Weird Literature: 9 Scenes In Books You Didn't See Coming (PHOTOS)

There are countless weird moments to be found in literature and after reaching out to readers we're not sure which minds were weirder--the ones that wrote the crazy scenes or the readers who noticed them.

This past week, we've reached out to readers via Facebook and Twitter to see what they have found to be some of the most bizarre moments in literature.

Is one of your favorite odd events not included? Let us know in the comments!

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"The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne

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From Twitter @ambilevous: "Tristram Shandy being 'accidentally' circumcised by a window."

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From Twitter @ambilevous: "Tristram Shandy being 'accidentally' circumcised by a window."

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Total comments: 128 | Post a Comment

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This Weird Moment

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Totally saw it coming So weird!

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Comments

[MorganK]

10:07 AM on 02/13/2011

I wouldn't call it literature exactly, but I think that my most profound WTF moment was in McGuire's Wicked - with the Tiger in the bar and a drug induced orgy of sorts and yeah... if you've read it, you've got to know what I'm talking about.

[ericbies]

03:07 PM on 02/01/2011

Oh, the rat and brie scene. Effectively vivid and disgusting.

[RTIII]

12:52 PM on 01/31/2011

Interesting , but I'm not well read enough to know many of the references.

MORE COMMENTARY would have been nice - not just a twitter.

[Sunflo]

01:55 AM on 01/31/2011

A lot of scenes in Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard.

[bluemonk611]

11:56 PM on 01/30/2011

Maybe I have an ivory tower....I only consider about 12 of those books literature. The rest common fiction. American Psycho is a neat read..... that is as close to literature (as I view it...and this is just my opinion) as Fox News is factual.

[Amber Troska]

09:34 AM on 01/31/2011

It just depends on definitions, which are relative, and thus you are perfectly welcome to your own opinion and no one will ever truly agree on what "real literature" is. American Psycho captures many of the defining aspects of American culture in the 80s, merely exaggerated for effect, and probably only requires time to be held in the same regard as those earlier works of "literature" which serve to teach us the lessons of history in much the same manner. It's hard to say what will be the defining literature of that decade fifty years from now, but I wouldn't be surprised if American Psycho became one of those seminal works. And this is coming from someone who could barely finish it due to absolute disgust at the graphic depictions of murder and abuse. It's one of those works that very clearly captures a moment in time that people may look back on from the future, even if it gives a very disturbing impression of that time.

[caad4]

11:13 PM on 01/30/2011

In A Star Called Henry, when he is telling a bit of his story, telling events in his future, saying something about being put up against a wall in Chicago and shot to death. No foreshadowing, never mentioned again. One line that leaps out, punches you in the gut, leaving you breathless and wholly shocked.

[Last Gasp]

10:48 PM on 01/30/2011

the rat and brie scene...very nice. thanks for reminding me.

[garystartswithg]

08:00 PM on 01/30/2011

Every word ever written by Dennis Cooper.

[mravka]

07:31 PM on 01/30/2011

Elias Canetti's Auto-da-Fe is one weird scene after another. Hilarious, disturbing read.

[Veronica]

05:14 PM on 01/30/2011

The "rat and Brie scene" in American Psycho should be scrapped in favor of "every single line" of American Psycho, cover to cover.

[Amber Troska]

09:36 AM on 01/31/2011

Indeed. It's an entire work of WTF moments. I stopped reading (and didn't start again for several weeks) after he put the dog in the freezer, which is probably one of the least disturbing moments.

[Incumbent]

04:26 PM on 01/30/2011

"There are countless weird moments to be found in literature"

I find it difficult to take this article seriously given that it apparently considers American Psycho to be literature.

[garystartswithg]

07:59 PM on 01/30/2011

Ha ha -- i remember back when McInerney and Ellis were considered important voices of their generation. And remember Kostabi? He was very collectable. You can buy Kostabi's for 50 bucks on Ebay now. The 80s gave us lots of things -- like AIDS and Reagan.

[bluemonk611]

11:58 PM on 01/30/2011

AGREE, and that isn't an insult. Ellis has his place in fiction... but "literature," really???

[ishmael]

03:55 PM on 01/30/2011

Considering the way the rest of the book is written, the rest of all Hammett's work and the whole genre of '30's detective fiction, I would nominate when Nora asks Nick in The Thin Man: "Nick, when you were wrestiling with Mimi, did you get an erection?" If only there were a version of the movie with Myrna Loy speaking that line.

[novelbud]

03:50 PM on 01/30/2011

Kafka's The Metamorphosis should always be on top of any "weird" book list. Pure genius.

[bluemonk611]

11:58 PM on 01/30/2011

The premise itself is clearly a shake your head and say "wha?"

agree

[Amber Troska]

09:40 AM on 01/31/2011

It's not even the premise so much as the matter-of-fact way everything seems to progress. No one is surprised or really disturbed, and that is really unsettling.

[Deleuzian Nomad]

03:37 PM on 01/30/2011

TC Boyle's Friend of the Earth...When Sierra Tierwater falls out of a tree...

[Darren2Be]

03:01 PM on 01/30/2011

King Lear......Had Cordelia simply stated she had all-encompassing, unconditonal love for the old man....Lear doesn't go off his spool. But noooooooooo...Shakespeare should have passsed her off to Dostoevsky and had him marry her to Raskalnikov.

[novelbud]

03:56 PM on 01/30/2011

The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus is filled with WTF scenes...

In the final scene when the Saturninus asks for Tamora's sons, Chiron and Demetrius, Titus reveals that they were in the pie Tamora has just been enjoying, and then kills Tamora. Moment before, Titus had just killed his own daughter... whew!