/lit/ - Literature

American Psycho.

The book was so remorseless in its vacuity and brutality that by the end I felt totally empty but not as though I'd experienced a liberating catharsis - it felt like an inverted Buddhist enlightenment.

Hats off to BEE.

why don't you start OP

Lord of the Flies

Read it round about the time there were riots going on in the local area and that combined with the themes in the book of people becoming tribal once society is removed terrified me.

>>2926493

I thought he was just being that graphic to be absurd. Kind of like the Aristocrats joke.

OP here, nothing I have read has honestly disturbed me to date. All the regular ones that people say wasp factory, Blood Meridian, American Psycho, child of god. Read em all and none really did anything for me in the getting disturbed department. Not saying those aren't good books, the majority of them are awesome (American Psycho didn't really thrill me). I hear Last Exit to Brooklyn is pretty visceral. Anyone care to comment on that?

Graham Masterton's Pariah

>>2926503

>I thought he was just being that graphic to be absurd

I think he was. But I can't read stuff about putting rats up vaginas etc etc written in that flat deadpan way without feeling horrified. I'm a huge faggot like that.

Misery

I read it non-stop. Discovered I had a fever right after. Couldn't sleep properly for a week after, kept having nightmares.

>>2926538
My first disturbing moment was with The Shining.
reading the book after seeing the movie made me imagine everything much more realistically.

And my name really is Jack Torrance.

>>2926553
My cousin, who's 9 years older than me, used to quote passages of Misery verbatim when I was 12. I read the book at the age of 17, and found it as horrifying as a childhood of anticipation had led me to expect.

Steppenwolf

I was going through a happy period in my life when I picked up this book. I had always heard that it was a great book and I loved herman hesse, so I thought why not? Anyway, to say the least, I only got halfway through and couldn't finish. The way hesse exposes the mediocrity of modern intellectuality and of frivolity of life in general was just too unbearable for me. It just hit too close to the way I know society is but didn't want to believe at the time, so I had to put it down. Needless to say, it led to many a long night, waking up, covered in sweat, contenplating my meaningless life.

>>2926589
Also, the funny thing is, siddhartha is the most inspiring novel I've ever read

>>2926508
I agree, although I need to add that the scene where Bateman kills his former girlfriend (Bethay?) may be the most repulsive text I've ever read.

Bible

Riddley Walker

Completely soul-shattering experience, looking back on our civilization like that, it makes everything seem so frail, so fleeting. Amazingly powerful book.

>>2926605
>>>/reddit/

>>2926632
Not that anon, but you don't have to be a Redditor to see why someone might find the Bible disturbing. It does hold that the omnipotent creator of the universe chose a small group of people to be his favorites, then had them murder entire civilizations, killed off everyone but one family, then had them repopulate (INCEST!), then killed more people, finally culminating in coming to earth and having them kill him before he forgave them for sins such as killing.

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami.

I've read Blood Meridian and I was suprised at how much I like it,graphic descriptions with briliant prose and a sort of surreal-ish atmosphere really did it for me.One thing I couldn't stand is the lack of quotation marks or other forms of separating dialog from narrative.
But I didn't flinch at all.Nothing disturbed me there.

In the Miso Soup however,did.Something about it reminded me of Blood Meridian.

An extraordinary character acting as a disturbing antagonist,being rather intellingent (Holden is the most well-read of the whole bunch,I know that's not saying much if you look at the Glantong gang but even Guverner recognizes him and Frank has senses so sharp to the point of being borderline telepathic),with abnormal appearance (Holden being hairless and xboxhueg,Frank is described as having ice-cold,plastic white skin) and some sort of mental disorder (Holden being full blown psycho,not to mention Frank) leading the main character through a series of gruesome acts of violence that are described in detail during which nature of a man is discussed.

But the book is no Blood Meridian rip-off,while they may seem similar,their only similarities are that I've listed.Kenji is different from the kid,the setting is different,ItMS has a motive of isolation and loneliness as its main theme which I must confess didn't quite get from BM.And above all,Murakami knows how to use quotation marks.

But,and I must emphasize that this is purely my opinion,Murakami gets the graphic detail better than McCarthy.There aren't as many scenes of violence as there are in BM,but that worked for me.I prefered the build-up to one gigantic scene after which Kenji breaks down emotinally and not to mention my phobia of wrist cutting,eye plucking and neck slicing that Murakami writes so fucking well.

>>2926651
>chose a small group of people to be his favorites, then had them murder entire civilizations, killed off everyone but one family
I think you're putting Noah and Moses in in the wrong order there.

>>2926673
I only meant to imply chronology in the first part (chose a small group of people to be his favorites, then had them murder entire civilizations), then move on to listing things without any implication that they were in order. Sorry about that. I didn't proofread my post.

The part in Infinite Jest where the woman carries the dead baby around with her.

Anything by the Frankfurt School.
That people take them seriously makes it horrifying as well.

>>2926731
one dimensional man was pretty kewl.
you probably just didn't understand it.

It's probably not as bad now, but I read Poe's The Black Cat for the first time in I think third grade. Disturbing as hell for a ten year old in the dark.

I remember having many wtf moments when reading Cleansed by Sarah Kane.

This.

It's hands down one of the bleakest, gloomiest, most depressing things I've ever read.

My Loose Thread by Dennis Cooper

Story of the Eye.
The only book to ever make me feel uncomfortable.

>>2926855
Have you read 1982, Janine?

Because of the subject matter, the writing style, the dispassionate way the multiple narrators and characters go about dealing with all sorts of horrors. Also everything is so disconnected because it's just a bunch of very short stories, only a few of which have anything to do with one another.

>>2926798
Fall of the House of Usher was pretty scary. I was the same age when I read it. Saw that, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Masque of the Red Death performed at a local theater too about that age because my parents saw I was reading Poe. Very good acting because I still vividly remember it.

John Dies at The End by David Wong

Naked Lunch is such an unsettling book.

>>2926903
Go back to Reddit, you fucking pleb.

>>2926907
da but if you can't appreciate JDATE as a fun, entertaining light read, I don't know what to say.

it's not really that disturbing though.

>>2926912
Why post it in this thread then? You only make yourself look like a barely literate pleb.

part 4 of 2666

Infinite Jest

Because Hal Incandenza is a fourteen year old version of me

The Naked Lunch was at times eerie. I found myself laughing quite a bit though.

Last Exit To Brooklyn is intense. Read it OP. You want to be disturbed, give it a go, don't watch the movie. Not that it's disturbing or anything, it's just crap in comparison.

Knockemstiff

its disturbing because rednecks, hard drugs and desperation make for disgusting, disturbing happenings. i had to put it down a couple times.

it's not "shock lit" or anything immature like that. it packs a much harder punch.

>>2926968

say what you will about king, but back in the day the effect his books had on me was straight up unhealthy. i first read cujo when i was maybe 9 or 10, and after that i was obsessed with horror and stephen king for the next few years. but it was a dreadful, morbid obsession because i was a real scared kid and let those sort of things get to me. it culminated with pet semetary and that was it. it scared me so bad i didn't read another horror novel for years.

Brave New World, Chapter Two. Need I say more?

Though the rest of the book just scared me because HUXLEY MAKES ME THINK TOO HARD.

The Jaunt by Stephen King

That part where King describes a dude putting his wife into a teleporter with no end point, so that she will have to spend eternity alone in blackness with just her consciousness frightened the fuck out of me.

It, because I'm a fucking pussy casual and I've never been able to finish it.

>>2927004
This.
Last Exit to Brooklyn was one wild ride. One emotionless murder, sexual encounter, beating and rape after another. I really found the book very well written (some argue the dialog is bad, but I disagree). My favorite story is a tie between the teenage hooker or the union leader.

>>2927038

You should read Johnny Got His Gun. That's pretty much all the book is about (being trapped in endless darkness with only your thoughts).

The Bible and the Quran.

The whole time reading I was just.... Why would a person set out to write this? What kind of mind do you have to have to think of these things?

>>2927160

The Trial by Franz Kafka. It wasn't really a horror story, but it felt like being stuck inside of a bizarre nightmare, which I pose is just testament to Kafka's skill.

>>2927194

>I disagree with your valid opinion, therefore I shall attempt to destroy your credibility by dismissing you as trying to be 'edgy'.

>>2927194

Being put off by murder, rape ( child rape included), incest, and much, much more on every other page is edgy?

Also 120 days of sodom. Couldn't read even 100 pages.

>>2927294
>disputing the validity of The Bible or the Qur'an
>valid opinion

>>2927302

It wasn't my post that was called edgy, I was just pointing out someone's stupidity.

>>2927299
>every other page
ya man Songs of Solomon is full of necrosadism. You could maybe get away with saying that about Hadith but c'mon son.

not really disturbing but I read Naked Lunch when I was 16 and all the bits about jelly people and naked Arab boys cutting off rapist heads or whatever the fuck was going on was kind of gross

"Darkness" by Bryon is pretty, um, dark, too, especially in its subversion of apocalypse myths, e.g. vipers become stingless but they're eaten for food out of desperation.

>>2927160
>>2927294
>>2927299
>>2927306

>The Bible or Qur'an.
>"The most disturbing book you've ever read."

Your illiteracy is showing.

>>2927160

you are the dark lord of your parent's basement

>>2927340
Why do people believe that calling people plebeians are a valid way of proving/disproving a point?

>>2927340

These works bring a lot of other meaning when reading them. Unlike a Stephen King book which is written to purposefully cause horror, these books were written to be followed as morally right and obeyed. So, this is where the disturbing factor strikes.

Also, I really hope you've actually read them, and not just went along with the whole 'atheism 4 lyf crowd'.

>>2927340
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE WORD OF THE ULTIMATE BEING FOLLOW EVERYTHING HE SAYS THIS IS NOT INSANE AT ALL

>>2927340
>it's okay to beat your slave as long as he's able to stand within 3 days
>considered the Word of God by millions of people on Earth
>the most influential book in the world promotes the execution of homosexuals, the genocide of women and children who "oppose" God's chosen people, slavery, warfare and blind obedience to a deity who only speaks to "prophets"
>not being disturbed

Your pleb is showing.

>>2927361

His /r/atheism faggotry is shining through

>>2927370

>facts
>faggotry

pick one

>>2927351

Please; we all know you haven't read them. Your opinions are the recycled trash of the celebrity internet atheists, who likewise have not read the material. Otherwise you'd know that the Qur'an is not a narrative, and has no "murder, rape (child rape included), incest.." to feature, on one page or "every other page". If you'd read the material you'd know that it's a ridiculous and entirely meaningless reduction of the various Biblical books. Notice this is not a defense of any religion or an attack on non-religion. Read up on them more.

>>2927361
>scare quotes

>>2927356
>cruise control for cool

I may be mistaken but please point me to the section where the execution of homosexuals is promoted. To my knowledge, most instances of homosexuality in the Bible rely on spurious translations, as there was no concept of homo/heterosexuality at that time. The strongest specific condemnation I can think of is Leviticus which Christians don't follow and even so it made you as ritually impure as, say, touching a women while she's on her period. If you so much as mention Sodom I'll show you the xenia of Polyphemus; the "that we may know them" line is used in plenty of non-sexual cases and it's only because of innuendo that we think they wanna fuck.

>>2927374

> literal
> figurative

can coexist, learn the difference you dumb shit, or gtfo

> not denying /r/atheism
> permaban

>>2927382

bless your heart

x

>>2927160

what a dumb faggot

truly

we all have blind spots
this right here is hitchens-scale retardation

Death of a Salesman

Not entirely disturbing by one that made me really sad as I found many parallels to the characters and my life.

>>2927424
nice rebuttal

>>2927154
I have. That was pretty fucked up too. But that got me emotionally.