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Royal
Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty |
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| Special
Cases By Rosamond Purcell Chronicle Books (out of print) Recommended by Teri: "I have not thoroughly ravaged your site as yet, but do you ever mention in the library of morbidity 'Special Cases' by Rosamond Purcell? It is a great freaks book, from 1997. Awesome photos and illustrations." (Not Yet Reviewed) |
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| Undying
Love By Ben Harrison St. Martin's This has to be one of the sweetest "morbid" stories ever told - the perfect Morbid Valentine for your beloved. Carl von Cosel was a German x-ray technician living in Florida who fell in love with one of his Tuberculosis patients - a beautiful young woman named Elena. Carl believed that Elena was destined to be his wife and he was overcome with despair when she finally succumbed to her illness. He decided that even death could not keep them apart, and he exhumed his bride and brought her body back to his home, where he cleaned it up and used an elaborate embalming process to preserve her remains. He kept her there with him for 8 years, during which time she naturally began to fall apart a bit, but Carl kept her looking as good as possible by filling in her sunken features with wax. He even inserted a tube in her vaginal canal so they could consummate their love. Yes, it doesn't get much sicker than this! But strangely enough, when Carl was eventually arrested, most women of the time (1920's-30's) thought it was a very romantic story and did not think poorly of the old man at all. Isn't that sweet? NNNN - Well worth your time! |
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| The
Ballad of Typhoid Mary
by Federspiel (Dutton Adult) Recommended by Elizabeth: "Once you have witnessed the dark, sensational visions of Joel-Peter Witkin, you will never be the same again. Witkin gets to you. Here you will encounter hermaphrodites, malformed bodies, Siamese twins, corpses, fetuses, cut-off heads, and self-torturers... Warning: Not for those under 18 and/or easily disturbed. " |
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| Gods
of Earth and Heaven "Once you have witnessed the dark, sensational visions of Joel-Peter Witkin, you will never be the same again. Witkin gets to you. Here you will encounter hermaphrodites, malformed bodies, Siamese twins, corpses, fetuses, cut-off heads, and self-torturers... Warning: Not for those under 18 and/or easily disturbed. " |
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| Inside
Teradome: An Illustrated History... by Jack Hunter (Creation Pub Group) Recommended by Lily: "This is one of the strangest, but best books I own. Tons of pictures of freaks (real and cinema freaks) dating back to Victorian Sideshow Images. I really recommend this one...heres a review I find that summarizes it perfectly: From the Roman games to American traveling carnivals, freakshows – human anomalies presented for spectacle – have flourished throughout recorded history. The birth of the movies provided a further outlet for these displays, which in turn led to a peculiar strain of bizarre cinema: Freak Film. Inside Teradome is a comprehensive, fully illustrated guide to the roots and developments of this fascinating, often disturbing cinematic genre. Including: A brief history of teratology; freaks in myth and medicine The history of freakshows, origins of cinema Influence of sideshows on cinema Use of human anomalies in cinema Freaks and geeks Bizarre cinema: mutilation and other fetishes Illustrated filmography; index >From the pioneering illusions of Georges Méliès and the Expressionist distortions of Dr Caligari, the surgical horrors of Mad Love and real-life grotesqueries of Tod Browning's Freaks, to the modern nightmare visions of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eraserhead, and Santa Sangre, Inside Teradome reveals a twisted thread of voyeuristic sickness running not only through cinema, but through the society of which it has always been the most telling barometer. A truly amazing book...as you can see. I am actually using one of the photographs (of a veiled woman with a parasitic twin hanging from her stomach) in a painting i am currently working on. The company that put this book out, puts many others out on similar subjects (the death films, British horror, Charles manson films, john waters flicks etc. etc.)" |
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| One
of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal by Alice Domurat Dreger (Harvard University Press) Recommended by Layna. Here's a synopsis of the book: "Analyzing case studies past and present, Dormurat Dreger, an associate professor of science and technology at Michigan State, questions assumptions about anatomical norms in a solemn and politically passionate exploration of separation surgery on conjoined twins. Providing historical and contemporary evidence that most adult conjoined twins do not desire to be separated, and that many surgeries are carried out on children too young to object, Dormurat Dreger voices distaste for Americans' failure to tolerate anatomical difference and instead fetishize individualism at all cost. Making ample use of her previous study of hermaphrodites, she likens separation surgery to reconstructive surgery on the sexually ambiguous genitalia of 'intersex' children. Both types of surgery, she argues, share the dubious social rather than strictly medical goal of making such children appear more 'normal.' Aided by statistics that bespeak a high mortality rate, Dormurat Dreger mines cases of separation surgery around the world for the rational and ethical flaws in medical decision making, building a strong case against intervention. At the heart of her moral questioning is suspicion of the institutions involved, and of parents who may be motivated more by ill-conceived feelings about normality than by rational consideration for the children's futures. This pithily provocative critique of medical paternalism and society's blind spots vis-à-vis anatomical standards provides a valuable opportunity to ponder the high-profile surgeries on conjoined twins that most of us know only through the news headlines we habitually fail to question." |
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| Strange
People by Frank Edwards (Lyle Stuart) Recommended by Lily: "I found it at a garage sale. It was written in 1961 and the part I've read so far is about circus freaks but there's supposed to be stuff like some guy who predicted the sinking of the Titanic in there." Amos Quito warns: "Caveat emptor: This is one of Frank Edwards' books (of which I own three, though not this one). Despite the reviews on amazon, take these tales with a grain of salt. Edwards notoriously did NOT research his sources; these books are more along the lines of the forteana-as-entertainment, Ripley's Believe it or not ilk. Fun reading, indeed, but for entertainment purposes only." |
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