Submitted by CloudAndSea t3_11ekex6 in books

Recently, I stumbled upon the 'Subversive Literature Iceberg', which was likely inspired by many similar 'icebergs' covering various topics such as the 'Conspiracy Theory Iceberg', 'Exploitation Cinema Iceberg', and so on.

The gist of making an 'iceberg' is to start from the most obvious or trivial part of 'something' and then gradually descend down the rabbit hole to the very dark bottom, where the obscure and least-known information lies.

You can find original 'Subversive Literature Iceberg' image on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/p1q1pbd

I am mostly interested in your opinions because I feel that this iceberg is just not right. There is more to it, but I will quickly recapitulate the image, noting only the lesser-known entries and leaving out the big names. (Once again, for the complete iceberg, check out the Imgur image.)

SURFACE, TOP OF THE ICEBERG - Invisible Cities (Calvino), Sapiens (Harari), ...... etc.

STILL ABOVE THE WATER - Catch 22 (Heller), Lord of the Flies (Golding), ...... etc.

FIRST LEVEL BELOW THE WATER - Blod Meridian (McCarthy), Slaughterhouse 5 (Vonnegut), Animal Farm (Orwel), ...... etc.

GOING DOWN BELOW, IT'S GETTING DARKER - American Psycho (Ellis), The Stranger (Camus), 120 Days of Sodom (DeSade), ....... etc.

WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM - We (Zamjatin), Cows (Stokoe), Escape from Freedom (Fromm), ...... etc.

THE DARK BOTTOM OF THE ICEBERG, THE SUN DOESN'T SHINE HERE - Snuff (Palahniuk), Piaget's Last Fear (Jankovic), Requiem for a Dream (Selby Jr.), ...... etc.

What do you think?? I am most interested in the bottom of the iceberg. What is your bottom?

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identityno6 t1_jaekprg wrote

I just don’t see 1984 by George Orwell as being all that obscure, much less at the very bottom.

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RickyDontLoseThat t1_jaepjik wrote

Ian Curtis was a big Burrough's fan although the author snubbed him when they met.

I think I just have an aversion to "what is the best book" type of questions. I feel like the iceberg metaphors are basically the same thing. I just don't see that books need to be ranked. Does everything need to be a competition? Isn't literature more of a collaborative effort?

But please don't get me wrong. This isn't really directed towards your post.

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ughcult t1_jaf3ytc wrote

Definitely interesting to see which books were included in this iceberg. Maybe I am getting "subversive" mixed up with "disturbing" though, and I've read more from the bottom tiers than the tops. Of all Palahniuk's books, Snuff is most disturbing but I'd think Survivor and Fight Club are more subversive. Totally not meaning to rank books against each other, I'm just in a Readers' Advisory course and learning how to describe and suggest books for others.

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