Insanity; another point of view.
KV...@asuacad.bitnet
I suspect a few abound. I noticed that most people writing today are not
insane and write very sane prose. Although a few people will disagree,
I believe that there are a few insane authors who are quite successful at
what they write. I use the term insane to differentiate between the work
of those writer's to whom their prose parallels one dimensional thought
from those writer's to whom there is no boundary between dementia.
Notice the term insanity among writer's is a loosely defined abstract
that limits dimensional thinking to creativity within dementia. Whereas,
sane writer's are coherent by means of the dimension to which their ideas
are derived.
What must it be like to write from the point of view of someone who
is clinically insane? What thoughts would we be privy too? What insights
into the world of insanity could we grasp and use to write prose significantly
more defined to senses we never thought existed? Could someone be sane and
write from a point of view of insanity or must we transverse into that
world openingly and fully?
I oftened wondered if such writing wouldn't eclipse what has already
been written. The sad truth is that we may never know what it like to
peel the layers of insanity into prose, but maybe some of us will.
Tell me what it's like to write from the pov of insanity.
J.L. Campbell -- Don't take my brush away, mommy!
Brenda J. Grolle
In a previous article, KV...@ASUACAD.BITNET (or-mail
) says:
> What must it be like to write from the point of view of someone who
>is clinically insane? What thoughts would we be privy too? What insights
>into the world of insanity could we grasp and use to write prose significantly
>more defined to senses we never thought existed? Could someone be sane and
>write from a point of view of insanity or must we transverse into that
>world openingly and fully?
> I oftened wondered if such writing wouldn't eclipse what has already
>been written. The sad truth is that we may never know what it like to
>peel the layers of insanity into prose, but maybe some of us will.
>
> Tell me what it's like to write from the pov of insanity.
To answer this question, I'm referencing the first short story that I wrote
called "Killer Instinct." (Due to be published shortly in "Crossworlds"
magazine. Oops, a shameless plug!)
My story is written almost entirely from the pov of a killer, although
everything isn't exactly as it seems. I crawled into the mind of my
character and tried to imagine what his thoughts and feelings would be
like. I had to go beyond the normal anger, fear, etc. that most of us feel
at one time or another in our lives and delve into an anger, outright rage,
that stretches beyond any boundaries that define the life of a normal, sane
person.
My character's senses are heightened to the point that he can smell
his victim's fear, giving him somewhat of a beastial quality. Every emotion
is intensifed to an irrational degree. He possesses an animal-like cunning,
thrives on the kill much as any predator that nature might create, yet he is
more dangerous than that because, as a human being, he possesses the power
to reason, and believes that his actions are justified as long as they give
him the pleasure that he seeks.
Yet, he has a fear, a literal fear of life, described in the scene in which
he murders his victim. And amidst the anger, exhiliration, fear, is
confusion.
I really find the process no different that crawling into the mind of any
sane character. I have to find out who s/he is, what makes them tick, what
do they want, why are they here in this story that I'm writing?
I'd be happy to give you a small quote, and I almost did it while writing
this post, but my contract with the editor prohibits me from publishing any
part of this story elsewhere before it appears in the magazine. I hope that
my explanation isn't dull or inefficient for the lack of a proper example
from the story.
But wait, I'll make one up:
Her hair shimmered golden in the moonlight, her attention drawn towards the
stars. Her eyes shut tightly, he saw her lips move as if she was wishing
fervently upon one bright star up in the sky.
Before the night was over, she'd be wishing for something alright. He'd see
to that.
He ran his thumb along the sharp, silver blade, a trickle of red spilling
onto the knife. He brought his hand to his mouth and sucked his thumb much
as he had as a small boy. But he wasn't a child anymore. He'd show her.
Silver and gold. Silver and gold. A silver blade slashing across her
throat, cutting off a few locks of her golden hair in the process. Probably
not what Burl Ives was singing about, but he liked his version much better.
Well, maybe it's not the best, but it's an impromptu example. I hope it
entertained you if nothing else. That's my main objective in writing
anyway. To entertain myself and my readers.
Thanks for starting an interesting thread. I'm anxious to read the opinions
of others myself.
--
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Brenda J. Grolle Writer of Horror/Suspense Fiction
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cu...@vms.cis.pitt.edu
> What must it be like to write from the point of view of someone who
> is clinically insane? What thoughts would we be privy too? What insights
> into the world of insanity could we grasp and use to write prose significantly
> more defined to senses we never thought existed? Could someone be sane and
> write from a point of view of insanity or must we transverse into that
> world openingly and fully?
You might want to check out a book by psychologist Louis Sass called "Madness
and Modernism." Sass argues that there are many parallels between the
schizophrenic's perspectives and thought processes and much modernist art and
literature (he defines modernism broadly to include postmodernism).
In response to your question, Sass would argue that in some sense many "sane"
writers in fact written "from a point of view of insanity" without
"transvers[ing] into that world openingly and fully."
Examples would include Sartre's _Nausea_, works by Baudelaire, T.S. Eliot,
Rilke, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, even Derrida and Foucault.
Schizophrenics, like the modernists cited by Sass, call into question many of
the implicit assumptions about the perceived world, language, social
conventions. Many schizophrenics, like the postmodernists, are acutely aware
of the slipperiness of language and meaning, and maintain a certain ironic
distance in their writing and speaking.
I'm less than halfway through the book, so this is probably an inadequate
sumarry. But I hope you get the idea.
Curt Wohleber / cu...@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Communications Specialist / Univerity of Pittsburgh / (412) 624-4790
Bill Slat
writes:
Try some de Sade. Mad as a hatter.
Rita M. Rouvalis
Not prose, but both Sexton and Plath are goddamn certified.
--
Rita Rouvalis
ri...@cc.ysu.edu
"Every poem breaks a silence that had to be overcome" - Adrienne Rich
Kateri/Mary Anne
>are derived.
> What must it be like to write from the point of view of someone who
>is clinically insane? What thoughts would we be privy too? What insights
>into the world of insanity could we grasp and use to write prose significantly
>more defined to senses we never thought existed? Could someone be sane and
>write from a point of view of insanity or must we transverse into that
>world openingly and fully?
Go read Susanna Kaysen's new bestselling (I think)
novel/autobiography, _Girl, Interrupted_. I was very very impressed.
Story of how as a teenager she was committed to a mental institution
for two years, chronicling her life for that time period.
- Mary Anne
--
Hate has a reason for everything.
But love is unreasonable.
- V. Raiuhes Ahaefvthe
Kathy Vincent
: Not prose, but both Sexton and Plath are goddamn certified.
The Bell Jar is prose.