/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7759728]

What is the darkest, most depressing, gruesomest, horrifying book of all time? Just fuck me up /lit/

[Anonymous No.7759754]

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[Anonymous No.7759763]

[Anonymous No.7759860]

my diary to be honest

[Anonymous No.7759869]

>>7759728

that one anon's modern family fan fic

[Anonymous No.7759877]

[Anonymous No.7759882]

The Talmud.

[Anonymous No.7759887]

BF&M has some pretty fucked up shit in it.

[Anonymous No.7759890]

>>7759869
Oh I remember that! It wasn't that bad, and not that great.

[Anonymous No.7759987]

>>7759754
Nah

[Anonymous No.7760005]

they call me hogg because a hog lives dirty. i don't wash none. And when I get hungry, I eat my own snot. I been wearin' these clothes since winter. I don't even take my dick out my pants to piss most times, unless it's in some cunt's face. Or all over a cocksucker like you. What I usually do is park the truck in the sun with the light comin' in and piss my pants up somethin' terrible.

[Anonymous No.7760011]

The Room by Hubert Selby Jr.

[Anonymous No.7760036]

Gateway by Frederik Pohl has the best psychological horror I've read in scifi.

It deals with real objects and real physical effects.

Not lit, but it's one of the better works of genre fiction I've read.

[Anonymous No.7760299]

>>7759728
bamp

[Anonymous No.7760321]

The Painted Bird is pretty horrifying

[Anonymous No.7760397]

The 120 Days of Sodom

[Anonymous No.7760406]

>>7760397

[Anonymous No.7760413]

>>7760011
Seconding The Room. It's way over the line, and I don't even believe in the line.

[Anonymous No.7760442]

I might be a bit gay but reading about lovers who for whatever reason suffer and part ways tearfully makes me more depressed than reading about war, atrocity, illness, or death. I don't know why.

[Anonymous No.7760444]

A Farewell to Arms shook me up for a few days.

[Anonymous No.7760453]

>>7760011
this

[Anonymous No.7760530]

Cioran and pessimistic antinatalism in general but I usually get more from violently subversive music out of any art

[Anonymous No.7760968]

Johnny Got His Gun is pretty bleak.

[Anonymous No.7760972]

>>7760968 for me as well. I hate being in tight spaces and oh boy did that book make me uncomfortable

[Anonymous No.7760991]

>gif
I'm not falling for that you fucking cunt. This is exactly why webm's are automatically muted, because of idiots like you who want to ruin another anons day.

[Anonymous No.7761015]

>>7760036
That's lit you retard.

[Anonymous No.7761024]

Blood Meridian, The Road and other McCarthy novels are good picks in that aspect.

Desperation by Stephen King is pretty gritty.

I don't know if it counts, but Justine by Lawrence Durrell made me feel like the Nightingale in the famous Oscar Wilde's story. Some passages caused me so much visceral pain and grief, but I couldn't stop myself from reading at the same time. Wish more people knew about it.

[Anonymous No.7761031]

>>7759754
This.

>>7759987
Women don't despair.

[Anonymous No.7761046]

>>7759728
Definitely The Tunnel. Not a single book in existence is as misanthropic and hateful as it.

[Anonymous No.7761048]

>>7759763
wew lad

[Anonymous No.7761061]

>>7759728
Probably some Chuck Palahniuk.

Haunted has some cool stories but it's a really shit book itself.

Invisible Monsters is amazing though. Extremely misanthropic and scathingly hilarious.

[Anonymous No.7761092]

I'm reading Preparations for the Next Life by Atticus Lish right now and it involves a lot of casual depictions of shitty living standards, violence, degeneracy and the general shit-tier lives of down and outs in contemporary New York.

[Anonymous No.7761109]

>>7760991
I'd tell you how to not be retarded, but I'd rather see you wallow in your stupidity.

[Anonymous No.7761162]

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa is rather discouraging. It's easily the most depressing book that i've ever read, but for some reason it's not hitting me as hard as Steppenwolf did a few years ago (Babby's first depressive book, y'know).
Right now i'm mostly asking myself how the hell Pessoa was able to live with those kind of views and didn't just one night decide to off himself.

Notes from the underground was kind of an eye opener as well. Allthough all of these had a certain impact on me and didn't look kindly towards other people i wouldn't say there was a burning hate for other human beings.

A book that did do a good job of expressing utter disgust and violent tendencies towards humans was American Pyscho. Needless to say it also had the gore to back up that hate (mmm, facefucking severed heads, mmm rats eating the insides of a pretty girl).

Naked Lunch was also pretty good at painting grotesque, nightmarish scenes, but i wouldn't say it was misantropic. Just really really disgusting.

I found Houllebecq more of a cynical pornographer with and great at making modern western life seem banal, but no shattering depression to come from his work. It was more of a "Yeah... yeah i guess it all kinda sucks really bad doesn't it".

[Anonymous No.7761165]

>>7761162
> ...pornographer and great at...*

[Anonymous No.7762531]

>>7759763
Somewhat misleading post. Although GR does have some moments, like this, that are grotesque and disturbing, I wouldn't recommend it to OP if he just wants books to "fuck me up" because GR will just seem like a slog to him if all he wants is shock value.

Now, if he wants unconventional structure, then GR does fit the bill.

[Anonymous No.7762539]

>>7759754
Piece o' shitte

[Anonymous No.7762545]

>>7759728
Maupassant, The Horla

>American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, in his survey "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927), provides an interpretation of the story:
>Relating the advent in France of an invisible being who lives on water and milk, sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extra-terrestrial organisms arrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without peer in its particular department.

[Anonymous No.7762566]

>>7761031
>Women don't despair.
This is a joke right
No one actually believes statements like this

[Anonymous No.7762616]

>>7760444
are you joking? if not, could you explain?

[Anonymous No.7762630]

>>7759728
pic related and the painted bird are up there.

[Anonymous No.7762652]

>>7759763

>Tfw this is my fetish

[Anonymous No.7762662]

>>7759728
Something Happened by Heller fucked me up

[Anonymous No.7762667]

Child of God

[Anonymous No.7762871]

Eye Scream by Henry Rollins

[Anonymous No.7762905]

Why is Childhood's end so good while not being as sci-fi as any other sci-fi book?

[Anonymous No.7763290]

>>7760413
What's so bad about it?

[Anonymous No.7763323]

>>7759877
This fucked me up when I was 17

[Anonymous No.7764656]

>>7762566
They might despair over their sagging tits or something but women don't really experience existential despair like men do. The female mind isn't abstract enough to feel sufficiently alien to the world for that.

[Anonymous No.7764713]

>>7764656
wew, check out this fucking guy.

[Anonymous No.7764758]

>>7764713
wew, check out this fucking girl

[Anonymous No.7764761]

>>7759728
VC Andrews 'The Dollanganger Series'

That shit scarred me for life.

[Anonymous No.7764770]

I usually find Kafka deeply depressing, if not particularly gruesome or horrifying. This is a good example: http://www.kafka-online.info/-the-judgement.html

>>7761024
The Long Walk, by King writing as Richard Bachman, fucked my shit up as a teenager

[Anonymous No.7764794]

>>7764656
Jesus, that's cringey.

[Anonymous No.7764798]

>>7759754
There is no better indication of an anons immaturity of mind than the recommendation of this piece of utter shite.

[Anonymous No.7764824]

>>7764794
It's true though. Women don't have philosophical problems. They don't suffer from them. Their biology keeps them earthbound.

[Anonymous No.7764942]

>>7764761
Flowers in the Attic is def a simplistic chick novel, but it is dark as fuck.

>incest
>child murder
>torture
>the entire plot
>decadent wealth

[Anonymous No.7764946]

>>7764942
I thought I was going to read some castle-romance as it was just randomly hanging out on my parents' bookshelves. Oh my.

[Anonymous No.7764950]

>>7764946
Its basically the ultimate book you can pick off some Cape Cod vacation house's shitty bookshelves, almost always ratty and torn.

[Anonymous No.7764985]

>>7764942
Is incest a common trope in gothic horror? Crimson Peak had some incest as well.

[Anonymous No.7764995]

>>7764985
I wish I had more examples of Gothic horror with modern sensibilities regarding the shattering of taboos in graphic language.

[Anonymous No.7765017]

>>7764985

It's pretty common as far as I know. The Monk has incest in it, though The Monk is basically a checklist for Gothic horror. The Mysterious Mother by Horace Walpole is basically focused entirely around incest.

[Anonymous No.7765077]

>>7764824

There are outliers in every situation.

[Anonymous No.7765090]

>>7759728
Maybe it's not up to other peoples standards, but this upfucked my shit.

[Anonymous No.7765095]

>>7764824
You clearly have never worked in a Ligottiesque office selling an unethical product with 10 single 30-something females working in secretarial roles who all have an extremely liberal college education and the loans to go with them.

Talk about existential crisis's CAUSED by biology.

[Anonymous No.7765101]

>>7761162
I agree about Pessoa, though having found myself in a similar position to his protagonist I can understand (at least at this point, though I can imagine things will only get worse) why someone who is completely detached from the world of novel experiences and the emotional intensity they inflict might be content, in a sort of childlike or at least very dull, mechanic way, might be content or at least not too troubled by living this way. I imagine Pessoa's protagonist did occasionally experience intense emotions and desires, and realized that his isolation and utter lack of character / personality precluded any chance his life may change, though I guess Pessoa left that stuff out.

[Anonymous No.7765103]

>>7765095
>Ligottiesque office
kekkest of keks

[Anonymous No.7765110]

/lit/, does there exist critical examination of contemporary (Western) society and modernity in general that is at least not 100% tendentious and/or apocalyptic and is not obnoxiously trying to """redpill""" you?

So far everything I've seen on the subject basically comes down to the author coming up with a provocative statement, such as "everything is porn/rape/muslamics/liberalism/ideology/etc", and then 'proving' it with claims about supposed elephants in the room or whatever

Case in point: a while ago some anon asked IIRC if there was something like Society of the Spectacle for the modern age. He was recommended The Last Psychiatrist. Now I had read his stuff about a year ago and was really disappointed, because it was "everything is porn" and even his subject matter (commercials, brand names, consumerism in general) seems like it was picked apart a hundred years ago. At some point he wrote "you can't get hard if the porn isn't in HD" or something like that, which is just fucking ridiculous even if it's an exaggeration.

[Anonymous No.7765113]

>>7765101
Alternatively: Pessoa was a relatively normal guy who used his various noms de plumes as vessels for various feelings, each name for a group of feelings, so that Book of Disquiet has all the concentrated desolation, the happiness and warmth is in another vessel

[Anonymous No.7765114]

>>7765110
this was supposed to be a new thread, i am a moron

[Anonymous No.7765121]

>>7765114
>>7765110
Good point though ; I've recently wondered why there's so little writing out there that goes "the west is kind of OK", that isn't yet-another-the-west-is-doomed-because-it-doesn't-do-this-one-thing-I-like or the-west-is-doomed-because-it-does-this-one-thing-I-hate

[Anonymous No.7765319]

>>7760005
what book is this from

[Anonymous No.7765324]

>>7765319
Hogg

[Anonymous No.7765491]

>>7759877
Wtf no? This is a Cute story of sexual discovery if anything. It put a smile on my face

[Anonymous No.7765596]

>>7764656
I've been trying to tell people this my whole life

[Anonymous No.7765619]

>>7762545
Maupassant has some great horror stories. Only read in original french, of course.

[Anonymous No.7765700]

being and time

[Anonymous No.7765862]

>>7759728

The Bible

[Anonymous No.7765955]

>>7759887
What the fuck is BF&M?

[Anonymous No.7765984]

>>7759754
It's a good book, but it's not that disturbing. Maybe if you're 16 and still think you matter.

[Anonymous No.7766006]

>>7759728
tales to give you goosebumps

[Anonymous No.7766048]

>>7760442
Read this.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96200.At_Swim_Two_Boys

[Anonymous No.7766512]

>>7759728
You should read Nausea, its book deeply focused on existencilism, it may disturb your view of reality, also read Selfish Gene.

[Anonymous No.7766524]

>>7759728
You should read Nausea, its book deeply focused on existencilism, it may disturb your view of reality, also read Selfish Gene.

[Anonymous No.7766724]

>>7759728
try anything by Peter Sotos

[Anonymous No.7766745]

Here you go

http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf

[Anonymous No.7766841]

>>7764656

how do you know lol?

source?

[Anonymous No.7766886]

>>7764656
This desu

[Anonymous No.7766964]

>>7766886
Its funny because no one has argued his point, and instead post memes. I might just see where he's coming from now.

[Anonymous No.7766978]

>>7766964
No amount of arguing will give him the life experience that comes from interacting with more, smarter women.

[Anonymous No.7766986]

>>7766978
>interacting with more smarter women.
disgusting construction, consider spending more time with books and less time chasing pussy, faggot

[Anonymous No.7767056]

Maybe some Joyce Carol Oates?

[Anonymous No.7768129]

>>7766841
Source is women. Although >>7765077 is correct, there are always exceptions, but the sundressed jean jacketed cunt that thinks The Conspiracy against the Human Race is hilarious first and foremost isn't one of them.

[Anonymous No.7768165]

>>7768129
I am so glad that I don't think like you, Jesus. Thank you for reminding me I'm at least not a complete fucking idiot.

[Anonymous No.7768169]

>>7762667
Oh yeah, I picked this up at my local library a while back not knowing what to expect (never read McCarthy before). The main character was just running rampant. That's all I'll say

[Anonymous No.7768184]

>>7768165
>u-ur dumb

[Anonymous No.7768197]

>>7764656
Are you sure?

[Anonymous No.7768218]

>>7768184
That's correct.

[Anonymous No.7768290]

Pet Sematery

[Anonymous No.7768425]

>>7759763
Huh. No wonder the freaks on here like that "book" so much

[Anonymous No.7768436]

>>7762566
>No one actually believes statements like this
As >>7764656 and >>7764758 prove, 4chan has become a magnet for turd-brained reactionaries of all ages and from all over the web. Thanks, /pol/. And thanks Moot for creating that spastic septic tank in the first place, and especially for not deleting it when you finally left.

[Anonymous No.7768451]

>>7759728
Blindness by Saramago was pretty bleak.

[Anonymous No.7768488]

>>7765121
http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary-faq/

[Anonymous No.7768755]

>>7768436
>everyone who believes all kinds of people are not quite literally and exactly the same are reactionary /pol/ bogeymen
>science is literally wrong when it disagrees with my agenda

[Anonymous No.7768780]

Most anything by McCarthy, although I'd probably start with The Road. The novel consistently portrays a doomed world from start to finish. People have criticized it for being largely uneventful at that.

[Anonymous No.7768806]

>>7768436
> Wants censorship
> on literature board.

That's just funny.

[Anonymous No.7768814]

>>7768806
Pretty sure that person is a tumblr tourist since she believes people complaining about women is a new thing on 4chan, and since she believes 4chan is worse for having /pol/ as a containment board and that deleting /pol/ would not bring the Samson option in full effect.

[Anonymous No.7768819]

>>7765121

The West IS kind of OK tho.

We have democracy, instruction, general welfare, and a shitload of things that other nations only dream about.

I really can't stand those "we need more tradition, more religion and fuck women while we're at it" fags.

The muslims have tradition and religion and keep women down, go live in Afghanistan if you like it so much. No? I didn't think so.

[Anonymous No.7768822]

>>7768806
>censorship

So if a bunch of Black Lives Matters protesters gathered on your front lawn and shouted anti-white slogans day and night, you'd tolerate their presence in the better interest of preserving freedom of speech?

4chan is privately owned. Hiro can enforce whatever policies he wants, just as you have the right to expel anyone from your private property for any reason. Fuck no, I wouldn't tolerate anyone holding a protest on my front lawn. Why should Hiro tolerate a bunch of Stormfags invading other boards and derailing threads with race baiting or off-topic rants about feminism?

Call it censorship if you want, but private property rights override your precious free speech. I don't care what you're protesting, you don't get to do that shit on my property unless I say so.

[Anonymous No.7768850]

>>7760397
I didn't get past the boring factual descriptions of daily routines.

>>7764656
>>7768129
You don't realize that you are also an outlier amongst men. Exceptional men (which isn't what I'm calling you specifically, don't be too flattered) tend to talk about how different men are from women assuming that they are quite normal men and not representative of less than 1% of the male population. The average man really isn't faced with existential despair any more or less than the average women. Unless you count being slightly down after ejaculating.

>>7764985
It's pretty common in Victorian literature.

[Anonymous No.7768867]

>>7768822
> Hiro can enforce whatever policies he wants

Those that HE wants, not whatever policies YOU want.

I'd listen to some BLM faggot if we'd be having a conversation over some coffee and he's not chimping out in my front yard. And I'd definitely not have him put in jail for it or have him shut up forever by removing all traces of his existance.

[Anonymous No.7768877]

>>7768850
I agree that it's not exactly prevalent among men either, but I think it's still way more prevalent among men than among women.

[Anonymous No.7768881]

>>7760005
Anybody got a PDF of this book?

[Anonymous No.7768911]

>>7768867

In other words, that would be a no. You have no business criticizing anyone for their views on censorship when there are scenarios in which you would deny others their right to freedom of speech as well. The issue of free speech isn't nearly black-and-white enough for the premise of your retarded arguments to work.

So fuck you. I couldn't care less if a bunch of feminist Tumblrina special snowflakes bully you into offing yourself, you abortive inbred piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.7768941]

Beyond Perfection.
Beyond the Universe.
Beyond my will.

[Anonymous No.7769056]

Heart of Darkness

[Anonymous No.7769754]

Most depressing for me would be Atomised by Houellebecq, that might be because I read it recently and it really resonated with me though.
The saddest I've read is The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.

[Anonymous No.7769807]

Ryu Murakami is some nasty shit, OP. Check out Piercing, In The Miso Soup, or Almost Transparent Blue.

[Anonymous No.7769819]

>>7761046
Which version of the Tunnel? There a few great novels by that name.

[Anonymous No.7771571]

>>7766986
> spend less time chasing pussy
> also a faggot
weheeheehew

[Anonymous No.7771592]

>>7759728
The Room by Hubert Selby

I'm serious.

/thread

[Anonymous No.7771603]

>>7768169
pussy is pussy, amirite?

[Anonymous No.7771606]

>>7764942
Naomi's Room is a good one.

[Anonymous No.7771609]

>>7768877
The IQ scores of women cluster around the mean more so than those of men

[Anonymous No.7771638]

>>7768877
I don't understand, what are you basing your argument on? Observation of the women around you with no understanding of their personal lives?

[Anonymous No.7771666]

Naked Lunch

[Anonymous No.7771717]

>>7765090
One of my faves anon.

[Anonymous No.7771723]

>>7761162
he explained several time why he didn't off himself. He wasn't suffering in life. He just felt it was entirely meaningless and that killing himself would be meaningless as well

[Anonymous No.7771749]

>>7768755
who are you quoting? you linked a post but I don't see those words anywhere in it.

[Anonymous No.7771864]

>>7768911
The "issue of free speech" is too complicated for those arguments. The question of whether Hiro should use discretion in the matter of opinion found within a relevant post is not.


This is the crux of the debate. Gesticulate and pettifog all you want. You know the correct answer.

[Anonymous No.7771879]

>>7771749
just get off 4chan, for christ's sake

[Anonymous No.7771890]

>>7771879
loll ur mad
u got cheated on? lol

[Anonymous No.7771910]

>>7766048

Thanks.

Added to desiderata.

[Anonymous No.7771978]

>>7765090
Those maggots man.

[Anonymous No.7772050]

>>7771890
>u got cheated on? lol
No idea what you're on about m8

I meant that you should get off 4chan because you don't understand the function of greentext, for christ's sake

[Anonymous No.7772064]

>>7759728
Bible

[Anonymous No.7772067]

>>7760005
ART

[Anonymous No.7772075]

>>7760011
challenge accepted
how much time did it take you to finish it?

[Anonymous No.7772082]

SCORCH ATLAS

[Anonymous No.7773306]

>>7772050
'Who are you quoting' is an old meme.