There are certainly some writers whose work appeals to the young.

I loved Hesse, Camus, Dostoyevsky and any writer who, to my young mind, captured the feeling of confusion and alienation felt at that age (The Outsider was the perfect book to me).

Camus was of special appeal because he looked so damn good in pictures, sort of a literary Brando.

Thank you, Pookie, I was thinking that Colin Wilson's The Outsider might be too fringe (even) for this thread. It's great.

Yeah, porkmarras, Last Exit to Brooklyn is a modern prose masterpiece.

All the beats, especially Ginsberg and Kerouac get their mentions,
And people often write about Bukowski here. Burroughs too (Junky is great though). But dammit, everyone should read Last Exit to Brooklyn.

How good is it?
Not as good as On the Road, but better than Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by a slight margin, so it's well worth reading.

And Selby's The Demon is well worth a read as well.

Not exactly a beat and not exactly a hippy, but I sure like Richard Brautigan a lot. Not sure if that's "cult" stuff or not, but it resonates with me and some of it is pretty inventive.

I love you.I think that and some of his books opened my eyes about a lot of things.Thanks for this thread,i'm always up for good reading suggestions.

How about "Catcher in the Rye"? Doesn't get much more of a cult novel then that. Love it, hate it most have read it at least once.

For a maniac, Hinckley was a pretty damn good shot.

Yes, you have struck topic gold with that one, LifeDistortion.
This isn't the first time you've schooled me either.

When you first read The Catcher in the Rye it's a bit of a disappointment. It's almost like viewing the Mona Lisa or something, because you can't read it with a blank slate with no expectations due to overwhelmingly-storied subcultural undercurrents at work.

But, each time you read it, it gets better and better.

For a long time, I preferred Franny and Zooey.

Loved it, but I don't know if a book that is standard-issue reading for High School English classes can really be considered to have "cult" status.

That's a good point.

Although The Red Badge of Courage and The Old Man and the Sea aren't quite as prevalent in the culture haha.

Wow, how'd you get "Total Abuse"? I REALLY want to read that. I think it's pretty rare nowadays..

I got it when I worked at the record store. My boss didn't want to sell it on the internet!

Damn. Well let me know if you ever want to part with it.

I had the same problem with Tokolosh classifying Lord of the Flies as "cult". But it's a set text in school's in England, but not necessarily in other countries.

And conversely with Catcher in the Rye, it's not read in schools (at least not when I went to school) so I came at it fresh, knowing nothing about it, and its satuts as a cult novel is sound, in my mind at least. I loved it by the way.

Catcher in the Rye definetely is a cult novel. Even if it is read in school's. People still get it after they are done with it.

I don't know anyone who read Sarah Kane and wasn't deeply affected by it [Hello, syntactically awful sentence]. Meanwhile, she's largely unknown to a public at large (or small).

Personally, I love Aaron Williamson's poetry, and he's a bit cult-y. I'm a bit of a loss otherwise, as I suspect you've heard of all the other good writers I can think of (thereby undermining their cult status) apart from philosophers, and they don't count (academic, see?).

[quote=Glice]

Personally, I love Aaron Williamson's poetry, and he's a bit cult-y. quote]
I have something that you might like if i find it in this mess.

No rush, but yes I probably would if you come across it.

"cult" is something of general crappy qualities that somehow manages to be really good and gain a "cult" following.

what is a cult novel? p.k. dick comes to mind-- a brilliant mind, wrote with his feet due to bad wives/need to pay several alimonies/being in a total hurry/addicted to amphetamines.

but with the general decline of english prose im thinking he's moving in our perspective closer to the belles lettres.

a lot of what starts as "cult" becomes mainstream as the public's tastes change. i'm thinking of john waters, he may have been a "cult" filmmaker back in the day, but in the XXI century he stands as a towering american classic-- well not yet perhaps but when i buy TCM with my illicitly-acquired fortune, everyone will get a weekly diet of pink flamingos, female trouble, and multiple maniacs.

[...]

edit:

re-thinking about this, it occurs to me that something does not need to be "generally bad, but bearing some good qualities" in order to be "cult". "scorpio rising" comes to mind-- very good quality stuff, just weird enough for the general public that has a small following confining it to "cult" movie status.

as for novels.. nothing comes to mind at the moment, and it's not like i have the day to sit and ponder this. :p

Here it is my lovely.It's Aaron Williamson's 'And How Do We Connect Language Up To The Body?' from an album of spoken poetry that i've bought about five years ago.Short but awesome and the first time i heard his name.At first i thought he was insane but now i adore him and he makes total sense.
http://www.badongo.com/file/1984298

Profoundly deaf, did you know that? I've never heard his audio stuff - I went out with a girl who had a case but no CD - but his writing is fucking awesome.

Thanks ever so much for that, I've not found (nor looked for, truth be told) any of his audio.

Edit: Someone rep Porky on my behalf? Cheers.

Second Edit: This is fucking awesome. I must make it my mission to find a CD.