Is Vault of Evil anti-intellectual?

[marksamuels]

Personally, I'm rapidly coming around to the view that the type of messageboard users I refer to are best ignored, unnamed and denied the oxygen of publicity they thrive on.

Within five minutes they're usually all over faceblog (or whatver it's called) going on endlessly about the criticisms and drawing even more attention to themselves.



Mark S.

[franklinmarsh]

Now....would it be possible to find ten books that would appeal, not only to intellectuals, but also Vault members? Probably not.

1. The Naked Lunch – William S Burroughs. Gah! Disgusting! Burroughs rather …er…colourful life makes him an honorary Vault author at least. Later filmed by David Cronenberg.

2. Last Exit To Brooklyn – Hubert Selby Jr. Gah! Disgusting.

3. Crash – J G Ballard. Car crash porn! It really is! And from a respected SF author – brilliant! Later filmed by David Cronenberg.

4. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks. Gah! Disgusting – especially at the end. Banks’ book publishers also rather wonderfully printed good and bad reviews in the front covers.

5. The Comfort Of Strangers – Ian McEwan. Namechecked by Lady P as one of the sophistos, Mac is also a Pan Book Of Horror Author. Huzzah! Dread, beat and blood.

6. 120 Days Of Sodom – The Marquis De Sade. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Really disgusting! The author appeared under a pseudonym in Pete Walker’s House of Whipcord (not really) but was played by Patrick Magee on film.

7. Macbeth – William Shakespeare. Outrageously bloody. Later filmed by Orson Welles and Roman Polanski. Jason Connery stars in the Poundland version.

8. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess. Being the adventures of a young man who’s principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven. Later filmed by Stanley Kubrick.

9. Wheels Of Terror – Sven Hassel. You might question this being in an intellectual’s top ten but the old paperback version had an endorsement by no less a scribbler than Alan Sillitoe – so there..

10. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh. Sex, Drugs, Football Hooliganism, Iggy Pop. All human life is here. Later filmed by Danny Boyle.

[David A. Riley]

Read three of those.

[noose]

read 8 of those.

[franklinmarsh]

I've read them all! (Except 120 Days which I just flicked through. That was enough. Gah!)

[andydecker]

Read three of those and tried three more but gave up.

Reading DeSade is hard work. But the same can be said for Burroughs, so ... ;D

[Craig Herbertson]

1. The Naked Lunch – William S Burroughs. read - hated

2. Last Exit To Brooklyn – not read

3. Crash – J G Ballard. read - liked.

4. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks. not read.

5. The Comfort Of Strangers – Ian McEwan. not read

6. 120 Days Of Sodom – The Marquis De Sade. read a bit of de sade - (don't think 'like' is the right adjective but I didn't hate it)

7. Macbeth – William Shakespeare. Read - liked

8. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess. Read - liked

9. Wheels Of Terror – Sven Hassel. Read - liked.

10. Trainspotting - read - hated

[weirdmonger]

[glow=blue,2,300]HOUSE[/glow] OF LEAVES by Mark Z Danielewski ?

[franklinmarsh]

Craig - what didn't you like about Burroughs and Welsh?

[Craig Herbertson]

Burroughs Naked Lunch: Perhaps I'd need to read it again to make a proper judgment. At the time I hated the non linear style, I really disliked his nomenclature, I disliked the glorification of violence in the same way that I really disliked Elllsion's kind of angry stance - Me disliking the 'glorification of violence' probably seems a bit cheeky. I found it basically puerile in its use of sex as shocking (Although I concede maybe I'd have done the same myself if I'd been brought up in America just to annoy he conservatives) and it wasn't a story. I like stories. I remember intensely disliking the 'central' character but maybe there wasn't a central character. I did finish it though because at the time I refused to stop reading even the dullest book.

Trainspotting I first started reading in an airport book shop. I saw the first page which I vaguely recognised as a kind of phonetic spelling of my own braid scots language. As soon as I saw that I thought 'Christ, who could be bothered trying to translate that!' I immediately put it down but was forced by peer pressure, and having nothing else to read, to have another go on a bus journey when I was on Tour in 2001 I think. I plodded it through and recognised my own home town seen through the eyes of a writer. Perhaps I was just jealous but I really though the plot and the characters and everything in it were mythologized versions of things which I had seen as concrete realities. I hated its glorification of drugs and the implicit way it does that through glamour and excitment. I detested its glorification of violence which is also heavily implied.

I once walked through a door in Edinburgh and saw two teenage kids lying naked on a dirty mattress with needles around them and I've also been welcomed into a flat by two guys who leapt to their feet and raised their baseball bats. They said 'Its not him' Three words I've have never been happier to hear.

In short, I have become a boring old f*rt.

[David A. Riley]

I only got halfway through Naked Lunch when I decided I was wasting my time reading it. I had read his earlier Junkie and quite enjoyed it, but his new writing style struck me as ridiculous, unneccesary and pretentious. He'd moved from Junkie to junk.

[Dr Strange]

I've only read two of those - coincidentally the two written by Scots (Wasp Factory & Trainspotting). I enjoyed both immensely at the time - It was during my wilderness years when I wasn't really reading much fiction at all, and when I did I thought it should be something modern and meaningful. Thank f*ck that didn't last.

Oh, I "did" Macbeth at school - but I don't count that as "reading" as I think I was probably daydreaming through most of it.

[Craig Herbertson]

I've always meant to read Wasp as I've heard a lot about it. It's one of these hardbacks (white/black cover?) I've picked up hundreds of times in bookshops but never bought.

I think in all honesty my critical judgment of Trainspotting is affected by it being local. I'd probably have liked it if it had been set in Sheffield or Dublin or something.

[Thana Niveau]

1. The Naked Lunch – William S Burroughs - >:(hated both the book and the film - the only Cronenberg film I actively dislike.

2. Last Exit To Brooklyn – Hubert Selby Jr. - not read it, though I've been told I'd like the film.

3. Crash – J G Ballard - haven't read it, though I *have* seen the film and suspect I'd like the book better.

4. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks - Loved it!

5. The Comfort Of Strangers – Ian McEwan - Loved it! The film's a pretty faithful adaptation too.

6. 120 Days Of Sodom – The Marquis De Sade - read it in uni. Tiresome but nonetheless intriguing catalogue of atrocities by an angry man simply born in the wrong time/place. Frankly unreadable, so it's hard to love or hate it.

7. Macbeth – William Shakespeare - Loved it.

8. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess - Loved it - both book and film. Stunning.

9. Wheels Of Terror – Sven Hassel - not read it but intrigued...

10. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh - Didn't enjoy the film (junkie culture freaks me out), so didn't read the book. Reliably informed I wouldn't like it.

00. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski - read it and found it frankly tedious. Didn't "get" it at all.

[Dr Terror]

Of those, I've read a grand total of none...