one book by an author demonstrates their talent, more than one starts to look like a fan club
This.
>there should be an effort toward uncovering fringe material that doesn't already have wide acceptance and a large fan base,
and This.
That's why there's no Lolita or Palahniuk on the chart. No need for them to be on there. Same reason why Titus Andronicus is there instead of Macbeth or Child of God instead of Blood Meridian. The focus is on selecting something a bit more niche so people can discover a few new things, not circlejerk about the ones everybody knows about.

>>12920700
Would you say the In the Miso Soup should definitely stay on the list?

>>12920963
I didn't know about Kane's work, sorry about that.
Necrophiliac already is on the list of suggested books by a single person, but I'll add Assisted Living on there as well.

>>12920995
Why does House Rules need to be removed, in you opinion? I will happily remove it, but I'd like to have a reason, you know?

>>12921027
I will make The Eyes green as well! It sounds pretty interesting. There are a number of books on this list that are really hard to get a hold of. I've been trying to find and give links to some of them (Sotos, Guyotat), I hope that helps some of you.

>>12921112
I agree with the other anons that we should have only one book per writer, so sadly choices will have to be made.

>>12921756
>>12922339
As said above, one book per writer gives a broader scope and more variety in the chart, I completely agree with that. However, I think that the obvious choices like Lolita or Haunted should still be on the chart. Their popularity does not take away from their quality. And besides, there is no limit to how big a chart should be, so there's no real problem in including them as well, as long as we mostly put in more unknown works. What I do agree with is that should not turn into a regular horror chart, and therefore I would rather not have straight horror novels on there (see removing Ligotti). I also agree on choosing more obscure works of an author, as long as the chosen book is at least on par with the more popular choice.

>>12921923
Can you tell more about the novel?

>>12922190
Which one do you think should be on the list?

>Books going in the 'suggested by one person':
Nikanor Teratologen - Assisted Living
V C Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Kenzaburo Oe - Teach Us to Outgrow / Echo of Heaven
Charles Maclean - The Watcher


Also, I think it would be good to set certain rules for the improved list, so everyone can work around that.
Firstly, one book per author. I think most of us agree with that anyway.
Regarding fiction/nonfiction, the list leaning towards only fiction is what I prefer. I cannot, however, remove Sotos from this list.
Dark/Disturbing is a vague concept. Like I stated before here >>12915475 I would say that a book has to be unsettling, and if it's not very extreme it should be very dark. I don't know if I'm making sense here, but I hope I do.
Regarding popular works, I would prefer to have Lolita and Haunted on the list for reasons stated above. I would like this to be a complete list, and while it might focus on more obscure works, it does not single out better known works.

The biggest problem I'm having so far is that a lot of people recommend different books, and while I would like to put a lot of them on the list, I need to have confirmation by more people to make sure that the quality of the list is high and we don't get the same problem that the current list has.

This is the current standings of the list, with addditions:

Naked Lunch
Exquisite Corpse
Haunted
Lolita
One play by Sarah Kane, so far Cleansed

>>12899103
Maybe The Conspiracy Against the Human Race would’ve been better?

>>12923195
That sounds like a good choice. However, I haven't read Conspiracy myself, what do other people think? Does it feel at the same level as the other books on the list, or is the non-fiction element off-putting in comparison to the rest?

>>12921027
send pdfs anon

When this is done, someone with all the pdfs should make an onionshare

Would recommend Heliogabalus by Artaud, and Caligula: Divine Carnage by Stephen Barber. Both are fictionalized historical accounts of these Roman emperors, full of sexual debauches and tortures.

>>12921756
This is primarily for the most 'dark and disturbing' work and if it requires more than one per author or an author's more popular work to express the darkest content then I don't see the issue.
>Same reason why Titus Andronicus is there instead of Macbeth or Child of God instead of Blood Meridian
Dude, fuck that, I already explained why it's a crap choice. My problem with the existing chart was that because it seemed like a hipster attempt at more niche works it went with lower quality and less disturbing content. I think it's more silly to pass an obvious choice to seem unique than to pick it. This is not a chart for people already specialized.

>>12924114
also to >>12922339

>>12924114
OP here, I agree with you on this.
On one side, we don't want hipster choices, on the other hand, we don't want a circlejerk about popular works. We have to try to be as objective as possible here, and try to pick the best, darkest/most disturbing works.
I also agree that this is not going to be a specialised chart, and while I (like I already said) love to have a lot of obscure works in there, it is not solely for unknown works, but for the best, most unsettling works, regardless of popularity.
I'm a little bit torn between having one or two works per author. On one hand, I want it to be diverse, and on the other I want it to be complete, you know? And like I said before, there is no limit to the size of a chart.

Talking about Shakespeare, we are discussing that because Titus Andronicus was on the first chart. If we ignore that, do we feel like either Titus or Macbeth should be on this list, compared to the other works on here? Rather than looking at 'what is Shakespeare's most disturbing work', 'is Shakespeare's work dark/disturbing enough to be on this list?'

>>12896963
I hate those covers of Thomas Ligotti's. I'm sure I hate them but I can't help but be intrigued by them. They're revolting.

>>12922409
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness for Oe. It's four early novellas by him, so by itself that 's a good starting point for his oeuvre alone, but the novellas make you feel sick and uneasy.
As an aside I'm surprised he's not popular on /lit/. A Japanese nobel winner that's arguably darker than Dazai.

>Books that are definitely going to be added:
William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
One play by Sarah Kane, so far Cleansed


>Books that people are unsure of: which one should be on the list? Are both good enough for the list? Neither?
Shakespeare - Titus Andronicus / Macbeth
Cormac McCarthy - Child of God / Blood Meridian
Marquis de Sade - Justine / 120 Days of Sodom


>Books on the list no one has talked about (in depth): should they stay or do they have to go, and why?
JK Huysmans - Down There (also called The Damned)
Octave Mirbeau - Torture Garden
Herman Ungar - The Maimed
Louis Aragon - Irene's Cunt
Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn
Jerzy Kosinski - Steps
Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
Elfirede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
Thierry Jonquet - Mygale
Jack Ketchum - The Girl Next Door
Dennis Cooper - Frisk
Dorothy Allison - Bastard Out of Carolina
Wataru Tsurumi - The Complete Manual of Suicide
Michael Gira - The Consumer
Sarah Kane - Blasted
Slavenka Draculic - The Taste of a Man
J T LeRoy - The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Joyce Carol Oates - Rape: A Love Story
Natsuo Kirino - Grotesque
Alain Robbe-Grillet - A Sentimental Novel


>Books that are recommended to be added to the list, but only by one person: should they be added, or not, and why?
Pasolini - Petrolio
Evan Connel - Diary of a Rapist
John Hawkes - Second Skin / The Lime Twig
John Ridley - The Drift
Leon Bloy - Disagreeable Tales / Sweating Blood
Joseph Heller - Something Happened
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
Edgar Hillsenrath - The Nazi and the Barber
Sorokin - The Day of Oprichnik
Gabrielle Wittkop - The Necrophiliac
Jachym Topol - The Devil's Workshop
Nikanor Teratologen - Assisted Living
V C Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Kenzaburo Oe - Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
Charles Maclean - The Watcher
Artraud - Heliogabalus
Steven Barber - Caligula: Divine Carnage

>>12925676
I’m the Kane anon from before. Cleansed is more a spiritual successor to Blasted than a direct sequel, and going off the general vibe of this thread I’d go for Cleansed over 4.48 to be added to the list. Both plays are excellent and if any of you anons enjoy the recommended work here I’d highly recommend her other stuff.

Great thread OP.

>>12924390
>>12925676
Problem is there isn't a decided purpose of the chart, other than the title which is what I'm going off of. In which case Macbedth/BM/120 days are the more 'dark and disturbing' works imo. I never understood the one work per author thing being gratuitous. If an author can achieve it once couldn't they have the mind to achieve it again? Homer has both the Iliad and Odyssey, would we exclude one from a greeat works cahrt because it would look gratuitous to have both of them in it?
>Michael Gira - The Consumer
I'm gonna guess this was mostly in there for the novelty of Michael Gira being in the chart. From the passages I've read it's pretty fucked up and horrorific. But opinion seems to be split on whether it's quality or not.

>>12925676
The maimed is a good read and deserves to be on the list. Its about an autistic/anxiety-ridden guy who slowly goes insane after he is forced into a relationahip with an old bitch who takes advantage of him and cucks him all while his best friend deteriorates in front of him...its fucked up all the right ways.
I might suggest No longer human by Dazai if you want dark, depressing novels on the list too. The author killed himself after writing the book and its basically "life is meaningless and horrible and never gets better: the novel"

>>12896963
I've read:

The Maimed
The Atrocity Exhibition
American Psycho
Platform

Unironically American Psycho was by far the best of those four, also the gore scenes were decently uncomfortable. I personally like Glamorama better, it's Ellis at the height of his post-modern powers, I highly recommend Glamorama OP.

>>12925676

I can vouch for The Maimed, it's a good book, great piece of pre-war German ficition, also very odd and dark, I vote to keep it on

>>12925676

Silence by Endo (or any of Endo's later work) is my rec, by the way

Also, replace Justine with 120 Days of Sodom, 120 days is truly disturbing even today

I know it's short, as well as rather pulpy, but I've always found "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" to be disturbing simply out of sheer despair.

>>12925676
>poppy z. brite
>mfw

>>12921027
>>12923881

Noy the same anon but I downloaded the pdf of The Eyes that I found on scribd and uploaded it to mega for easy access, not sure if the pdf is complete.

https://mega.nz/#!CdAghAJC!lluxTktukp8qT8N5dHdi9UdX69I3D0SZt1iGs6TG_Nc

>>12925755
>>12925676
I'd also go for Cleansed. While I personally like Blasted better because it is more clear and straightforward, Cleansed definitly cranks the 'disturbing' up a good notch. 4.48 Psychosis is also great, but not really graphic, more of a lyrical account of severe depression. Phadras Love could also be considered, its Hippolytus is one of the most uncormfortable, still strangely engaging characters I know of. But Cleansed is a safe bet.

>>12896963
Craziest books I've read are Steps and Torture Garden

>>12927325
I assume you vote to keep them on the list? Can you tell why?

Read these two books simultaneously, alternating between them with every chapter. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about how this pair of texts, one sadomasochistic dystopian fiction and the other neuroscientific geneticist nonfiction, are thematically unified.

>>12926185
>>12926196
I'll make The Maimed green! Also, there already is a depressing novels chart, so I'd like to steer away from that subgenre of dark literature.

>>12925872
A lot of people have voted on Macbeth, Blood Meridian and 120 Days, so I will change the previous three to these ones.
I'm guessing The Consumer is kind of like Story of the Eye, where the opinions differ quite a bit. I will make it green though, since half the people seem to enjoy it, and if it's dark and disturbing it can stay.

>>12925755
>>12927319
Cleansed it is! Thanks for the details.

>>12926192
What do you think of the other three? Do you agree that Platform should not be there, but the other three should? Also, thanks for the rec, I'll keep it in mind!

>>12926207
I will add Shusaku Endo - Silence to the recommended by one person section!

>>12927236
Can someone see if this pdf of The Eyes is complete? I will save it with the rest of the pdf's either way. Thanks for the upload!

>>12926382
I found that to be pretty disturbing as well, but I'm unsure whether to add it or not, since it's more straight horror than the other stories.

>>12927431
Small addition: I'll also add Evan Connel - Diary of a Rapist to books that are definitely going to be added. I looked over the fact that two people recommended it.

>>12927236
>>12927431
Aldapuerta Anon here. That PDF is complete (it was manually typesetted by another reader of The Eyes), and there's another one on libgen that is also complete. If anyone knows a way to merge very large PDFs, I'll gladly upload the scans of the actual book.

>>12925676
Nice thread
I want to suggest a book called VIENTO SECO by Daniel Caicedo. Its a recounting of extremely gruesome acts of violence, torture and murders in 50's Colombia.

>>12896963
The Dreamreapers is a short but very disturbing, dark story. I recommend.

>>12917144
Huysmans' book despite the interpolated history of Gilles de Rais' crimes and punishment and major theme of the pursuit of knowledge concerning Satanism and sorcery is far too comfy to be 'disturbing' although it's dark enough. I found pic'd extremely disturbing.

>>12925676
I'll make a push for The Nazi and The Barber one last time. Its condemnation of crimes and the value of life are not limited to the holocaust by its end.

On mobile, so I'll keep it kind of short.
I will add all the recommendations!

>>12928200
Thanks for checking!

>>12928453
If no one else talks about it, I'll remove it.

>>12928471
I would prefer more than one person recommend a book, to make sure other people agree with it. I am not sure what I'm going to do with the "rec'd by one person" list when we're at the end of making the new list, so don't worry too much.

>>12927236
Thanks anon

>>12928634
https://www.ttbook.org/interview/paul-beatty-nazi-and-barber

I would remove Wataru Tsurumi The Complete Manual of Suicide since i keep hearing it hasn't been translated in English yet.

I would put more than one book by author in the new chart.

>>12928379
Is this book also available in English? I've been trying to look it up, but could not find an English version.

>>12928397
I'm having some question marks with this book. I've been trying to look it up, but it is extremely unknown, and only 28 pages long.

>>12928453
I'm not sure whether to remove Huysmans' book from the list or not. If it's dark enough (despite not being that disturbing), I'd say it can stay, but I haven't read it so I'm relying on you guys.
I'm just thinking about Maldoror, and how that book isn't as extreme as some others, but still feels like it belongs here for being dark and unnerving. I don't know if this is true for Down There//The Damned.
I added A Fan's Notes!

>>12929650
That's a good point. If the book isn't available in English, I would say it can't be on this list.
Also, if we would implement the 'multiple books per author' rule, which books would you add in addition to the current ones?

>>12929860
You should leave Titus Andronicus alone and add Sade's 120 days in Sodom too.

>>12927431

I wouldn't call Houllebecq "disturbing"

>>12930026
The plan so far is to have Macbeth/Blood Meridian/120 Days of Sodom, replacing Titus Andronicus/Child of God/Justine.
By leaving it alone, do you mean to remove it or to keep it in? And why?

Thank all of you for the great amount of contributions, and for keeping this thread alive!
When this thread gets deleted, I'll make a new one that solely focuses on making a new chart.

A few questions:
Are any of Shakespeare's play dark/disturbing enough to be on this list?
If we want to have more than one book per author, which works should we add that already have another work by the same author on the list?
I have a lot of works suggested by a single person, how do I decide whether to add them or not? I want to have as many opinions and as many people working on this list to make it as good a list as possible.

Rules of the new chart:
Works have to be available in English
Mostly fiction, exceptions can be made (see Sotos)
Dark/disturbing is a vague concept. Books should be unsettling, and try to steer away from books that are solely 'depressing', as there already is a chart for books like that. Books don't have to be extreme, as long as they are dark and get under your skin.
No straight horror.

Old chart is colour coded: green is going to stay, orange is still unsure or will be replaced by another work of the same author, red will definitely be removed.

>Books that are going to be added:
Shakespeare - Macbeth
Marquis de Sade - 120 Days of Sodom
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Sarah Kane - Cleansed
Evan Connel - Diary of a Rapist


>Books on the list no one has talked about (in depth): should they stay or do they have to go, and why?
JK Huysmans - Down There (also called The Damned)
Louis Aragon - Irene's Cunt
Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn
Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
Elfirede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
Thierry Jonquet - Mygale
Jack Ketchum - The Girl Next Door
Dennis Cooper - Frisk
Dorothy Allison - Bastard Out of Carolina
Urs Alleman - Babyfucker
Sarah Kane - Blasted
Slavenka Draculic - The Taste of a Man
J T LeRoy - The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Joyce Carol Oates - Rape: A Love Story
Natsuo Kirino - Grotesque
Alain Robbe-Grillet - A Sentimental Novel


>Books that are recommended to be added to the list, but only by one person: should they be added, or not, and why?
Pasolini - Petrolio
John Hawkes - Second Skin / The Lime Twig
John Ridley - The Drift
Leon Bloy - Disagreeable Tales / Sweating Blood
Joseph Heller - Something Happened
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
Edgar Hillsenrath - The Nazi and the Barber
Sorokin - The Day of Oprichnik
Gabrielle Wittkop - The Necrophiliac
Jachym Topol - The Devil's Workshop
Nikanor Teratologen - Assisted Living
V C Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Kenzaburo Oe - Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
Charles Maclean - The Watcher
Artraud - Heliogabalus
Steven Barber - Caligula: Divine Carnage
Frederick Exley - A Fan's Notes

>>12930093
I can't fathom why anyone would think of Flowers in the Attic as dark or disturbing.

What if we kissed in a castle at the heart of the Black Forest

>>12929860
La Bas (Huysmans) is not nearly as disorienting, obscure and morbidly humorous as Maldoror. It's written in a very intimate (comfy) style and principally concerns a historian interested in how the modern occult differs from that of the Middle Ages. Offsetting his (Durtal's, the principal character's) obsession with wanting to attend a Black Mass (which he finally does) and learning what he can about modern sorcery --are a silly early romance with an early source of his (Madam Chantelouve) that leads to an actual sexual encounter (the only non-overtly pornographic one I've ever encountered in ANY 19th c lit), a series of intimate conversations with an old astrologer who lives in a church bell tower and who constantly bewails the pathetic state of astrology as practiced in contemporary times as compared to how it was done in medieval times, and the frequent interventions of a text he has been working on concerning Gilles de Rais or Bluebeard- his hideous crimes but also his oddly moving repentance and execution amidst a weeping, entirely forgiving public (strange as it may seem..). Dark enough? Ultimately the modern occult is revealed to be a relatively silly thing or sham when compared to the medieval variety, if not modern humanity in general, when compared to [our] 'shown' to be more substantial, more serious forebears.
It's actually a great novel, too great to be niched in the way proposed. And ultimately (despite the dark matter) a very comfy 'read.' Just an opinion.

>>12929860
Also, well done adding Exley. Notes is a fucking disturbing book.

>>12930093
The problem with open contributions is that it's quite hard for people (specially here) to reach a consensus. It isn't only that everyone has a different concept of what constitutes "dark" or "disturbing", but also that some people might find something "disturbing" that another might consider "tame". I think the chart is good enough as it is, as an orientative selection of names and works. A total compendium is impossible to reach. If you want to add stuff, go ahead, but just follow your gut, man. I wouldn't delete any pick. Most of the books there are barely ever named here, so deleting them might only do a disservice to the people interested. Just my two cents anyway.

Any good modern vamp books? A la Vampire the Masquerade?

>>12921714
eDGY bAIT

>>12896963
Pretty fantastic thread, this is what /lit/ is (or should be) all about.

I have not much to contribute except to mention a few books books that could be included.

First Flaubert's short story "A dream of Hell", which is not so disturbing as completely depressing in how it makes short work of all sentimentalism and soul-related matters (Flaubert was a pretty blackpilled atheist). Flaubert is very well-known but that story not so much so it might be worth considering.

Second Pär Lagerkvist's The Dwarf, about a hideious dwarf who is the Christ or the Devil or perhap both. Haven't read it but from the account I've read of it it's pretty wicked.

Third Maurice G Dantec's Roots of Evil about serial killers (one of them happens to be among the good guys, short of). Unfortunately I'm not sure it has been translated into English.

>>12930093
You are doing the right thing. Thanks for the update!

>>12930093
Will the ne chart be uploaded on the /lit/ wiki? Cause I'll be looking for that.

>>12898067
Is there a way I can still read this since it was banned off amazon?

Down There by Huysmans. Strong recommend, no better novel about Satanism proper.

Torture Garden is shit. Builds up to what should be an interesting confluence of eros and thanos as he sails to China, and then climaxes with the thot fatale repeating "baby baby baby" dialogue over and over at the dramatic apex of the actual garden. Utterly boring and a complete let down.

>>12930551
Thanks for the detailed description! So to summarize: the quality of the books is high, the dark-ness is questionable and the disturbing-ness not that high. Is that right? It's difficult to make a choice about this one. I will let it stay for now, and if more people have a contribution regarding this book I will probably be able to make a clear choice.
EDIT: >>12932135 just also recommended it, so I'll let it stay!
I'm assuming you are >>12930558 as well. Right now it's on the 'recommended by one person' list, if more people recommend it it will definitely be on the list.
Again, what I'm going to do with the 'one person' list when we're further into the making of the chart, I'm not sure of yet, but I'll definitely check out all books mentioned myself.

>>12930605
I completely agree with you on the 'what is disturbing' part. This is also seen in Story of the Eye and The Consumer, where the opinions are divided. As long as multiple people say that it's dark/disturbing enough and doesn't get very negative feedback, I'll put it on the list.
Thanks for your view on making the new list! Regarding deleting books on the list: I want my list to be as complete and high in quality as possible, where almost every book can really get to you. On the list right now are books that are either not disturbing at all or not that high in quality, and that does not fit with the feeling of the 'good' books on the list. I am not going to keep lesser books just because they are obscure, that sounds like giving them a pity vote because they aren't talked about much.
Also, an important thing to note is that even if the new list gets really popular, the old one is still available in the wiki, and people will still see those books.

>>12931605
Thanks! This is my first time making a thread, so it's really nice to hear all the positive comments.
Regarding your recommendations, I will not put them on the list for different reasons:
A Dream of Hell is more depressing than disturbing, and I'm trying to steer away from that because there already is a chart with depressing literature.
You haven't read The Dwarf, and I'd really prefer to hear personal experiences in this thread.
I have checked out Roots of Evil, but couldn't find any in English. If someone finds one, I'll put it on the 'one person' list.
Regardless, thanks for your input! I love seeing so many people recommend books they found disturbing.

>>12932112
Thanks! I'm trying my best.

>>12932118
I have no clue who is in charge of the wiki and how it works, so I can't answer your question. Does anyone else know?

>>12932143
You're saying that Torture Garden is not disturbing enough to be on the list, or is it disturbing but the quality of the book is just not up to par? Someone else said it was one of the craziest books they've read, so there is some division on it.

Is there a version of this chart focusing on short fiction or plays? I see a couple on here but the majority seem to be novels.

Necrophiliac by Wittkop is a must! The book is beautifully written which clashes with the disturbing topic in a nice way.

>>12932859
This is the only dark/disturbing chart made so far. The closest thing to it is the depressing literature chart or just the horror charts, as far as I know.

>>12932873
I will add Gabrielle Wittkop - Necrophiliac to the 'one person' list! Thanks for the recommendation!

>>12932873
>>12932894
My bad, it's been recommended before, so it's going to be added to the chart!

I've gone through the whole thread to see if I missed something, and there were a couple of books with multiple suggestions, so here are the current standings!

We've almost completed deciding on the works of the old chart!
The orange books on the chart are being replaced by other works from the same author, Torture Garden got both positive and negative feedback so I'll keep that one on a maybe for now.

>Books that are going to be added:
Shakespeare - Macbeth
Marquis de Sade - 120 Days of Sodom
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Sarah Kane - Cleansed
Evan Connel - Diary of a Rapist
Gabrielle Wittkop - Necrophiliac
Pier Paolo Pasolini - Petrolio

>Books on the list no one has talked about (in depth): should they stay or do they have to go, and why?
Louis Aragon - Irene's Cunt
Hubert Selby Jr. - Last Exit to Brooklyn
Elfirede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
Thierry Jonquet - Mygale
Jack Ketchum - The Girl Next Door
Dennis Cooper - Frisk
Dorothy Allison - Bastard Out of Carolina
Slavenka Draculic - The Taste of a Man
J T LeRoy - The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Joyce Carol Oates - Rape: A Love Story
Natsuo Kirino - Grotesque
Alain Robbe-Grillet - A Sentimental Novel


>Books that are recommended to be added to the list, but only by one person: should they be added, or not, and why?
Kathy Acker - Blood and Guts in High School
John Hawkes - Second Skin / The Lime Twig
John Ridley - The Drift
Leon Bloy - Disagreeable Tales / Sweating Blood
Joseph Heller - Something Happened
Mo Hayder - Pig Island
Edgar Hillsenrath - The Nazi and the Barber
Sorokin - The Day of Oprichnik
Jachym Topol - The Devil's Workshop
Nikanor Teratologen - Assisted Living
V C Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Kenzaburo Oe - Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
Charles Maclean - The Watcher
Artraud - Heliogabalus
Steven Barber - Caligula: Divine Carnage
Frederick Exley - A Fan's Notes
Andrea Dworkin - Mercy
Kate Millet - The Basement

I really liked In the Miso Soup. In terms od subject matter it was pretty tame, but the atmosphere is so heavy and smothering that you really get the syrupy fear of the protagonist. I especially liked the descriptions of the other main character, he really stuck with me.

>>12932344
Again on Huysmans:
the subject matter of La Bas is definitely the traditional subject matter of horror- Satanism, sorcery, medieval child murder, the occult. The protagonist however is like some well read /lit/ dude who one day decides to 'get into' the occult, so reads, does some research, has conversations with apparently knowledgeable persons, etc., and is even in the process of writing a history of Bluebeard, one of Joan of Arc's chief lieutenants early in his career (and a Marshal of France) but a decadent child rapist and murderer later on, when decayed and bored and self-confined to his own estate.
What Durtal (the MC) learns ultimately is that the modern age is full of thoroughly bored persons who become LARPers of imperfect knowledge (not that this makes them any less dangerous) so the conclusion has more to do with the knowledge amassed (and the gains in spiritual progress) of the MC Durtal than in any kind of dumbfounding nightmarish resolution. It's important to understand that La Bas is the first book of a trilogy that culminates in the MC's conversion to Roman Catholicism. The second book is En Route, the final The Cathedral (which goes very deeply into medieval a capella singing and masses, and has the longest, most detailed description of Chartres Cathedral ever written).
La Bas is ultimately the first stage in a novel of spiritual progress; if youre going to include it then (you) should include Dante's Inferno as well.

>>12934522
You know a lot about Huysmans, and it's really nice to hear the summary in such detail. The beginning reminds me a bit of what I heard Foucault's Pendulum is about (I haven't read it, so I might be wrong, but it is not that relevant either way). I did not know it was part of a trilogy, and as far as I'm getting from your explanation, it should not be included, even though Gilles de Rais' life and details are pretty gruesome. The fact that it is more like traditional horror makes me want to steer away from it when it comes to this list, and I don't think that the Divine Comedy (or even just the Inferno part) is dark or disturbing enough to be featured on this list, but then again, I can be wrong about this, and if anyone who has read it and/or knows a lot about it thinks otherwise, I would love to hear it.

>>12922409
I just read it based on the first chart, it isn't dark or disturbing. My review of it is earlier in the thread. Nothing disturbing in it, the erotica is tame and uneventful.

>>12935403
Can you say which book you are talking about? I linked to more than 5 people in that comment, and don't know which one you are.

>>12935403
>>12935429
I'm guessing House Rules, since that also has a negative review.

So I was encouraged by this thread to read Hogg and couldn't read past the first 50 pages or so. I found it very uninteresting and predictable, and the shock value it provided was mostly graphical depictions of sexual degeneracy, failing to be creative or even extreme enough to hold one's interest.

Gonna try my luck with Cows next.

>>12935531
Let us know how it goes!

Bump

>>12933529

>Thierry Jonquet - Mygale
This should not be on the list. It's not disturbing at all. It could have been - since it's about a guy being held in a cell and being slowly given female hormones or whatever, so that the other guy creates the perfect female. But it's not told in a disturbing way. I've read several books by Jonquet and this one was just meh.

>Mo Hayder - Pig Island
I loved it and find it relevant to add it here. It's not very lit, rather an airport crime novel, but with disturbing aspects that make it different from usual thrillers. There's a monster, said to live on the island where the crazy religious group lives, and you dunno if it's only a rumor, or an actual weird beast, or a deformer person, or whatever. There's also fingers in the ass, at least, twice, which is good.

>Artraud - Heliogabalus
I started reading it a few times, couldn't keep going for some reason, but it fits quite well on the list.

>>12896963
Shmelyov Ivan
The Sun of The Dead (Coлнцe Mepтвых)

Author's son was shot by the Communists in Crimea. Father went to Europe and died alone in Paris, impoverished.

The Notebook trilogy, Agota Kristof
>In 1986 Kristof's first novel, The Notebook appeared. It was the beginning of a trilogy. The sequel titled The Proof came 2 years later. The third part was published in 1991 under the title The Third Lie. The most important themes of this trilogy are war and destruction, love and loneliness, promiscuous, desperate, and attention-seeking sexual encounters, desire and loss, truth and fiction.
A short paper by Slavoj Zizek about it: theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/12/agota-kristof-the-notebook-slavoj-zizek

Sardonic Tales by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam

>>12937187
Thank you for the detailed information! I will remove Mygale, and add Pig Island and Heliogabalus!

>>12937400
>>12937517
What are the books about? Why should they be added to the list?

>>12937426
In what way did you find the book dark/disturbing?

>>12918869
Haunted and 120 days are "shocking" but in a cheap way. Haunted is only upsetting during the short story Guts (which has become a meme at this point) and 120 days is basically a b gore thread; it's shocking but provides nothing of substance.

>>12937685
>In what way did you find the book dark/disturbing?
Good question. Actually I think it's a mix of two or three things. The plot of the first book is usually seen as disturbing, since it involves zoophilia, bdsm, being fucked to death, also walking on the dead corpse of your father - all with a simple prose cold as ice. The protagonists are 8-9yo siblings living at their grandma's house in the country during the war - their mother put them there, and they don't know much about their father. Now, in the following books, things change significantly, becoming less violent but "darker" in a way. You start to wonder if there are actually 2 siblings or not - and if they're lying, and if one is dead or just never existed. It's not about escaping from bombs anymore, rather living a miserable life in a totalitarian state, and this adds to the feeling of disquiet that is already conveyed by the lack of certainty regarding the identity of the protagonist(s).
Not sure I made it clear - actually it's a very unclear and cold book.

>>12937738
Sounds like the first book is the heaviest one, disturbing wise. I'm guessing the trilogy should remain together, so I'll put them together in the 'one person' list!

I always come late to those threads. Anyone readed the Nunca más? With prologue by Sabato.

>>12938295
OP here. I haven't read it, so I sadly cannot talk about it , but have you read any of the books here >>12933529 ?
Do you have any other recommendations? I'd like this list to mainly be fiction, so I don't think the Nunca Más is a good fit for this. I'm curious about it though, how extreme is it? It must be very heavy to read.

>>12932344
Down There by Huysmans is disturbing, it's part a historical examination of the real life crimes of Gilles de Rais, the companion of Joan of Arc who raped and murdered hundreds of children in retirement after her execution. Modern schlock and gore aficionados won't like it because it then transitions to contemporary fin de siecle Satanism which was more concerned with sacrilege, host desecration, and orgies within high church Catholicism, than with blood and guts. Important to remember Huysmans is writing about real people and real events, with only the contemporary characters given pseudonyms and some poetic licence, hence limiting the action (because the real Parisian Satanists he wrote about weren't a murder cult) at the reward of realism.

>>12932344
To elaborate I just didn't like Torture Garden and felt conned at the end after being hooked in by the intriguing premise. Other opinions may differ, I think it gets its place in recommendation lists based upon a potential that it doesn't deliver on.

Look how cool all the covers are for it over the years, it was a good premise: erotic femme fatale taking your insert protagonist by the hand into Chinese torture palaces then fucking your brains out. For me in the end she's a simpleton bimbo who says "baby baby baby" over and over and that's the extent of the psychological probing of why pain and death is arousing. Others may have a different view.

>>12938353
Thanks for the additional information! (I'm assuming you're not >>12934522 ) Are you arguing that it should stay on the list, or are you just giving more information? Again, I haven't read it, and I feel a bit helpless when it comes to this book. Previous anon has made very good points on how it shouldn't really be on the list, so I'm leaning towards that right now.

>>12938384
Thank you for the explanation. I will keep Torture Garden on the list: when more people have read it and comment negatively I can always edit the new list.
This counts for every book, by the way. Nothing is set in stone, new books might be found, and I only have a few opinions on every book, so it will be nice to get more opinions/recommendations when the new list is made, people are using it and commenting on how to improve it.

>>12938476
If you have a sense of the sacred Down There is a disturbing work. The Satanists operate within the Catholic Church and present as aristocratic guardians of ancien reigme virtue and civilisation against the decline and debasement of the revolution and republicanism, a supposed bulwark against fin de siecle nihilism. But in the honesty of night they are erotically driven Satanists charged up in a mania of sacrilege against God and all the values they supposedly hold. It's a very well written portrait of what it is to be profane against the sacred. And to stress again, it's real, it's a novelization of real people and real events in actual Satanist circles, and gives a through account of historical satanist crimes in France that would only be otherwise accessible to French speaking church historians, a testament to his research prior to writing the work.

When La Bas was written Huysmans was not a Catholic and was not intending to become a Catholic. The other poster is right in that both Huysmans and the insert character Durant would become Catholics in real life and later novels, but there was no conscious intention at the time of writing Down There that it would be so, it's not an intentional prequel to a conversion narrative. He makes that clear in the introductions he writes to later editions post-conversion. There is no forced happy ending or railroaded come-to-Jesus plot arc. The intention at the time of La Bas was to write a book about Satanism in France, historical and contemporary, and it succeeds. The orgies, host desecration, and extreme blasphemy of the novel caused Huysmans difficulties in Catholic social circles after he converted and was forced to express some contrition but never disavowed the work as many wanted him to do.

>>12938830
Other Huysmans anon
But did (you) not find it all in all enjoyable, comfy even? The writing style is very engaging, one *feels* the LARP of so many of the principal 'dark' characters, and though things do speed up with the transition down to Lyon (for instance)- giving it for a time an adventure novel feel- one walks away from this book with far less respect for 'Satanism,' especially its perpetrators. FWIW I think Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut borrowed more than a little from this novel. More positively this book influenced Huizinga to challenge Burckhardt's notion of a superior 'Renaissance' as opposed to a lesser 'Dark Age.' The penitence of Gilles and the subsequent mass sorrow at his execution really inspired him, evidently. If (you) havent yet pic'd's a strong rec.

>>12939001
>comfy
Fuck off already with your buzzwords. In case you haven't noticed, this thread is not aimed at "le comfy booke chart", but to books which are decidedly unnerving and transgressive. Sure, Huysmans fits that category, but if you want to include him on the grounds of his "comfyness" (whatever the fuck that means), then you clearly don't know or care about what this thread is aiming for.

>>12939129
Ah (you) want to get nasty. Suit yourself, and your own concern for the sacred, desacralization, blah blah blah. Clearly it's worked wonders for 'thee'

>>12939129
Ah, wait a sec
My point was that i should NOT be included on those grounds, and others.
Principally despite the typically dark matter the book is not at all unnerving. Durtal wants knowledge, acquires it retires. My first point compared it to Maldoror, a disorienting and darkly humorous novel which I do think belongs, etc.

>>12938830
>>12939001
You are in disagreement about the book, so I will leave it on a maybe for now, and if no other people will add to this, I'll decide myself at a later point.

I am also going to make a new thread with the list so far, since this thread has almost reached its limit. I will link to it when it's there.

I made a new thread, which can be found here: >>12939693
I also made it clear that the thread is about making a new chart, since I only got the idea of making a better chart halfway through this thread.

>>12896963
Do the columns have a meaning?

>>12940644
No, the books in the original list are sorted by year, and the columns are purely decorative.

>>12917689
Haven't read the book so I can be dead wrong, but my guess would be worm insertions in male urethra.

>>12896963

>>12939001
Replied to (you) in the new thread >>12941864

>>12909009
The peaceful pill handbook or Final Exit might be an easier find.

>>12941177
do you have a copy of that book anon?

>>12941177
wtf was up with this I have zero goodreads friends and somehow the author of this book series started following me out of nowhere, middle of last year

>>12943643
maybe the author felt sorry for you?