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Any book that makes you uncomfortable ? (pg. 6)
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| Sand Leaper |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Hal, did you find some subordinate clauses in the back of your fridge last night that were about to go out of date? |
:stongue: |
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| Domesticated |
Who the hell gets uncomfortable reading a book? It's a ing book.
| quote: | Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
Not sure if this counts, but I found myself laughing out loud to parts of Ellis' American Psycho. There's a chapter where he crucifies his ex-girlfriend to the floor with a nailgun and mutilates her vagina, then lines her insides with an expensive brie and lets an enormous rat loose to chew her apart from within. The absolutely grotesque level of incessant detail and unrelenting perversion just left me feeling so desolate, the only emotion left was amusement. It really is an amazing novel. |
It's a great book, no doubt, but it's painful at times. The repetition is a great literary device, but it can chafe. He just finished a new book actually, they had the launch in London. He told some anecdotes about how much he loves England. Namely, a time when he took esctasy at some dance party. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Hal, did you find some subordinate clauses in the back of your fridge last night that were about to go out of date? |
...you're supposed to refrigerate those? :o |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
Who the hell gets uncomfortable reading a book? It's ing a book. |
Come on. This is a pretty stupid statement. A book has scared me more than any film, a literary plot twist has knocked me reeling more than any cinematic surprise, I've been brought closer to tears by a novel than anything on screen. Books elicit the strongest emotional responses for two reasons. They require the reader to fill in the gaps with their own imagination - ambiguity is a key literary weapon - which means they get inside your head more than other narrative forms. They also have hundreds or thousands of pages in which to draw out characters and concepts and really get you attached to them, immersed in them.
I'm not the kind of guy who is easily emotionally affected by fiction, but I can only imagine you're self-consciously playing up to your no-nonsense hard-ass persona with such a statement. Either that or you're a densensitised robot, unable to comprehend that people can be moved by art. |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Come on. This is a pretty stupid statement. A book has scared me more than any film, a literary plot twist has knocked me reeling more than any cinematic surprise, I've been brought closer to tears by a novel than anything on screen. Books elicit the strongest emotional responses for two reasons. They require the reader to fill in the gaps with their own imagination - ambiguity is a key literary weapon - which means they get inside your head more than other narrative forms. They also have hundreds or thousands of pages in which to draw out characters and concepts and really get you attached to them, immersed in them.
I'm not the kind of guy who is easily emotionally affected by fiction, but I can only imagine you're self-consciously playing up to your no-nonsense hard-ass persona with such a statement. Either that or you're a densensitised robot, unable to comprehend that people can be moved by art. |
Unless everyone in this thread finds the concept of being emotional uncomfortable, I fail to see how you could feel that way after reading a book.
Or more to the point, how do you actually get scared reading a book? It's words on a page. Yes, I've experienced emotions from reading, but certainly not discomfort or fear. I don't see how they'd be possible. |
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| tubularbills |
| quote: | Originally posted by floyd741
As much as I hate to say it, The Great Gastby made me feel uncomfortable. I had to read it for school and though I thought it was cool, the whole book just gave me this... desolate feeling. Like it was just a narrative devoid of any events or emotions or anything, it just felt so superficial that it was like... surreal. It was like an empty room with people walking through it at random times, then Gatsby dies and its over. Maybe it was just my mood because a friend of mine says he never felt that.
Besides that I've never read a book that has made me feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. |
Gatsby was one of the few books I read in high school that I really liked. A LOT. I should re-read it, since it's been since HS; but i really enjoyed it back then. lol once you reach the American Dream, you die.
| quote: | Originally posted by jennypie
Gatsby is one I can read over and over again, always maintaining hope that everything will work out. Sort of like when you can't find anything to eat in the fridge, yet you still keep checking back every 1/2 hour - as if new/different/more food is going to magically appear. :p |
lol this is so true:stongue: |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
Unless everyone in this thread finds the concept of being emotional uncomfortable, I fail to see how you could feel that way after reading a book. |
Is the concept of uncomfortable emotions alien to you? Do you share serial numbers with The Arbiter? Being scared, disturbed, disgusted, upset, depressed... I don't avoid these feelings, but they're not comfortable things to experience.
| quote: | | Or more to the point, how do you actually get scared reading a book? It's words on a page. Yes, I've experienced emotions from reading, but certainly not discomfort or fear. I don't see how they'd be possible. |
As I've said, they get inside your head. It's practically a golden law of horror films that what you don't see is more effective than what you do, because your mind fills in the blanks. Your greatest fears are inside your own mind, and a book can activate them through suggestion. |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Is the concept of uncomfortable emotions alien to you? Do you share serial numbers with The Arbiter? Being scared, disturbed, disgusted, upset, depressed... I don't avoid these feelings, but they're not comfortable things to experience. |
Of course not, but I fail to see how a book could elicit those emotions. If I'm reading a novel where a serial killer is coming up behind a character, I don't get scared on their behalf. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
That's a bad example because it means you'll be reading a book that's trying to be a film. Any book that shows us the serial killer but doesn't let the character know is just aping cinematic narrative discourse, which is not the kind of conceptual under-your-skin horror I'm talking about.
I really don't get your problem. I know there's a mental buffer with fiction where your mind knows it isn't real, but if you read a gruesomely realised literary account of the protagonist being castrated, are you telling me you wouldn't feel uncomfortable by the thought? Are you telling me you can't imagine how that would make someone feel uncomfortable? |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I really don't get your problem. I know there's a mental buffer with fiction where your mind knows it isn't real, but if you read a gruesomely realised literary account of the protagonist being castrated, are you telling me you wouldn't feel uncomfortable by the thought? Are you telling me you can't imagine how that would make someone feel uncomfortable? |
Yes. I guess the mental buffer is just too strong for me. |
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| Silky Johnson |
| You sound depressing. |
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| saymyname |
| I was never quite the same after reading Stephen King's IT. It's a masterpiece that isn't just about evil clowns, though that clown is really scary. The made-for-tv film doesn't come close. |
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