# Disturbing books, poems, etc.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 6, 1999, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609 "1999-09-06T05:38:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ThisIsHell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@ThisIsHell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsHell)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 1999, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/1 "1999-09-06T05:38:00Z")

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Well, I figured that since there was a Disturbing Movies catagory, the other disturbing things that exist should also be shared. Plus, I had a poem I just had to share 'cause it’s quite sad. But beware! it’s long.

Once on a piece of yellow paper with green lines  
he wrote a poem  
and he called it “Chops”  
Because that was the name of his dog  
and that’s what it was all about  
and his teacher gave him an A  
and a gold star  
and his mom hung it on the kitchen door  
and read it to his aunts  
That was the year Father Tracy  
Took all the kids to the zoo  
And he let them sing on the bus  
And his little sister was born  
with tiny toenails and no hair  
and his mother and father kissed a lot  
And the girl around the corner sent him a Valentine  
signed with a row of X’s  
and he had to ask his father what the X’s meant  
And his father always tucked him in bed at night  
And was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines  
he wrote a poem  
and he called it “Autumn”  
Because that was the name of the season  
And that’s what it was all about  
and his teacher gave him an A  
and asked him to write more clearly  
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door  
because of its new paint  
And the kids told him  
that Father Tracy smoked cigars  
and left butts on the pews  
and sometimes they would burn holes  
that was the year his sister got glasses  
with thick lenses and black frames  
and the girl around the corner laughed  
when he asked her to see santa claus  
and the kids told him why  
his mother and father kissed a lot  
and his father never tucked him in bed at night  
and his father got mad  
when he cried for him to do it

Once on a paper torn from his notebook  
he wrote a poem  
and he called it “Innocence: A Question”  
because that was the question about his girl  
and that’s what it was all about  
and his professer gave him an A  
and a strange steady look  
and his mother never hund it on the kitchen door  
because he never showed her  
That was the year that Father Tracy died  
and he forgot how the end  
of the Apostle’s Creed went  
and he caught his sister  
making out on the back porch  
and his mother and father never kissed  
or even talked  
and the girl around the corner  
wore too much make up  
that made him cough when he kissed her  
but he kissed her anyway  
because that was the thing to do  
and at three A.M. he tucked himself in bed  
his father snoring loudly

That’s why on the back of a brown paper bag  
he tried another poem  
And he called it “Absolutely Nothing”  
because that’s what it was really all about  
And he gave himself an A  
and a slash on each damned wrist  
and he hung it on the bathroom door  
because this time he didn’t think  
he could reach the kitchen  
That’s from The Perks Of Being a Wallflower, which I recommend to anyone who has had less than a perfect life.

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**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 1999, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/2 "1999-09-08T00:54:00Z")

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I’ll bite.

This probably seems shallow compared to the poem above, but the book Pet Sematary (do I need to say who it’s by?) disturbed me the last time I read it. The first time I read it, I was 13 and invincible. The last time I read it, I was probably 10 or 12 years older, and had lost several family members and pets. It rattled me a little bit more in that context. And of course, the part where the dad is carrying the body of his son out to the Micmac burial grounds, and keeps seeing and hearing things that may not be (but probably are) there…I’m 26 and still scared of the dark, ok? I don’t need to think about what may or may not be crashing around out there. (Maybe this is why I’ve been frequently so many skeptic web sites lately, they comfort my over-active imagination.)

Anyway, first time I read it, it was spine-tingling gross out fun. Last time I read it, it reminded me of my own mortality and that of my loved ones, plus things that go bump in the night. I gave my copy away.

* * *

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

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**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 1999, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/3 "1999-09-08T04:04:00Z")

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I read part of this in college. We had a psycho for a lit teacher and part of her curriculum was Baudelaire’s \* Fleurs de Mal \* (Flowers of Evil). This part was from his poem \* Hymm to Beauty \*

- Who cares if you come from paradise or hell,

appalling Beauty, artless and monstrous scourge,

if only your eyes, your smile or your foot reveal

the Infinite I love and have never known?

Come from Satan, come from God- who cares,

Angel or siren, rhythm, fragrance, light,

provided you transform- O my one queen!

This hideous universe, this heavy hour? \*  
This guy did not get out of the house too much.

* * *

“…send lawyers, guns, and money…”

```
 Warren Zevon
```

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**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/4 "1999-09-09T01:14:00Z")

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This epitaph on a child’s grave marker has always bothered me:

“Goodbye little one. We were ready to love you more and more, and not weep for you so soon.”

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**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/5 "1999-09-09T01:39:00Z")

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## I think the most disturbing story I remember is “The Monkeys Paw”…to paraphrase, a family finds a relic that will grant wishes, and they wish for money. They get the money in the form of an insurance benefit for their son, who is killed in a gruesome accident because of their wish. Then, the mother wishes her son back…the father makes the final wish just in time- to send the son away, as he was about to return to them all bloody and chewed up from the accident. Be careful what you wish for!

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

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**Author:** ![Catrandom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/6 "1999-09-09T01:46:00Z")

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For musical creepout factor, try Elvis Costello’s “The Juliet Letters,” particularly “Dear Sweet Filthy World, My Wife.” It may be the most heartless suicide note, real or fictional, ever written. There’s also a song that’s a “You May Have Already Won” type offer (literally) from Hell.

Catrandom

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**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/7 "1999-09-09T03:56:00Z")

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I’ll have to second _The Monkey’s Paw_, Zette.

_Jude the Obscure_, or really just about any of Thomas Hardy’s novels always affect me greatly. I have learned never to read one when I’m already feeling a little down.

I saw a set of paintings in an art show that were the most beautiful things there but also the most disturbing. They were portraits, almost caricatures, with garish colors and slightly misplaced features. Of course I can’t remember the artist or the work but they were part of the William Paley (the late prez of CBS) collection.

## Hauntingly, Pluto

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”  
– William of Ockham

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**Author:** ![smilingjaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@smilingjaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingjaws)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/8 "1999-09-09T22:50:00Z")

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John Donne’s poem “For whom the bell tolls” means a lot to me.  
I have to agree with the Thomas Hardy books–so darn depressing you almost want to slit your wrists when you finish them. ONe of my all time least favorite authors.  
Most recently–“She’s come undone” Great book.

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**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-books-poems-etc/7609/9 "1999-09-10T19:46:00Z")

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Joyce Carol Oates’ “Haunted-Tales of the Grotesque” is a good, creepy read.

* * *

Tim  
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”