A Dozen Dangerous Writers
(Another list that’s by request, and alphabetical by author. It’s a catalogue of writers whose work I find profoundly discomfiting—I might even say psychologically damaging—yet whose artistry is so persuasive that I end up adopting their worldview while I’m reading them. This is distinct from my list of the ten most disturbing books I’ve read because (1) I admire all the writers on this list and only a few of the writers on that other one and (2) I consider the kind of danger to which these writers expose me a high artistic accomplishment: they upend the meaning I make of life, and sometimes I want the meaning I make of life to be upended.)
J. G. Ballard (a dangerous book: Crash)
David Benatar (a dangerous book: Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence)
Ivan Brunetti (a dangerous book: Misery Loves Comedy)
Hermann Burger (a dangerous book: Tractatus Logico Suicidalis: On Killing Oneself)
Blake Butler (a dangerous book: Scorch Atlas)
Dennis Cooper (a dangerous book: Closer)
Brian Evenson (a dangerous book: Last Days)
Junji Ito (a dangerous book: Uzumaki)
Franz Kafka (a dangerous book: The Complete Stories)
Han Kang (a dangerous book: The Vegetarian)
Stig Sæterbakken (a dangerous book: Invisible Hands)
Lynne Tillman (a dangerous book: American Genius, A Comedy)
— December 24, 2022