DISCO ELYSIUM READING LIST (WIP, looking for recommendations)

I'm using the DE skill sheet as a template to compile a list of books that best characterize each skill, be it by theme, plot, prose or whatever other element. If any of you classy fellas of this board think you can help me complete it, I'm looking for suggestions.

Short stories are welcome, but whole books are even better.
Non-fiction is welcome, but the prose has to be solid.
Ideally, no author would appear twice.
If a skill has a book already but you think you have a good fit for it anyway, let me know as well.

Here's a list for reference on what the skills determine:
> https://discoelysium.fandom.com/wiki/Skills#List_of_skills

And here's what I have so far:

- INTELLECT -

Logic -

Encyclopedia - "Fictions" by Jorge Luis Borges

Rhetoric -

Drama - "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves (I was also thinking of "Hard To Be A God" by the Strugatskys, but I'm not too far into it to be sure.)

Conceptualization - "Vermilion Sands" by J. G. Ballard

Visual Calculus - "The Murders In The Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe

- PSYCHE -

Volition - "Perelandra" by C. S. Lewis

Inland Empire - "The Skin" by Curzio Malaparte

Empathy - "The Left Hand Of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin

Authority -

Esprit de Corps - "Homicide" by David Simon

Suggestion - "Paradise Lost" by John Milton

- PHYSIQUE -

Endurance -

Pain Threshold - "The Orphan Master’s Son" by Adam Johnson

Physical Instrument -

Electrochemsitry - "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs (Perhaps too obvious?)

Shivers -

Half Light - "Dispatches" by Michael Herr

- MOTORICS -

Hand/Eye Coordination - (I've never read a Western genre book, but would guess a story about gunslingers would fit in here)

Perception - "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon (Of course, it could fit many other skills. The creators of DE are clearly Pynchon fans.)

Reaction Speed -

Savoir Faire - "The Charterhouse Of Parma" by Stendhal

Interfacing - "A Canticle For Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Composure - "Bartleby, The Scrivener" by Herman Melville

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    What an odd little project. I wish you well

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Likewise.

      Based anon

      Please post more once you get the chance

      I'll make a nice chart and upload it when the list is complete.

      didn't zola's germinal influence disco elysium

      Now that you mention it, I think they said something about Geminal. I watched the movie in highschool but haven't read the book yet. By what I remember of it, maybe it could go to Rhetoric.

      Physical Instrument - Sun & Steel

      I'd replace the Volition book with something like Kazantzakis' Saviors of God. You want a story about struggling against demons, inner and outer, which is what Volition is. Up to you.

      Of course, how could I forget Mishima? Makes perfect sense. Added to the list.
      Will also check Kazantzakis out, never heard of him before.
      Thanks anon.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Based anon

    Please post more once you get the chance

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    didn't zola's germinal influence disco elysium

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Physical Instrument - Sun & Steel

    I'd replace the Volition book with something like Kazantzakis' Saviors of God. You want a story about struggling against demons, inner and outer, which is what Volition is. Up to you.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Kazantzakis
      Roast Beef?

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Endurance could be Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". The whole book is a study in how much physical and emotional damage people can take before they keel over

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Do I need to read Pynchon (any or specifics) before playing DE? I'd like to play it soon, after I finish Persona 4.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      In my case, I played it before reading anything by Pynchon. I've only read GR and it struck me in retrospect how similar in style and tone the writing in the game is. I've also heard the player character is modelled after the protagonist of Inherent Vice, but cannot say for sure. Are you specifically worried about spoilers?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I'd like to go in to it blind as it sounds very unique. I'll probably save some books from this thread but not read much about the game if it comes up.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Thoroughly recommended. If you played (and liked) Planescape Torment, you'll have an absolute ball with DE.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Logic
    The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

    >Rhetoric
    Rhetoric (By Aristotle, too obvious?)
    The Great Gatsby
    Dangerous Liaisons

    >Authority
    Obedience to Authority (An Experimental View)
    Book of Documents (Shūjīng)

    >Endurance
    The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
    The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

    >Physical Instrument
    Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder
    Sun and Steel

    >Electrochemistry
    A Scanner Darkly

    >Shivers
    Tao Te Ching
    Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

    >Half Light
    The 48 Laws of Power

    >Reaction Speed
    FMFRP 12-80 Kill or Get Killed, U.S Marine Corps

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Tao Te Ching
      Kekked, it's less urban but checks out.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You are either autistic or a troony. In any case, you deserve a beating for liking commie games.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I deserved a beating well before liking commie games, brother.

      > The Great Gatsby
      Could fall comfortably under Drama.
      > The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
      > The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
      > FMFRP 12-80 Kill or Get Killed, U.S Marine Corps
      These could be interesting.
      Thanks anon.

      Authority: "Once An Eagle", about being a good military leader. It's on the US Marines suggested reading list (yes they have one)

      Thanks anon.

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Authority: "Once An Eagle", about being a good military leader. It's on the US Marines suggested reading list (yes they have one)

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Drama:
    >King Con: The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age’s Greatest Impostor
    >The Great Gatsby

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Electrochemistry - Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, obviously

    Pain Threshold - Fight Club ?

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Shivers
    The Zinester’s Guide to NYC

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Or
      After Dark by Haruki Murakami (probably the more IQfy option)

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    No. I happen to like interracial porn a lot as well.

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Encyclopedia
    Alan Moore's From Hell, Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem
    Ian Sinclair's The Last London: True Fictions from an Unreal City, London Orbital, Lights out for the territory,
    James Joyce's Dubliners and The Dead

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