/Obscure/

[Anonymous No.8385014]

Every once in a while there are threads about really obscure literature - time for another one.

Give me your best obscure books, also welcome: Banned or occult books, or really rare books of any kind.

[Anonymous No.8385022]

>>8385014

read the first few lines of Household gods, I would read further, but my faith/guilt wouldn't let me

[Anonymous No.8385025]

The history of my local anglican church chapel. The book didnt even have an ISBN. Obscure books are obscure for good reason

[Anonymous No.8385050]

>>8385022

Why couldn't you read any further?

[Anonymous No.8385062]

>>8385050
I said guilt stemming from my faith

[Anonymous No.8385077]

>>8385022
Isnt that a fiction book?

[Anonymous No.8385080]

>>8385014
Slawomir Mrozek's The Elephant is good

[Anonymous No.8385103]

>>8385025

It's obscure because the topic is only interesting to a handful of people.

Got any more suggestions, though? I'm most interested in books who fell into obscurity because they were banned/deemed inappropriate.

[Anonymous No.8385129]

>>8385103
>'m most interested in books who fell into obscurity because they were banned/deemed inappropriate.

Then you are literally out of luck, books form ancient times which were banned did not survive - indeed even books that people valued did not and books that were banned in modern times ended up becoming more popular because of the allure - at lest in the West.

Combine that with the internet and PDFs mean that even obscure and occult books are extremely easy to come access them - kinda why people like crowley and co arent impressive anymore

ie sites like http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/index.htm

[Anonymous No.8385133]

>>8385014
>obscure literature
>pic of Crowley

[Anonymous No.8385138]

>>8385133

was just the first thing that came to my mind.

Any suggestions, though?

[Anonymous No.8385141]

>>8385138
Not him but go wild

http://search.beaconforfreedom.org/search/censored_publications/result.html?author=&cauthor=&title=&country=8052&language=&censored_year=&censortype=&published_year=&censorreason=&Search=Search

[Anonymous No.8385147]

>>8385141

thanks, anon

[Anonymous No.8385185]

Posting a succint list, if any of you wants more info on something just ask and I'll do my best

Giorgio Manganelli - Century: A Hundred Ouroboric Novels

Giorgio Manganelli - Hilarotragoedia

Gary J. Shipley - Dreams of Amputation

Hakim Bey - T.A.Z.

Nicola Masciandaro - Sufficient Unto the Day

Probably none of this is really "obscure", but the only time I see them mentioned around here is when I bring them up

[Anonymous No.8385218]

>>8385014
>Crowley

[Anonymous No.8385243]

I'm gonna throw Arthur Koestler here even though he's quite famous. Just because most only know Darkness at Noon. The Age of Longing (fiction) doesn't even have a wiki page but it's pretty decent.

Reflections on Hanging is a work about capital punishment (against it). It's an interesting piece of research, interviews, cases and arguments (some really good, others desperately poor).

[Anonymous No.8385255]

>Taki and Jeffrey Bernard, High Life, Low Life

A collection of columns by a Soho drunk (who's somewhat witty) and a Greek jet setter (an absurdly dull and toxic name dropper). Funny anecdotes and some good vocabulary for the non-british.

See also: Jeffrey Bernard is unwell, a great play with Peter O'Toole

[Anonymous No.8385264]

>>8385255
A collection of columns from The Spectator, one of the most popular magazines in the world, and the longest continually published magazine in the English language.

I've seen copies on sale in almost every country I've ever visited.

Hardly obscure.

[Anonymous No.8385276]

>>8385185

more info on Dreams of Amputation? Sounds horribly and interesting at the same time.

[Anonymous No.8385284]

>>8385014
I picked up Utopia by Thomas More.

It was interesting because, while everyone knows what a Utopia is, his description is the first of its kind. He basically invented the modern usage of the word.

The book is incredible for the fact that he wrote it almost as a prank - writing of a distant island that has a near perfect culture and society. It all seems incredibly progressive for its time and is all very well thought out and meticulous so as to fool the readers of the time.

[Anonymous No.8385300]

>>8385276
It's a cyberpunk novel(la) about language and thought as ways to escape from constant control - I read it a couple years ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy, but its selling points could be a great prose, tailored to its subject matter (the opening goes "He wakes in a container, head like a sawn circuit, throat rattling like a bterry cage"), frequent philosophical ramblings by the characters (Shipley orbits around the same circle as Eugene Thacker and Reza Negarestani, if it's any help) and a moderately extreme depiction of a possible grimdark/transhumanist future.

Here's an excerpt - kinda makes me want to read through it again. Shit, I got so much stuff I need to go through.

http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/flash-fiction/gary-j-shipley/

[Anonymous No.8385324]

beelzebubs tales to his grandson by gurdjieff

[Anonymous No.8385333]

>>8385284
In my high school English textbook

Not obscure

[Anonymous No.8385342]

>>8385014

>Give me your best obscure books, also welcome: Banned or occult books, or really rare books of any kind.

Check out the Harry Potter series of books.

[Anonymous No.8385355]

If obscurity is all you want just go through things ranked in the millions in the kindle store.

[Anonymous No.8385359]

>>8385333
A well documented item can still be obscure, anon.

[Anonymous No.8385386]

Maybe look for Rene Daumal - Mugle. He was a French surrealist who was into huffing carbon tetrachloride in order to have near-death experiences. It's fairly expensive in English but French speakers shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

[Anonymous No.8385399]

>>8385300

reminds me of Naked Lunch, the images described, I mean.

>>8385324
>>8385386

these also sound really interesting, thanks so far for all the suggestions.

[Anonymous No.8385433]

>>8385386
I read Mount Analogue last year, pretty good. I haven't find other books by him.

[Anonymous No.8385444]

[Anonymous No.8385703]

>>8385264
I don't think you know what obscure means.

[Anonymous No.8387297]

Some interesting stuff already, keep it coming

[Anonymous No.8387339]

>>8385433
>>8385359

I just read A night of Serious Drinking.

It was pretty damned good.

My contribution: Fielding Dawson: Krazy Kat and 76 more. He's like Barthelme and Carver mixed together.

[Anonymous No.8387350]

>>8385014

The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion

[Anonymous No.8387403]

I fap to the shark rape scene fairly regularly desu

[Anonymous No.8387410]

>>8385014
Crowley was a hack. If he was such a gifted magician in the occult, then why was his life so terrible?

[C.W Smith No.8387502]

>>8385386
Intriguing

[Anonymous No.8387636]

try a young girls diary published by Sigmund Freud (you can find it on project Gutenberg ) its a absolute favorite of mine but I have no one to discuss it with.

Also try might is right it's kinda obscure... sorta.. a little...

[Anonymous No.8387642]

>>8387350
To bad the shit never got published.
Fuckall knows where it is now.

[Anonymous No.8388335]

>>8387403

I have actively looked for an edition of this in bookstores on multiple occasions. What put me onto it is that a phrase from its text forms the rather pretentious album title of a famous noise/industrial group's first album. I also learned that it was an important imaginative piece for the surrealists (as it was for the aforementioned group, especially the leader Steven Stapleton).

the group, or "band" I'm referring to is called Nurse With Wound. Their first album is called "Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella.", which is the phrase lifted from this text. The phrase itself is of a piece with the more complex Dali Painting-titles, which were similarly long and pretentious. The visual image of the phrase itself retroactively reminds one of a Dali painting, for example, or else some other ridiculous surreal tableaux, whether in lit or in paint.

[Anonymous No.8388384]

>>8387410
>not living like a beast

Alfred Jerry and the apatophor movement or apataphysics

[Anonymous No.8389028]

Another anon suggested "Suicide" by Edouard Leve a few months ago, bought and read it.

Definitely not mentioned often around here, great book though. It's written in second person and incredibly immersive. It's a shame Leve really killed himself after sending his editor the manuscript.

[Anonymous No.8389037]

I really want to read The Great Eastern by Andreas Embirikos.

It's basically the 120 Days of Sodom except set aboard an ocean liner. And it's long as fuck.

[Anonymous No.8391100]

>>8389037

did they make a film out of it? Google gives me something called "lustland" when googling this guy and his book.

[Anonymous No.8391126]

>>8385022
>>8385062
How can your faith be true if you never test it with contradicting beliefs ?

[Anonymous No.8391179]

>>8385014


Has anybody read anything by this Gurdjieff?

I have a copy of one of his books right now but I haven't read it, it's a fucking tome of a fiction book. I have read a book ABOUT the author's secret esoteric teachings and honestly it seems really too far out there for me to believe all of it, but I have a feeling he was on to something and has some interesting theories.

[Anonymous No.8391444]

Out of print but not that hard to find. I found it years ago at a dollar store (they had a whole box of 'em). Not at all what it appears to be. A bit gimmicky (do not neglect the footnotes) but I thought it was well done and pretty damn funny. Actually made me lol. Short and worthwhile.