“What's the strangest—or one of the strangest—books you've ever read? And what made it so?” --@bamenke.bsky.social
(image of Maldoror by menke)
I said: “𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦, 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠, 𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑙𝑒𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙, 𝑝𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒, 𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑦𝑚𝑛𝑠, 𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑎, 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ'𝑠 𝑗𝑒𝑠𝑡-𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘, 𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑒, 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒, 𝑡𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑒”
Let’s break that down:
Paul Auster- The New York Trilogy (1987)
Djuna Barnes- Nightwood (1936)
William Gaddis- The Recognitions (1955)
W H Auden- The Orators (1932)
R A Lafferty- Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)
Giorgio de Santillana- Hamlet’s Mill (1969)
V N Nabokov- Pale Fire (1962)
Geoffrey Hill- Mercian Hymns (1971)
Diane di Prima- Loba (1978)
Thomas Lovell Beddoes- Death’s Jest-Book (1850)
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha- Dictée (1982)
Hugh MacDiarmid- A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926)
Joyelle McSweeney- Toxicon and Arachne (2020)