May 17, 2007
The Codex Seraphinianus - read past the slightly fulsome prose to learn about a strange and beautiful encyclopedia of an imaginary world. Other places to visit include The Realms of the Unreal, the Voynich Manuscript, and Fritolaysia -- pack your Dictionary of Imaginary Places and perhaps someplace to keep your pressed fairies. Giraffes? Giraffes! [Thx, Cyn-C]
From Jim Theis's wikipedia link I stumbled onto William McGonagall, who "has been widely hailed as the writer of the worst poetry in the English language."
Consider this excerpt from his poem the Tay Bridge Disaster:
"Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time."
If that isn't fit for the unfounded Exploitation Poetry Fan Club, I don't know what is.
Apparently Amanda McKittrick Ros was capable of Vogon-esque flights of logorrhea. I'm also intrigued by the The Book of Heroic Failures, especially for its aptonymic author Mr. Pile and the fact that "the American version of the book was misprinted by the publishers, who left out half the introduction. As a consequence, later versions of the book came out with an erratum slip longer than the entire introduction."
The Codex Seraphinanus in PDF form. Use normal user/pass.
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Add to that list the Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga (or ELotH:TES for short). It is the mass delusion to the individual psychoses of outsider art.
posted by Ned at 06:06PM CST on May 17