So Bad It's Horrible/Literature: Difference between revisions

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** The editors don't check the articles to make sure they're accurate, which means that vandalism could end up in the books.

** The books are often only 40-50 pages long, yet cost up to $100. For Wikipedia articles that you can get on the internet '''for free'''.

* On the subject of horribly written non-fiction books, as much as we [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|want to be neutral on this author's views]], ''America's Most Dangerous Nazi'', A.J. Weberman, is a blatant a hit piece on a controversial politician <ref>The one who's name rhymes with Pon Raul</ref> is one of the most biased, one-sided, slanderous non-fiction books one will ever find. The cover is a entirely Photoshopped image of said politician behind a Nazi flag. And the back cover? a Photoshopped picture of Hitler replacing Hitler's face with said politician's face. [[Godwin's Law|Sound familiar?]] The book itself is full of one-sided arguments that try to generalize all his supporters into the ones who are considered a [[Vocal Minority]] and is written in an informal, biased, slanderous, profane and vulgar hit piece(the book uses words like "crap", "filth", "bastard" and "scum" to describe the supporters of the politician that the book is attacking) that dosen't even try to be neutral or examine issues objectively. The author believes that said politician changed his views on Israel when he sent him his book in order to hide antisemitism, forgetting the fact [[Did Not Do the Research|said politician has defended Israel's actions once at a time when most other politicians in America condemned it in a resolution when it bombed Iraq]]. In short, while said politician may be one of the most divisive figures in America, this book is [[Godwin's Law]] at it's very worst.

** The author's way of advertising this book is just as horrible. He spams every single article about said politician and whenever he finds positive comments, he links to this book as if in an attempt to "convert" supporters. Unsurprisingly, most of these comments were flagged for spam.

* ''The Blah Story'' by Nigel Tomm is the second-longest novel,<ref>(the longest is ''Marienbad My Love'', by Mark Leach, with 17,000,000 words)</ref> containing both the longest sentence and longest coined word in English. This might have been [[So Bad It's Good]], except the book's written something like "In a blah she was blah blah blah down a blah between blah roses blah blah blah her blah blah hair blah blah gently the blah blah trees..."

** A little tidbit of horror — Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series has a total of 4,012,859 words, and that consists of ''fifteen'' books all qualifying for [[Doorstopper]] status. ''The Blah Story'' has '''11,300,000''' words!

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** The worst part of all of ''Revelation'' is the general message that Force-users are dangerous, disgusting, and incapable of doing ''anything'' right. In the end, the book's message concludes that all force-users should never be allowed to develop their talents or be allowed anywhere near weaponry or government for the simple fact of them being force-users, [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|who should be shunned for something they have no control over]].

* In 2000, Nancy Stouffer claimed that her 1984 or 1986 (she disagreed with herself there) book ''[[The Legend of Rah and the Muggles]]'' provided the inspiration for ''[[Harry Potter]]''. She said, among other things, that the fact that there was wooden doors in both her and Rowling's books was evidence of this. The case was notable partly because of the [[Frivolous Lawsuit]] (which she lost comprehensively) and partly because the book itself was unspeakably awful; a full list of its failings would at least double the size of this page, so [http://www.magespace.net/mugrev.html here's a handy plot breakdown] should you wish to subject yourself to them anyway. Once news from the lawsuit started spreading, a small-time publisher tried to cash in on [[No Such Thing as Bad Publicity]] and did a small printing run; said publisher quickly went bankrupt.

* ''[[Mass Effect Deception]]'', a tie-in book released in the months leading up to ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''. Notably, it was also the first novel not written by the series' head writer, Drew Karpyshyn. It was supposed to be a sidestory featuring the continuing adventures of Gillian Grayson; it wound up gaining the hatred of fans for its tactless treatment of [[Hide Your Lesbians|homo]][[Bury Your Gays|sexuality]] and [[Throwing Off the Disability|autism]], a [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBpMF3ONlI308D9IGG8KICBHfWKU0sXh0ntukv-_cmo/edit?pli=1 list of research errors] longer than IMDB's "Goofs" page for ''[[Battlefield Earth (film)|Battlefield Earth]]'', and its overall tendency to tear continuity a new one. Not that it fared any better among non-fans—long, drawn out chapters (often [[Show, Don't Tell|expository]] and [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant]]) were a common occurrence. To say that no proofreading was made would be a severe understatement. Del Rey wound up publicly apologizing for it, and plans have been stated to rewrite large portions of the book.

* ''[[Mass Effect: Deception]]'', a tie-in book released in the months leading up to ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''. Notably, it was also the first novel not written by the series' head writer, Drew Karpyshyn. It was supposed to be a sidestory featuring the continuing adventures of Gillian Grayson; it wound up gaining the hatred of fans for its tactless treatment of [[Hide Your Lesbians|homo]][[Bury Your Gays|sexuality]] and [[Throwing Off the Disability|autism]], a [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBpMF3ONlI308D9IGG8KICBHfWKU0sXh0ntukv-_cmo/edit?pli=1 list of research errors] longer than IMDB's "Goofs" page for ''[[Battlefield Earth (film)|Battlefield Earth]]'', and its overall tendency to tear continuity a new one. Not that it fared any better among non-fans—long, drawn out chapters (often [[Show, Don't Tell|expository]] and [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant]]) were a common occurrence. To say that no proofreading was made would be a severe understatement. Del Rey wound up publicly apologizing for it, and plans have been stated to rewrite large portions of the book.

* ''Mein Kampf''... as translated by James Murphy. It took what was something already derided as being [[Doorstopper|overly long]] and [[Purple Prose|hideously thick]] in its original form and somehow made it worse. [[Adaptation Decay|The writing style was changed drastically]], [[Cut and Paste Translation|alterations and expansions were blatant and hackneyed]], and [[Obvious Beta|spelling and grammar were all over the place]]. The book resembles a bad fanfic of the original; its clunky, dull, flowery prose results at least partially from the author's habit of [[Blind Idiot Translation|looking up the words he didn't know in a German-English dictionary and picking the first definition he saw]]. Worse, it was submitted incomplete when Murphy changed his mind about the Nazis and fled Germany, meaning the press had to finish translation. Perhaps fortunately, the few copies that the Nazi press produced were lost until 2008, effectively destroying any chance for this abomination to become anything more than a bizarre curiosity.

* ''Mission Earth'', a decalogy <ref>(novel in ten volumes)</ref> by [[L. Ron Hubbard]]. Weighing in at nearly 4,000 pages, this was Hubbard's idea of clever [[Sci Fi]] satire. The story moves at an incredibly-slow pace and showcases every sexual perversion you could think of and then some. Rampant misogyny abounds. The story's nothing more than a thinly-veiled pamphlet for Scientology and keeps hitting you over the head with its messages against psychology and psychiatry. [http://www.modemac.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Mission_Earth Here's a highly-detailed overview.]

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* A book that would've barely been a blip if not for the internet — Janine Cross' ''[[Touched By Venom]]'' (aka ''The "Venom Cock" Book''). "''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'', ''[[Gor]]'', and ''[[Clan of the Cave Bear]]'' get thrown into a blender and topped off with extra helpings of pain and suffering (and bestiality)" is the closest one can come up with as a thumbnail sketch for the plot. To the author's credit, she creates a [[Crapsack World]] and never tries to pretend it's anything but. No [[Writer on Board]] here. And the two sequels are markedly improved (not ''good'', mind you, but not Horrible) and explain many of the baffling plot points in ''Venom'' (like why a society that worships dragons as divine would use them as pack animals, routinely amputate their wings, and eat their eggs as a staple food). The problem here, aside from this book not standing alone, is that Cross takes [[It Got Worse]] to [[Diabolus Ex Machina|ludicrous degrees]] — the Dragon Temple screws Zarq's serf enclave out of all their worldly possessions on a technicality? Sell Zarq's sister into [[A Fate Worse Than Death|sex slavery]] to buy food and supplies. Mom schemes to get her back? Scheme backfires, resulting in Dad's execution and Mom and Zarq's banishment. (Did we mention Mom's pregnant, and they're kicked out immediately after she gives birth to a son she's not even allowed to hold?) They find refuge in a convent that houses old dragons? Just in time for Mom to drop dead! Then Zarq has to undergo [[Gorn|"circumcision"]] to be considered "clean and holy". The nuns hold bestiality rites with the old dragons. And all that occurs in the ''first half of the book''. (And yes, [[It Got Worse|it does get worse]] — the damage finally spreads to those around Zarq.)

** According to a [[Live Journal]] entry on the book's awfulness, there are whole sections full of loving descriptions of Zarq "touching her sex" ''[[You Fail Biology Forever|after she's undergone female circumcision]]''. She magically grows functioning genitals on Pages 204, 271, 303, 346, and probably more.

** Double bonus — the dragon venom that's getting everyone off like rockets? It's described as being an ''[[Artistic License Biology|anesthetic]]''.

** Double bonus — the dragon venom that's getting everyone off like rockets? It's described as being an ''[[Artistic License: Biology|anesthetic]]''.

* Believe it or not, Jacqueline Susann wrote a science fiction novel — the proto-[[Paranormal Romance]] ''Yargo''. It concerns a young woman who's [[Alien Abduction|pulled up into a UFO]] and taken to planet Yargo, [[Egopolis|which is named after its Yul-Brynner-lookalike emperor]]. Emperor Yargo doesn't want an inferior Earthling on his nice shiny planet, but for some reason won't send her back where she came from. After many tedious arguments, [[Strangled by the Red String|they fall in love]] and Yargo admits that the human customs of romance, marriage, religion, and shopping are superior to the Yargonian way of life, which seems to consist mostly of emperor-worship. The heroine is whiny, self-righteous, and grating; Emperor Yargo is so massively conceited [[Narm|that the reader can only laugh at him]]. There's also a few dull sub-plots concerning the [[The Reptilians|Lizard-Men]] of Mars and the [[Bee People|Bee-Men]] of Venus, both of which Miss Earthling finds [[Beauty Equals Goodness|revoltingly ugly]]; she never stops to think that they might feel the same way about ''her''. But what really makes this book a pain to read is its hidebound 1950s provincialism. In Susann's universe, [[Unfortunate Implications|anything different is bad, and any creature that doesn't look human is a monster]].

** It should also be noted that ''she didn't actually publish it''. Her husband found it among her things after her death.