Your Favorite Obscure Book/Movie/Art

We all have our favorite little pleasure that no one else seems to know or care about. But when we share them, it can be quite instructive as well as give ideas for things we might want to seek out later. Mine happens to be a book named Cyteen.

So, what's yours?

 

One of my favorte books is Alas Babylone by pete frank. Not to many people (that i've met) hav heard of it.


dkt

 

I realized that a thread full of just titles wouldn't be very interesting

So be encouraged to give a little spiel about your obscure friend

I didn't want to so much because I've mentioned it before... The book I was talking about, Cyteen, is by CJ Cherryh, very psychological and hard sci-fi speculating on psychology and genetics/biology in a future time on another planet. Characterization is top-notch and never subordinate to description. And it won one of the most prestigious science fiction awards.

 

Evil Alien Conquerors

My-ik and Du-ug are evil alien conquerors from the planet Kabijj. They have exactly 822,000 tilkrons (2 and half days) to behead all of mankind. Otherwise they will feel the wrath of a 100 foot giant, named Croker. Armed with only their swords, these inept evil aliens find Earth harder to conquer than planned. Will alcohol, fast food, mad cows, and women stand in their way? Or is the Earth doomed?

*Taken from IMDB

 

Darkman, starring Liam Neeson(AKA Qui-Gon Jinn), by Sam Raimi. The effects are VERY outdated and fake now, but it's still hella cool.

 

My favorite obscure movie would have to be "Goodbye, Boys" (1964), which is a Russian film directed by Mikhail Kalik. There are other, more obscure titles that I can think of, but this will suffice for now.

 

Nice, guys Thanks for sharing.

It would be cool if people responding after this would say why you like it so much.

 

an old comedy called "murder by death"

a summary from imdb:

Truman Capote has invited the five greatest detectives to a "dinner and murder." How can they resist? Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities, and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.

why i like it? it's the funniest movie i've ever seen.

 

My favorite obscure movie is without a doubt: Hei tai yang 731 (Men Behind the Sun)

 

The Krugg Syndrome, by Scottish writer Gus McAllister. A comic coming-of-age novel about a kid who gets a knock on the head and wakes up absolutely convinced he's really a scout for an impending invasion of evil alien trees. Read it.

 

Murder by Death is a frigging riot. The script is just hilarious. Alec Guiness especially cracks me up ("Ah, the doorbell . . .")

Obscure is a hard label though to define.

I have my list of great films, books, music, etc, but for the life of me I'm not sure which ones are obscure.

Buster Keaton might be obscure to the public if you consider that they probably haven't seen any of his stuff. But they have heard of him, so is he obscure?

What about Stephen King, who's incredibly popular, but has yet to be recognized by the scholarly establishment? Obscure?

Sherman Alexie, who's quite popular in my neck of the woods, but no one else has heard of him? Obscure?

Michael W. Smith who's a Grammy winning artist, but no one seems to listen to him? Obscure?

Obscure according to whom? So, I won't be listing any of my picks in this thread, because I'm not sure what's obscure and what isn't.

 

What about Stephen King, who's incredibly popular, but has yet to be recognized by the scholarly establishment? Obscure?

No.

 

Interesting point, Rogue. The definition of obscure that I was using? "If you started talking about the book/movie/art, would the people you normally converse with have any idea what you were talking about?" obscure. And yes, that's still very subjective.

 

Ever taken a class where there was an assigned reading out of a Stephen King book? I never have and I have an emphasis in literature. That's more obscurity than the man deserves.

Obscurity is a sliding scale. It's not that a work is obscure or isn't. There are degrees of obscurity. That makes it difficult to talk about.

But I understand your definition. I just don't like the label. Along with 'underrated' and 'overrated' it seems to attempt to put too much information into a single word.

Not to be a thread killer.

So, by your definition, Buster Keaton = not obscure because people have at least heard of him thought they may not have seen any of his work?

That's really scraping the bottom. Using that definition makes it really hard to come up with an obscurity.

Here's my effort:
'
Khabbi Khush Khabbi Gham (I think) Indian movie from a couple of years ago. Hilarious, absolutely hilariously funny. Around four hours long and it just flies by. Great, great effort.

 

The last good obscure movie I saw was called "King of the Ants." It's about a typical loser who is hired by some goons (one of them being George Wendt AKA Norm from Cheers) to follow and then eventually kill a city hall accountant. The guy ends up being betrayed recieves brutal torture by golf club to the head on a repeated basis. Not for the sqeamish.

 

Thanks, tenbiscuits

Well, Rogue, that situation is a bit of a hard one. Let's give it a try, though. So you start actually talking about a Buster Keaton movie... and the people around you have never seen it or any of his other work. While they might know 'Buster Keaton', they have no clue about the actual movie, hmmmm? So I would classify it by my definition as still obscure. That is, if you take a large enough sample and no one has any clue about the movie-- which is not necessarily the same as having seen the movie. I guess in my definition of obscure, it's all in how many people, relative to other art/books/movies, have any idea what the thing is actually about. If that makes sense. And, obviously, this is just my definition.

 

There is an old, out of print book called The Science In Science Fiction which was a great look at various scifi books as well as a teacher for a beginning space enthusiast.

For a film I'd have to go with Darkstar.

For art:

[image=http://www.illusionsgallery.com/icarus-L.jpg]

I don't know if the painting is obscure, but the painter is, there is only one book about him that stores do not carry.

 

Khabbi Khush Khabbi Gham

Yep, that's right...and it was a lovely film filled with some gorgeous song and dance numbers...erm, yep I'm a masala movie fan and I watch Shah Rukh and Vivek Oberoi movies as soon as they come out!


As far as Hindi movies go, I love Saathiya, Kal Ho Na Ho and Veer-Zaara. They aren't obscure to me...over here in Asia they are mega hits.


Hmm but I do have an few books by an author who wrote for the Point Horror series-remember the teen novels? Ritchie Tankersley Kusick wrote some fantastic books for the series. I have the following:-


Trick or Treat- A young girl moves into a spooky house...this one was a different kind of haunted house story...really good!

The Mall- Trish works at the Mall and she's being stalked by some lunatic. Really freaky moments.

Fatal Secrets- A girl is haunted by her dead sister. To add to it she has to deal with 3 unusual guys....one of the guys is so funny. I still crack up when I think of his one-liners!

Ritchie has a way with words and characters...it's spine tingling reading!

 

Thanks again so much, guys! I'll have to think about finding that "The Science in Science Fiction" book... that's exactly my interest and specialty

Anybody else care to share?

 

Evil Toons

When WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT became a smash hit, indy filmmaker Fred Olen Ray (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS) made the rounds in Hollywood pitching producers on a horrific spoof that would feature a Cartoon Monster and Scantily Clad Girls. No one, including Roger Corman, believed that Fred could effectively combine the cartoon creature and the live action together in a convincing fashion. Undefeated, Fred made the picture himself in eight short days with independent financing and the result was EVIL TOON - a certifiable Cult Classic.

With: David Carradine, Arte Johnson, Dick Miller, Monique Gabrielle, Suzanne Ager, Madison Stone, Stacey Nix and Michelle Bauer.

Rating: Unrated/Naked Girls

86 Terrifying Minutes!

 

Book: Fisher of Devils by Steve Redwood.

An absolutely riotous romp through the bible; completely irreverent yet undeniably pious at the same time. Not for those who take offence to Judaeo/Christian beliefs being taken lightly, or those who are unfamiliar with said beliefs.

The first third of the book takes place in the Garden of Eden, with God teaching a very arrogant and obnoxious Adam the uses of his "peculiar appendage" Hilarity ensues when Adam decides to go on strike from his duties as gardener, God discovers that his creations are mortal and will eventually have to go to Heaven with his angels, and the need for females and reproduction appears. Enter Satan, recently arrived from the planet known as Hell, who wants to check out God's new creation, and falls in love with Even in the process.

The book skipps ahead several thousand years to weeks before the Final Judgement, when a dastardly Saint Peter and his neurotic bodyguard, Saint George, must visit a truly unique vision of Hell in order to convince Satan to do something totally unexpected (I won't ruin the surprise) All the while, this unlikely trio and their journey is hindered by rebellious agents of Satan, the native inhabitants of Hell, despressed souls in Limbo, and a strange alliance of unsaintly saints, jealous angels, and the world-weary family of Jesus.

Highly recommended, albeit extremely hard to find in stores. Ordering of the book is probably necessary to procure a copy.


Obscure Art: James Christensen. An artist who specializes in fantasy, fanciful, and fantastic paintings and a deal of sculpture. Hard to describe, but his paintings each manage to tell a story and create living, breathing characters more real than anything that Mary Cassat or Da Vinci could produce with paint and canvass.

 

Book: " The Ethics of Homicide "
Movie: " Fire and Ice " - not VERY obscure because Ralph Bakshi was pretty popular at the time and Frazetta is a giant, but its still very hard to obtain.
Art: Michael Cheval - pretty obsure Russian surrealist whose works are brilliant ( I own an original so I admit that Im a little biased on this one ).

 

The Iron Giant. Absolutely fantastic movie. TIG is one of the best films I've ever seen, animated or otherwise.

I don't know anyone else who has read the Ring of Fire series. Great books.

 

You know, for a brief but panicked second, I thought that this thread was "Your Favorite Obscene Book/Movie/Art"...

 

Not in my thread, Raven! Some other posters, on the other hand...

Great job again, guys! Iron Giant-- yeah, good movie. Very good movie. I'm not sure I'd classify it as obscure myself, but so be it, we all have different definitions for that.