Books that may have damaged your psyche

[Nobody Soup]

Will There Really Be a Morning? by Frances Farmer.

when you're a 16 year old kid into Nirvana it's all fun and games and buying cardigans in the local charity shop, I've always had a bit more of an obsessive side though and delved full into the back stories of songs. probably was not quite in the mental place to read about a long, detailed account of systematic abuse, physical, sexual and mental, of women in mental asylums in 1930s america. I used to be terrified my family would commit me for some reason.

[Ferris]

Matt's Millions

About some shithead 6 year old who makes a million quid writing a video game while in hospital and lives off the interest. I was about 6 when I read it, and the idea of being free to never work again stuck in my mind and has never left me.

I am desperate to make my million so I can spend the rest of my life fucking about and going travelling and that. Genuinely the most scarred a book has left me.

[manticore]

Will There Really Be a Morning? by Frances Farmer.

when you're a 16 year old kid into Nirvana it's all fun and games and buying cardigans in the local charity shop, I've always had a bit more of an obsessive side though and delved full into the back stories of songs. probably was not quite in the mental place to read about a long, detailed account of systematic abuse, physical, sexual and mental, of women in mental asylums in 1930s america. I used to be terrified my family would commit me for some reason.

Another piece of fiction I've just discovered by googling. I had always believed that she had been lobotomised, and thus had her personality destroyed, allowing her to go back to work, as portrayed in the film 'Frances' (1982). Turns out they made that up.

Years later, on a DVD commentary track of the Frances movie, director Graeme Clifford stated, "We didn't want to nickel and dime people to death with facts."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Farmer#Lobotomy_claims

[Phil_A]

This is probably one of the most disturbing books I've ever read, although not for the reasons the author intended.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exit-End-World-Time-travel-Adventure/dp/0854763147/

It was brought for me by a well-meaning relative who belongs to an obscure church of somewhat-pushy evangelicals, so I tended to receive a lot of similar books as Christmas/birthday gifts that would usually stay on the shelf unread for years after.

For some reason I did read this one all the way through, and I remember it left me with a queasy feeling that I was too young to really understand, something just very "off" about it. Then later when I was more aware of such things I came to realise it was essentially an anti-Semitic screed masquerading as harmless Young Adult sci-fi.

The plot was about two youngsters that get transported forward in time to a bleak dystopian future, typical YA stuff so far, right? That's until the point they uncover a plot by a Jewish businessman(he's called Mr Goldman, so it's a bit of a giveaway which race he's representing) to murder a group of plucky Christians using poisoned bibles. And who's Mr Goldman's boss? You guessed it, the Antichrist!

Yes, the premise of this book is that the Jews are literally in league with the devil to bring about the End Of Days. I mean, fucking hell.

Due to my parents church activities as a kid I visited a lot of Christian book shops, and this kind of thing was very, very common - innocent looking books containing a thinly-disguised message. I don't think many were as bad as this, though. Thinking back on it gives me a bit of a shiver, there's something very troubling about the idea of young children being exposed to this kind of insidious shite at an impressionable age.

[BJBMK2]

I just finished Slaughter House 5. Knowing the premise going in, I was expecting camp, Illuminatus style japes. But it was much...bleaker and empty then I was expecting. I am aware I should not really have been expecting a surprise there, it is a book centred around a real life horror after all. But aside from the Dresden stuff, the sections with the aliens, with Billy Pilgrims life/mind unravelling, the way all the women in his life seem to go mad or die, and the ultimate "what's the point eh?" philosophy of the characters and narrator....it just leaves you wanting to sit down for a bit. 

[Famous Mortimer]

Yeah I'm fucking ashamed to say I used to like him and all that Feral House/Apocalypse Culture stuff. Kinda realised a few years ago how fucked up all that shit was/had become. Goad writes absolute filth over at Taki Mag, one of the most horrible websites around. Seen a former friend and collaborator become fash from this stuff mixed with a little Boyd Rice, NSBM and god knows what else. All coinciding with the rise of the alt right and all in the name of "pissing off the PC dickheads".

I'm a little upset that one of my favourite movie critics, Joe Bob Briggs, appears to have hitched his wagon to that lot as well. I assumed before that we wouldn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues, but this is beyond the pale.