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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Head fucking books

08:55 / 30.01.02

What books have fucked with your head? WHat sort of boks generally do? I'm not talking out and out horror here, but the sort of feelings P.K. Dick books counjure up in most people her (need to read more of this man. Will comment later), or the first half (?) of House Of Leaves, before it turns to wank in the cold harsh light of plot development.

Odd shit that affects you, basically.

tom-karika nukes it from orbit

10:44 / 30.01.02

I remeber being really messed up by some books called 'the tripods trilogy'. I can't remember the name of the author, but I remember reading it about seven years ago. Made me think funny, if you know what I mean. I don't.

10:52 / 30.01.02

Hmmm... my general attitude to things which might possibly fuck with my head is to say: 'Please don't fuck with my head; I like my head.'

But am prepared to make an exception for books, though I don't think I have ever had my entire view of existence turned topsy-turvy by a book - they tend to add rather than alter. Ackroyd I found interesting from that sort of point of view. James Baldwin made me see a lot of things in a different light (but bear in mind that I was about thirteen when I first encountered him). You could do worse than Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock (though it is an absolute doorstopper)for shivers and horror.

Or - and this may be more what you had in mind - there's a book called The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus which, though slight, has quite a lot of food for thought in it.

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:57 / 30.01.02

Milorad Pavic's Dictionary Of The Khazars is interesting inasmuch as you can't really read it the way you'd read a normal, straightahead narrative. It's structured like a dictionary - as you'd expect from the title - but you have to use a process of cross-referencing and flipping to get some sense of the story behind the book.

It's frustrating, a little, but fun. It certainly puts you in a different place, in terms of how you read - discovering bits and pieces of what's going on seems like it's been earned by dint of struggle, not the normal process of just continuing to read.

I also thought Life, A User's Manual by Georges Perec was interesting in terms of the amount of keeping track of characters you have to do (you're easily lost or confused, given that the book's about an apartment building full of people, over a number of decades) - for me, it was useful as I sometimes get lax and don't pay attention to who's who in novels. You really can't, in this one...

I don't know if they're especially headfucking on par with "argh! We're all puppets of The Elder Gods!"-style books - but they did make me consider my reading style, which I spose is a bit headfucking, in a procedural way.

[ 30-01-2002: Message edited by: The Return Of Rothkoid ]

13:25 / 30.01.02

quote:Originally posted by K=}[Karika]:
I remeber being really messed up by some books called 'the tripods trilogy'. I can't remember the name of the author, but I remember reading it about seven years ago. Made me think funny, if you know what I mean. I don't.

The author is John Christopher.

First time I read it, The Illuminatus! Trilogy really knocked out my eyeball and skullfucked me.

17:16 / 30.01.02

quote:Originally posted by The Return Of Rothkoid:
I also thought Life, A User's Manual by Georges Perec was interesting in terms of the amount of keeping track of characters you have to do (you're easily lost or confused, given that the book's about an apartment building full of people, over a number of decades) - for me, it was useful as I sometimes get lax and don't pay attention to who's who in novels. You really can't, in this one...

Sounds like Pynchon's V, which is currently doing my head in.

And I didn't mean books that make me question the nature of my life (though maybe I should?), just ones that get inside and make you think. In a werid way.

20:37 / 30.01.02

Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky is a good one for some perception-bending thoughts on how the media really works. And if you don't have time to read the book, you can watch the documentary of the same name.

(Though all you smart folks at Barbelith might find it old hat).

Math is for suckers!

09:52 / 31.01.02

definitely anything by RAW or the crying of lot 49. douglas rushkoff's coersion is also brilliant

18:01 / 31.01.02

In the same vein as Rushkoff's book, look up No Logo by...um, some Canadian grrrl (sorry, can't recall the name).

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

09:04 / 01.02.02

The Illuminatus! trilogy, to be sure...along with Schroedinger's Cat, also by Wilson...The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra, will mess you up good if you go into it with no knowledge of what gaining an understanding of quantum and relativistic physics will do to you. It'll mess you up. Fortunately, I knew what to expect thanks to Schroedinger's Cat.

I'll second The Crying of Lot 49 (screw italics). When I was a lot younger, Ray Bradbury could always get me. Asimov, too. Alan Watt's The Book wasn't really a headfuck; it was significant, absolutely, but in a drawing-things-together kind of way.

Dammit...I just recently read something, but I can't remember what, that was surreal enough to leave you in a really weird state of mind when you finished. I might be thinking of The Crying of Lot 49.

09:04 / 01.02.02

No Logo is by Naomi Klien

Crenshaw

03:37 / 02.02.02

You Are Being Lied To, edited by Russ Kick. I was reading the online depositions of the Columbine survivors for twelve straight hours thanks to that skull tampering.

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov. Spoiler: Jakob Gradus is Sudarg of Bokay. And John Shade. And Charles Kinbote. And Vladimir Nabokov. (Any theories on where the crown jewels are hidden?)

Into the Dream, by William Sleator. A very eerie children's book and a wonderfully understated romance, too.

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:24 / 03.02.02

Nothing In This Book Is True But It's Exactly How Things Are is a pretty mindfucking book. Whether it's true is another point; it still made pretty startling reading.

And no, I'm not a sucker. Honest.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:24 / 03.02.02

Illuminatus did it for me.

Anything by Iain Sinclair, especially "Landor's Tower". Psychogeography, history, beautifully crafted sentences, a whole self-referentiality thing which DOESN't have its head up its own arse, the ongoing dialogue between reality/illusion, sanity/insanity... It's got the whole fucking shebang.

Richard Calder's "Dead Girls"/"Dead Boys"/"Dead Things"- cyberpunk by way of Lautreamont.

Don't laugh- Guy Burt's "After The Hole" (yes, the one the movie "The Hole" was based on- not seen it, it looked poo, and I think the novel was, quite frankly, unfilmable)- on first glance, it seems like sub-standard Iain Banks, but I can honestly say, taken as a whole, it is one of the most disturbing pieces of fiction I have read in many years.

Patrick McGrath's "Spider"- only just discovered this guy, and FUCK is he good. (I've now read most of his books, and am worrying that I'm gonna run out soon). Part Poe, part... fuck knows what (just finished reading his "Martha Peake", in which he combines Stevenson-esque swashbuckling, Poe-ish gothicism, and an entire discourse on the nature of fiction, while still remaining eminently gripping & page-turning).

ANYTHING by Thomas Ligotti. Cosmic- I guess terror's the wrong word- a profound sense of cosmic unease, if that makes any sense.

And, of course, Lautreamont's "Maldoror"- IMHO, one of the greatest books EVER written. I can't explain it- if you've read it, you'll either agree with me or think I'm talking absolute bollocks. If you haven't, then do so this second.

22:34 / 03.02.02

VALIS by Philip K. Dick left my head swirling for monthes.

17:04 / 05.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Moominstoat:
ANYTHING by Thomas Ligotti.

Ligotti is damn good. Not so much horror as just... disturbing in ways not easy to describe. Kind of like being violated, but being unable to express exactly how other than by a squishy uneasy feeling inside. Lovecraft is the closest comparason I can make. I like him a lot. Good subtle onotlogical horror.

One of my favorites is Bruce Sterling's Skizmatrix. Really got me thinking about trans and post humanismm, where we're going evolutionarily.

Another one: Virner Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep. It deals a lot with trancendental level technology, and just how fucking scary it is.

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:18 / 06.02.02

At this juncture, I'd again like to exhort anyone who's got a copy of The Nightmare Factory that they want to get rid of to PM me. I could supply a copy of Slow Chocolate Autopsy in exchange...