Think people like Henry Darger who, I believe, was schizophrenic and wrote a bizarre, meandering novel thousands of pages long as well as creating amateur visual art. I’m talking unconventional books with either unconventional authors (neurodivergent, etc.) or weird backstories or books that are conventionally bad but interesting/entertaining for some reason (like a literary equivalent of ‘The Room’ by Tommy Wisseau). I don’t just mean weird/experiemental books like Finnegans Wake by mostly normal/educated authors.
I probably would also include “The House Without Windows” by Barbara Newhall Follett which is a strange but well written novel by a nine-year-old girl prodigy who later disappeared without a trace. She wasn’t necessarily “weird” but her backstory is very bizarre and so is the book.
by zzzzzzzzzra
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Chuck Tingle is a neurodivergent author who just does his own thing, though he also publishes conventional horror novels.
Valerie Solanas had a college education, but her manic nature shows through in her work. She’s angry, disgusting and funny. Andy Warhol actually thought the play “Up Your Ass!” was a trick, trying to get him hammered on obscenity charges.
This is a weird one, but Tyra Banks and a ghostwriter wrote “Modelland”, an absolutely fever-dream of a YA novel that perfectly captures Tyra’s unhinged, surreal view of the world. It wavers between cutesey and vile, the visuals are impossible to process, and it doesn’t follow any conventional plot structure.
Rich Shapero wrote and self-publshed “Wild Animus”, available free [here](https://richshapero.com/title/wild-animus/). Like “The Room” it’s a labor of love by someone who doesn’t seem to realize how weird he is.
Your best bet is to go to flea markets, or festivals with art vendors, and look for self-published authors (my friends found “Wild Animus” because Shapero was dropping copies off at colleges). People who are passionate enough to get their books out there, but who for whatever reason can’t get a book deal. An above-average number of these people are the mix of passionate and weird that you’re looking for. Another option is to get really into fanfiction, since there’s a low barrier to entry and it tends to value passion over conventional talent. Like, you could make a compelling case that “My Immortal” was Outsider Art (it kind of depends on your theories about the author).
There are a lot of interpretations of outsider art. I think the one you are interested in is along the lines of neurodivergent or otherwise eccentric person who earnestly writes a novel while being completely naive to the rules and conventions of literature.
There are a smattering of these people across time. Haven’t read it myself but, The Pepsi-Cola Addict by June Alison Gibbons is probably something you’d be interested in. Also lots of stuff that technically might count as outsider art, but its just really bad like “The Forensic Certified Public Accountant and the Cremated 64-SQUARES Financial Statements”