We quarreled last March--just before he went mad...

[sistermagpie]

I should have realized in doing my last post that madness is one of those things that have one meaning in the real world and another in a literary sense...I've gotten into the exact same discussion before in XF fandom. Because if madness in fiction can be considered a kink, I've definitely got it!

Comments

[malafede]

I dreamed this. I meant I dreamed you made a post along these lines and... now I am a bit freaked. Deja vu, you know? But freaky.

Before going to hide under my blanket, I just wanted to say I have the same kink. I remember watching Battle Royale and totally cheering the psycho on - he wasn't an especially compelling character, certainly not the best written, but he was mad. And that was enough. I am reading a number of manga right now dealing with pathology, and that's a more psychologically realistic version of madness in literature - and to my dismay, I realise the kink perseverates, or maybe it's just a very soft spot, bulletproof. I understand perfectly that it works like non-con: it's not a kink in real life, clearly. Though I do have a fascination for mental disorders, other than having mental disorders myself. It's complicate. Maybe I should think more about it

[sistermagpie]

I dreamed this. I meant I dreamed you made a post along these lines and... now I am a bit freaked. Deja vu, you know? But freaky.

Wow! That is kind of freaky. Especially considering the subject matter...

It's complicate. Maybe I should think more about it.

I'd love if you did! Because I can't really put my finger on my interest in it either. I am interested in the real thing as well, in that I read books about real stories about people living with mental disorders and try to understand what it's about and how they feel. It's funny watching old movies where they do things with pyschological issues--like Spellbound is kind of hysterical with all their Salvador Dali landscapes

[go_back_chief]

In a way it almost just doesn't work if you think of it realistically. Fictional madness can't come down to just a diagnosis because then it's the illness that would require study, not the person. (And that, of course, is a big part of what science does, which is not a bad thing.) That's why it's so tedious when people want to diagnose fictional characters instead of analyzing them.

Very interesting, and in general I'd say I agree. (I make exceptions, of course, if it's a fictional story where the whole plotline is about a character having whatever diagnosis. Like say the movie "A beautiful mind". Of course, these stories are usually, just like this movie, based on reality, so it's not really the same thing that you're talking about.) I think this may very well be why, usually when an otherwise interesting story, ends with the BIG REVELATION of one of the character being diagnosed with something specific (usually split personality or something, if we're talking about Hollywood movies), it feels like a big anti-climax to me. Like

[sistermagpie]

Oh yes--I mean, I think a real mental illness is a great subject for a story, just as anything to happens to a person is. I love Kay Redfield Jamison's autobiography about her life being bipolar--it's completely fascinating just as the story of this one person's experience.

But then there's other times when people use it as a reason not to explore the character. Like with Jamison it's not just that she's bipolar, you know who she was before, how the condition manifests in her, what her relationship with it is. It's a big part of who she is but it isn't who she is entirely.

[blankcanvas]

[sistermagpie]

Heh--I was Alice in Wonderland! That quote up top is from the Mad Hatter too. I used to have his picture over my bed when I was little

[blankcanvas]

[ceris]

How I love the discussions you bring up

[sistermagpie]

Hey, I'm just glad to know I'm not alone here! And I think writing it out of one's system is probably not only good fo the author but makes for a great story. I'm fascinated by real life stories of dealing with something like that because it sometimes seems to have all the trappings of an unhealthy relationship

[ceris]

We have this romantic idea of people being touched with madness and spitting out great art

Oh yeah, we do indeed, but the truth is, as you've implied, it's a damn painful process to go through and it's not in the least bit romantic. Still, I suppose most people don't want to know the truth of it - they want their fictional art sprung from fictional madness.

Now I'm all interested in Narcissistic personality disorder

There's a fantastic site by Sam Vaknin a diagnosed narcissist at:

http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/faq1.html

It's completely brilliant and discusses pretty much everything about this rather scary personality disorder.