What Are The Weirdest Strangest Stories Written by Your Favorite Writers ?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Tanith Lee was mentioned earlier, but in my opinion anything in her Secret Books of Paradys series might perhaps qualify as her weirdest and strangest (and she wrote a lot of weird and strange stories!).*

*She wrote all kinds of stories, from children's books to sword and sorcery to vampire romance, but dark fantasy has always seemed to me to have been her forte.

 

[Danny McG]

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris. It's so far away from his usual work, I can only assume it was an idea he had to get out of his system. A very good idea, I would add.

It was cack though, wasn't it?

 

[Steve Harrison]

I actually liked it, but I suspect if Harris wrote a telephone directory, I'd read it cover to cover

 

[paeng]

Of course, from most people's point of view, Gregor's reaction is a bit weird. But the situation in which he suddenly finds himself is also very weird. It's quite possible that it's normal to behave weirdly in a weird situation.

Besides, what could he have done? Use Morse code to give interviews to newspapers? Perform in a circus?

It should also be noted that Gregor was already behaving weirdly even before his transformation. He practically sacrificed himself for his family and lived only for others, not thinking of himself, his wishes and desires. Helping your parents is fine, but in his case it was too much.

Looking at his abusive father, one might assume that little Gregor's parents only accepted their son when he behaved as they wanted him to. They didn't really love him. If they had, after he turned into a giant insect, his parents and sister would have felt sorry for him and worked with Gregor to see how they could turn the situation to their advantage. With a giant bug in the family, they could have a career in both science and show business. But these people with small minds lacked the imagination for that.

I think Gregor was made to realize from an early age that he was only worth anything if he was useful. When he turned into an insect and could no longer work, he felt like a burden to society and his family. He couldn't be useful anymore, so he didn't care about himself. That's why he behaved so strangely. Also, as a giant insect, he became a great shame to the family and had to be hidden away. He would probably have been hidden just as carefully if he had been maimed in an accident or become mentally ill. Anything that doesn't fit into his parents' primitive world view has to be hidden and then eliminated. So Gregor was wounded by his father, ignored by his mother, and even his sister wanted him dead. So he finally died -- and everyone was relieved. So it was Gregor's parents, not Gregor himself, who were cruel and weird.

Also, what's sad isn't the metamorphosis but the fact that there's no such thing as a metamorphosis, only a cold, capitalist, mechanistic, bureaucratic reality where individuals use each other. Instead of turning into an insect and escape from all that, one turns into a human insect instead and remains stuck in a hive that all of the insects pretend isn't one.

In think that's one of several points that Deleuze and Guattari were implying, although not the main one. The book's Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature.

 

[Peppa]

Also, what's sad isn't the metamorphosis but the fact that there's no such thing as a metamorphosis, only a cold, capitalist, mechanistic, bureaucratic reality where individuals use each other. Instead of turning into an insect and escape from all that, one turns into a human insect instead and remains stuck in a hive that all of the insects pretend isn't one.

In think that's one of several points that Deleuze and Guattari were implying, although not the main one. The book's Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature.

Perhaps the weirdness of this story has something to do with the time and place of its creation. Like Adolf Hitler, Kafka lived in Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the last century. Everyone knows that the German Nazis did not only kill Jews or Gypsies or Slavs or other nations they considered inferior. They also exterminated their fellow Germans who were mentally or physically ill and could be of no use to society. When Gregor turned into an insect, it was as if he had become mentally ill or disabled.
Of course, Kafka could not have been a German Nazi because he was Jewish. He would have been burned alive if he had lived to see Hitler come to power. But Hitler and his doctrines didn't fall from the sky or crawl out of the ground. The savages who called for the killing of "empty human shells", i.e. the mentally ill and disabled who were incapable of contributing to the economy, existed in Europe before Hitler. For example, Binding and Hoche, who wrote a book about the need to kill those who were "unworthy of life". Kafka just wrote a kind of weird parody (if I use the right term) of these savage ideas.
Gregor's strange family is like a symbol of the savage society between the two world wars. It demanded constant self-sacrifice for the sake of the nation, and was very cruel to those from whom no self-sacrifice could be expected. Deleuze and Guattari pointed that out?

 

[Peppa]

Tanith Lee was mentioned earlier, but in my opinion anything in her Secret Books of Paradys series might perhaps qualify as her weirdest and strangest (and she wrote a lot of weird and strange stories!).*

*She wrote all kinds of stories, from children's books to sword and sorcery to vampire romance, but dark fantasy has always seemed to me to have been her forte.

Yes, it's hard to believe that "A Heroine of the World" and "Piratica" were written by the same author. But that just goes to show how talented a writer Tanith Lee was.

Two words: Harlan Ellison. The man (R.I.P.) has written stories so weird that only he could write them. "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," "Basilisk," and "Croatoan" are some of the weirdest I've read from him, but there are more. A lot of his work seems to be very psychological and surreal.

Harlan Ellison also wrote a short story called The Song The Zombie Sang. It is a weird story, but it is very scary as well. But perhaps this story should be discussed in a zombie-related thread.

 

[BAYLOR]

Tanith Lee was mentioned earlier, but in my opinion anything in her Secret Books of Paradys series might perhaps qualify as her weirdest and strangest (and she wrote a lot of weird and strange stories!).*

*She wrote all kinds of stories, from children's books to sword and sorcery to vampire romance, but dark fantasy has always seemed to me to have been her forte.

I liked her Tales From the Flat Earth books.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I liked her Tales From the Flat Earth books.

Oh, so do I. But she has written many books that are weirder and stranger than any of those stories. She had an amazing imagination.

 

[paeng]

Perhaps the weirdness of this story has something to do with the time and place of its creation. Like Adolf Hitler, Kafka lived in Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the last century. Everyone knows that the German Nazis did not only kill Jews or Gypsies or Slavs or other nations they considered inferior. They also exterminated their fellow Germans who were mentally or physically ill and could be of no use to society. When Gregor turned into an insect, it was as if he had become mentally ill or disabled.
Of course, Kafka could not have been a German Nazi because he was Jewish. He would have been burned alive if he had lived to see Hitler come to power. But Hitler and his doctrines didn't fall from the sky or crawl out of the ground. The savages who called for the killing of "empty human shells", i.e. the mentally ill and disabled who were incapable of contributing to the economy, existed in Europe before Hitler. For example, Binding and Hoche, who wrote a book about the need to kill those who were "unworthy of life". Kafka just wrote a kind of weird parody (if I use the right term) of these savage ideas.
Gregor's strange family is like a symbol of the savage society between the two world wars. It demanded constant self-sacrifice for the sake of the nation, and was very cruel to those from whom no self-sacrifice could be expected. Deleuze and Guattari pointed that out?

I can't see connections between Kafka and any response to antisemitism. I think D and G said that he represented the idea of "minor literature," i.e., a Czech Jew who wrote in German and lived in a patchwork of an empire. He responded to the overwhelming bureaucracy of the modern world; hence, The Trial and so forth.

 

[Peppa]

I can't see connections between Kafka and any response to antisemitism. I think D and G said that he represented the idea of "minor literature," i.e., a Czech Jew who wrote in German and lived in a patchwork of an empire. He responded to the overwhelming bureaucracy of the modern world; hence, The Trial and so forth.

I wasn't trying to write something about "Kafka's response to anti-Semitism", I was just suggesting that he might have been killed if he had lived to see Hitler come to power.

The point of the post was this:

1) The German Nazis even killed their fellow Germans if they thought they were “worthless” (e.g. mentally challenged or disabled).

2) The idea of exterminating “worthless” people existed in Europe before Hitler came to power.

3) After Gregor is turned into an insect, his parents' attitude towards him changes because he becomes “worthless”. This is very similar to the ideas of Binding and Hoche.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag by Robert A Heinlein This story in terms tone and vetting else was different then his usual fare.

 

[Peppa]

Oh, so do I. But she has written many books that are weirder and stranger than any of those stories. She had an amazing imagination.

Her books are weird and beautiful at the same time. I would call them Pre-Raphaelite fantasy or Art Nouveau fantasy, if I may say so. I think if Oscar Wilde suddenly came back to life and read her books, he would love them. I don't know how to explain it, but when I read her books I'm reminded of the art of the late 19th century and Oscar Wilde's books.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Possessed by Arthur C. Clarke

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Kim Stanley Robinson; master of infodumping hard science fiction, right?

Try his bizarre fantasy novella A Short, Sharp Shock.