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If anyone finds this especially interesting, you should read 4000 Days by Warren Fellows. It’s an Australian man’s own self account of his time spent in horrifi

If anyone finds this especially interesting, you should read 4000 Days by Warren Fellows. It’s an Australian man’s own self account of his time spent in horrific conditions while incarcerated within a Bangkok prison after getting caught smuggling in heroin. Very easy and engrossing read.

02020202 6y ago
> horrific conditions while incarcerated within a Bangkok prison after getting caught smuggling in heroin good, that's how it should be. if there is no punishment, there is no reason for people to stop doing shit like this.
TheGallopedHigh 6y ago
In a very similar vein: a book by an Australian author called “Shanataram”, based on his life, but one would imagine the definite use of an artistic license. Man escapes prison in Australia for drugs, ends up in India in the slums in the 80s and fights in Afghanistan against the Russians, after working for the Indian Mafia.
- txmachinery 6y ago
  Shantaram is incredible, I can only think of the original Dune novels by Frank Herbert as comparable in depth, scope and revelation of what it is to be human. Shantaram's author claims use of artistic license in names, character descriptions and details, in order to protect those described from repercussions. Reading the extraordinary story and arc, and subsequently learning of the fact that later in real life the author later went on to marry into Czech royalty, it's easy to believe it as a fundamentally true account.
  - 4778468d 6y ago
    Great book, very entertaining. But it felt more like fiction than fact to me. Just an opinion.
    - contingencies 6y ago
      The ending was total fiction.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Or the classic Papillion; the film version(s) are pretty good as well (there's a fairly recent 2017 film version starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, but it's a remake of the 70's version, iirc uses the same screenplay). It's about the author spending years in French prison camps in Guyana, iirc early last century.

02020202 6y ago

> horrific conditions while incarcerated within a Bangkok prison after getting caught smuggling in heroin good, that's how it should be. if there is no punishment, there is no reason for people to stop doing shit like this.

TheGallopedHigh 6y ago

In a very similar vein: a book by an Australian author called “Shanataram”, based on his life, but one would imagine the definite use of an artistic license. Man escapes prison in Australia for drugs, ends up in India in the slums in the 80s and fights in Afghanistan against the Russians, after working for the Indian Mafia.

txmachinery 6y ago
Shantaram is incredible, I can only think of the original Dune novels by Frank Herbert as comparable in depth, scope and revelation of what it is to be human. Shantaram's author claims use of artistic license in names, character descriptions and details, in order to protect those described from repercussions. Reading the extraordinary story and arc, and subsequently learning of the fact that later in real life the author later went on to marry into Czech royalty, it's easy to believe it as a fundamentally true account.
- 4778468d 6y ago
  Great book, very entertaining. But it felt more like fiction than fact to me. Just an opinion.
  - contingencies 6y ago
    The ending was total fiction.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

Or the classic Papillion; the film version(s) are pretty good as well (there's a fairly recent 2017 film version starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, but it's a remake of the 70's version, iirc uses the same screenplay). It's about the author spending years in French prison camps in Guyana, iirc early last century.