/lit/ - Literature

>>15974180
It might help if you explain how you felt when you first saw the spaceship sequence in Alien. Which ship are you even talking about? The overview of the Nostromo at the beginning or the exploration of the derelict ship?

>>15974336
the derelict ship. it was very... alien. it didnt feel in any way human. or maybe something like the monolith. i just want something very different and still elegant and mysterious. either a book about something really mysterious or a book written in a mysterious way.

every alien we come up with seems to be a humanoid or an octopus. VALIS was interesting though, an alien being some sort of god conscioussness information but i feel it wasnt exacuted in a mysterious way as it was inspired by pkd's life.

so things that could scratch that itch

bump

help plisu

second bum

>>15974784
Sounds Lovecraftian.

read "rendezvous with rama" OP, thank me later

>>15974784
The Boats of the Glen Carrig has the same atmosphere of unease and horror that the exploration scenes in Alien had.

>>15976590
yeah i read a lot of lovecraft and stuff like shadow over time is exactly what im looking for. im gonna explore his catalouge further but i dunno if he wrote something as good as that or whisperer
>>15976606
thank you now. dunno why i skipped over ashton clark, he did come up with 2001 kinda.
>>15976757
will read that and house on the borderland before the night land. have you read them? what duyu think?

>>15974180
LMAO SPACESHIP VAGINA

>>15977442
The Night Land sounds like exactly what you're looking for. From Lovecraft you should definitely read At the Mountains of Madness. Also The Haunter of the Dark, The Colour Out of Space and The Thing on the Doorstep, though those don't have anything that's described as monolithic – maybe except for the old gothic church in the Haunter. You might also want to check out his dream cycle. The Willows is also a great weird tale and has that sense of mystery done masterfully, maybe better than I've seen anywhere else, though it doesn't have anything monolithic either. Clark Ashton Smith is great too, though I haven't read all of his stories so I can't recommend anything in particular. Maybe try starting with The City of the Singing Flame, it's a good one and has something monolithic and mysterious, though the imagery is light and colorful instead of dark.

>>15977681
As for The House on the Borderland, it's an amazing story and one of my favourites, but it has an entirely different atmosphere and imagery to what you're talking about. You should read it sooner or later regardles because it's truly something unique, but if you definitely only want the dark monolithic feels then The Night Land and ATMOM are better for that.

>>15974180
my diary desu

>>15977455
where?
>>15977681
thanks ill definitely read at the mountains of madness and more from his dream cycle but i felt haunter was really boring and color out of space is summarized by its title. the thing in the doorstep is one of my favorites and has a great fun story but not exactly in the vicinity of what im looking for. have you read king in yellow? how was that?
>>15977757
whats important is that its unique so ill check that out for sure

>>15974180
Books that will make me feel like the first time I saw Ripley's delicious, half-naked body in Alien?

>>15978333
>haunter was really boring and color out of space is summarized by its title
You seem like someone who should have been able to appreciate the thick heavy atmosphere in those stories, I recommend re-reading them or listening to an audiobook. The Haunter especially has a great audiobook right here, I've listened to it many times: https://hppodcraft.com/full-story-readings/
I haven't read The King in Yellow yet myself.

>>15978333
>the ship is literally a female spreading her legs and the entrance is her vagina

some of Michael Cisco's books are very alien. three i would recommend are The Divinity Student, The Tyrant and The Narrator. the divinity student is the shortest if you want to try one out. if you want something really out there you could try Animal Money but that one pushes the boundaries of coherence completely so i'd recommend the others first

The first few stories in The King In Yellow are really great, but definitely not the vibe you’re searching for.

>>15978907
i get the entrance but cant see lady spreading her legs. i know there are sexual undertones to it but i always felt like there was a layer of complete alienness beneath even the sexual stuff. its more like a hammerhead shark half donut to me. also i always imagined that the alien was female even if it raped everyone because it looked like it wore high heels

>>15978454
yeah i dont remember much from haunter and was planning to revisit it but i remember both of those stories being overly long and repetitive. i think atmosphere should be implied and lovecraft is guilty of overdoing the adjectives sometimes. still, some of my favorites are beyond the wall of sleep, which is interestingly a similar story to VALIS, and azatoth. both are bittersweet and poetic, how i imagine hodgson will be like

>>15976590
>>15977442
>>15977681
>>15977757

What Lovecraft book should I buy in Amazon? Never read any of him.

>>15979164
“Dreams of Terror and Death”
It’s a collection of his “dream cycle” stories. The big collections like Necronomicon or Eldritch Tales are good too because they have so much, but they’re p bulky.

>>15979164
just buy the barns and noble collection that has everything he wrote

>>15979182
>It’s a collection of his “dream cycle” stories.
that's not a good place to start, it should probably be the last thing you read of his

>>15974180
>>15974784
Hey OP, this rec isn't literature but you need to watch the alien abduction scene from Fire in the Sky. Aside from that scene the movie's pretty boring, but that scene is considered one of the most...'alien' (in your sense) scenes in film. You can watch the scene online easy (youtube it) and it's worth it.

>>15979164
First read "The Shadow over Innsmouth" online or listen to it to see if you enjoy him, it's one of his very best and probably the best one to start with. It's very entertaining all around – there's wonderful lore and atmosphere and it actually has a pretty gripping action scene.

>>15974784
solaris?

>>15974784
I felt that way about Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke, also Rendezvous with Rama by the same. I haven't read them since I was a teenager, I wonder if they're really as good as I remember

>>15978409
She has the hips of a 12 year old boy. Hardly delicious (unless you’re into 12 year old boys, I guess).

>>15981021
?
Her hips are fine, I have seen plenty narrower. I don't know what goes into the minds of people like you that feel the need to constantly question the sexuality of people with differing taste in women. It's like your types have an almost niggerish obsession with tumorous baboon asses and a pedophilic, homosexual (a bit redundant, I know) fixation on young boys to the point you see them in lithe and otherwise obvious women.

>>15974180
This series will tap into that lust for discovery Alien triggers.

>>15974180
An art history volume on Bocklin.

>>15976757
>>15977681
Definitely something by Hodgson, but I'm thinking "The Stone Ship" is closer to that scene

>>15974180
>series to read.
Foundation
Revelation Space
Saga of the Seven Suns.
The Spin Trilogy.
Children of Time
The Salvation Sequence.
The Interdependency

thanks for a great thread anons!

>>15982162
i dont like reading series that much. its best when something starts and ends and its good on its own. also most of those are really long
>>15982133
looks like something good to start with
>>15981609
does he only have isle of the dead for that kind of thing? ill look into him. john martin is good for that kind of stuff too
>>15981590
>lust for discovery
yep i got exactly that. that series looks too long and too not alien though. an invasion is too comprehendable i think
>>15981021
>>15981559
id like 12 year old boys a lot more if they looked like sigourney weaver in her prime
>>15980821
ill read rama and see if its still good. the basic premise seems to be what im looking for.
>>15980795
ive watched the movie and it was too much of a human story. the midget scene was pretty good.
>>15979514
downloaded it to watch tonight

>>15974784
Have you ever read Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series? Mass Effect's Reapers and the aliens in Oblivion are said to be inspired by Berzerkers. There's a steady theme of incomprehension, inexplicability of the aliens, enough realism to twist the hard sci-fi style into high horror.

>>15974180
Blindsight by Peter Watts. It is as close as it gets.

randevouz with rama has a meteorite that strikes on 9/11. just sayin

>>15983635
would you rec the whole series or the first one? probably should revisit mass effect at some point. i played every citadel side quest thinking it was the main quest and quit.

>>15984771
i started reading blindsight then someone here said it was really bad and not worth it but didnt explain why. how good is it?

>>15974180
Slavic video games are what you need anon.

ligotti, anon

>>15984794
which ones?
>>15985115
whats a story of his that captures this the best? ive heard all of them are the same

>>15974784
Roadside picnic

>>15974784
Also blinsight