A sense of paranoia?

[dreamscape]

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone can help me out.

I am looking for books that effectively create a tension, an almost paranoia, a kind of confusion. Possibly where you wonder what’s real and what isn’t, what’s real or what’s a dream, what’s in the character’s mind or not…
I’m looking at exploring the different techniques used to achieve this. How this sensation is built up throughout a novel, or a story.

I will read anything, so don’t mind it being extreme.

Thanks in advance.

[The Comedian]

Have you read Neil Gaiman's Sandman series? There are few stories in there that make me question my sense of reality.

I will also recommend that you try recreational reading at work or in class in front of the teacher. This will, not doubt, inspire the sense of paranoia that you're looking for.

:)

EDIT: You might want to try some Vonnegut: Cat's Cradle & Slaughterhouse Five come to mind. Or do they? :-)

[sunshine_enl]

One of my favourite short stories is related to paranoia,the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.Also I think that Wide Sargasso Sea refers to paranoia and ofcourse Septimus's case in Mrs Dalloway.
I don't know if this is what you are looking for.

[dreamscape]

thanks guys,
I love Mrs Dalloway, and yes, I have poked my nose in a few of the Sandman series...quite thought provoking.

I suppose to be clearer, I am wanting to read something that creates this sense of confused paranoia in the reader themself.

[Emil Miller]

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone can help me out.

I am looking for books that effectively create a tension, an almost paranoia, a kind of confusion. Possibly where you wonder what’s real and what isn’t, what’s real or what’s a dream, what’s in the character’s mind or not…
I’m looking at exploring the different techniques used to achieve this. How this sensation is built up throughout a novel, or a story.

I will read anything, so don’t mind it being extreme.

Thanks in advance.

I only wish that my 2nd novel The Fateful Circl was published as it deals with exactly the situation you describe and shows how the tension is built up throughout the story. It is not extreme in the sensationalist manner although the protagonist meets a grisly end as a result of his paranoid behaviour. I had a few copies privately printed for friends and other interested parties.
I note that you are Australian, which is quite a coincidence because I recently gave a signed copy to an Australian friend who is leaving England for home after two years here. She said she was genuinely taken aback at the surprise ending.
Here is the synopsis:

When mild-mannered civil servant Michael Butler murders his wife he thinks that he has committed a perfect crime, but he is unable to see the astonishing effect his action will have.
Subjected to terrifying dreams and haunted by an unknown woman he flees abroad, where his remarriage and the people it brings him into contact with draw him into a bewildering series of events that threaten his sanity.
Trapped in a world where time seems to have lost continuity, he can do nothing but play his predestined part in a story that will end with his destruction as it moves to its strange conclusion.


The story may not cause paranoia in the reader but he/she will certainly suffer confusion and wonder what's happening until the story's denouement.

[beth01081]

I was terrified and paranoid of everything for quite awhile after reading The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks. Not the first author you'd think of for paranoia. In fact it may just be me. But you should try it. I shiver thinking of it now.
Bethy

[subterranean]

I found The Screwtape Letters kind of shocking, as it led me to think for quite sometime that I might have fallen in to the mislead understanding of God and the real idea of Christianity without realizing it.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone can help me out.

I am looking for books that effectively create a tension, an almost paranoia, a kind of confusion. Possibly where you wonder what’s real and what isn’t, what’s real or what’s a dream, what’s in the character’s mind or not…
I’m looking at exploring the different techniques used to achieve this. How this sensation is built up throughout a novel, or a story.

I will read anything, so don’t mind it being extreme.

Thanks in advance.

The first book that springs to mind is the crazy Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, nobody knows what's going on with that one!

[Pecksie]

Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" may be what you're looking for.

[1n50mn14]

Reading Bradbury's collection of short stories in the Toynbee Convector often leaves me paranoid. >.< Of course, it's more of an abstract, science fiction paranoia than a psychological paranoia, but still...

Also, every time I read that book (which must be about twelve by now!) I find at least two stories in it that I haven't read yet...

[DeadAsDreams]

Hallucigenia by Laird Barron

[armenian]

notes from underground

crime and punishment

[Equality72521]

Okay, um this will not work if you specified Books, however, Read the Yellow Wallpaper by Emily Dickinson

Crazy good.

[ntropyincarnate]

Turn of the Screw (by Henry James) is what comes to mind immediately for me. Sorry, I can't think of any others. But I'll try and rack my brain for some.

[Zee.]

House of Leaves.
I have mentioned this "book" like crazy and no one has picked it up except for Sprinksy.
You're all missing out!

[weltanschauung]

gravity rainbow, thomas pynchon.

[PoeticPassions]

I find a lot of Kafka's work confusing (in a good way)... I think The Trial might cause some paranoia... or make you wonder what the hell is going on. Perhaps even evoke some frustration...

[PoeticPassions]

I first read Kafka about 2 years ago and felt completely at sea, unable to swim with just a ring to keep a float, no lang in sight, and in a strong current; but with the impression that there were lots of big interesting things passing nearby below.

I find him compelling. I think it's fatal to read what the learned people say about him. I think there's only a very personal reaction to be had from Kafka, or nothing. I've never heard anyone explain him well, really; it's like hearing someone trying to explain yourself. Kafka's huge letter to his father - 50 pages - that helps. Though it doesn't seem right to say anything helps, or should. He's just unique, nothing articulates him. I don't understand what he's doing, but I like his prose and it's never unclear. That's the only way I can justify why I've read him.

Have you read his story "A Hunger Artist"? It is quite spectacular... and your first sentence reminded me of it...
and perhaps this story aims to "explain" Kafka himself, or approach that which Kafka struggled with in his own life.

[Lokasenna]

I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, but Orwell's 1984.

Maybe its just me, but reading that (and subsequnetly rereading a couple of times) left me feeling very unsettled, paranoid and, I'll freely admit, terrified for a while.

[kelby_lake]

I was a bit scared by it too, and Brave New World was a bit creepy.

Lolita, and The Yellow Wallpaper.

[Mariamosis]

I would have to agree with Lokasenna. George Orwell's 1984 gave that feeling, and for me personally, Fahrenheit 451 left me loathing going to work and a sense of pointlessness when dealing with so much seemingly useless paperwork.

There is also a book Called Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia by Ronald Seigel which is about people with paranoid schizophrenia that I have found interesting.

[windowfriend]

ditto to Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury. I read Cat's Cradle and Fahrenheit 451 within a day or two of each other...I think I wandered around in terrorized confusion for quite awhile. :D

Also Lord of the Flies, and some of Edgar Allen Poe.

[pagebypage]

Stephen King's Insomnia and The Dark Half deal with mental states/internal confusion.

Hesse's Steppenwolf also is an internal angst novel.

[Sins of Freck]

Hi

I'm currently reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith which is a cracking read and soon to be a Ridley Scott film, I believe. It's is a thriller about a serial killer, set against the terror of 1950s Stalinist Russia where and those who stand up against the might of the state vanish into the labour camps – or vanish altogether.

A very exciting debut novel and full of paranoia, as you would expect from Stalinist Russia.

[promtbr]

I first read Kafka about 2 years ago and felt completely at sea, unable to swim with just a ring to keep afloat, no land in sight, and in a strong current; but with the impression that there were lots of big, interesting things passing nearby below.

I find him compelling. I think it's fatal to read what the learned people say about him. I think there's only a very personal reaction to be had from Kafka, or nothing. I've never heard anyone explain him well, really; it's like hearing someone trying to explain yourself. Kafka's huge letter to his father - 50 pages - that helps. Though it doesn't seem right to say anything helps, or should. He's just unique, nothing articulates him. I don't understand what he's doing, but I like his prose and it's never unclear. That's the only way I can justify why I've read him. I understand everything of him I've read, but no message has crystallized, and I'm happy with that - or have accustomed myself to be. If you enjoy him, the best you can get after that is acceptance, no understanding - which is the best reaction, in the long-run - can't be pigeonholed or be put-upon.

Your attitude to Kafka is refreshing and I agree with your approach. If you carry the usual "muddled expectations" of a reader of mass market fiction (ie to be idlly entertained and have your base emotions titilated.:bawling::lol:) don't even bother. If you attempt to read him, just jump in with an open mind, (you may as you said, need a life raft )

Yes, exactly, do not read the 30 million volumes of critical text trying to "explain" his work. The best news yet, is that the more recent editions have texts that have been restored truer to what Kafka left when he died- all the massive Max Brod edits that he made to make Kafka more "marketable" in his view. As you said, read his letter to his Father. His diaries are also helpful.

To the OP, Kafka (any of his short stories/ shorter "parables" or his novels The Trial or The Castle would fit the bill!



-----------

[dnceive]

gravity rainbow, thomas pynchon.

in addition, the rest of Pynchon.

[billl]

Also, with any luck, a Philip K Dick expert will chime in.

I've read only one of his books (not his most paranoid one, un/fortunately), and seen a couple movies, but happen to know that he has at least a couple that are widely-regarded as exemplars of just what the OP is looking for. A Scanner Darkly is maybe the most famous for being paranoid. Maybe Valis, is a good one for losing track of who's who and what's what...

Anybody know for sure?

[ThousandthIsle]

Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is a great one... I was also thinking Wuthering Heights.

[Mariamosis]

I read Kobo Abe's 'The Box Man' recently and I was left wondering what was real and what was not.

'Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia' by Ronald K. Siegel is a great read about cocaine (I think it's cocaine... it's been a number of years since I read it) and the paranoid effects it creates long term.

[k.brignell]

what about 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde?

[sixsmith]

The novels of Don De Lillo feature paranoia largely to the fore.

I'm currently reading Auster's 'New York Trilogy' and it is making me quite edgy. Very disorientating stuff.

[tulysg1982]

What about a Postmodern Story? An American one? Obviously Thomas Pynchon is the name. His book 'The Crying of Lot 49' is such kind of novel of paranoia. We had it as a short story in our M.A class. I read it, had my exam on it but the fact is I couldn't comprehend it. Its seems a postmodern wasteland and in it the character Oedipa Maas lost her identity. It was difficult for us for our lack of cultural competencies. Oedipa Maas is still a puzzling character to me. You would like the various PM techniques implied here :alien:

[Lynnwood]

I found The Screwtape Letters kind of shocking, as it led me to think for quite sometime that I might have fallen in to the mislead understanding of God and the real idea of Christianity without realizing it.


Ah! I loved The Screwtape Letters. Very interesting and definitely thought-provoking.


I also liked The Violin by Anne Rice. Another interesting piece of work.

[libernaut]

george orwell 1984,

brave new worldalduos huxley,
fight club by chuck palahniuk,
several texts by franz kafka, william burroughs, hp lovecraft and philip k dick,

franny and zooey by salinger,

article on paranoid fiction from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_fiction

also forgot to mention :

EDGAR ALLEN POE


and though ive never read them, try checking out come mystery novelsand perhaps the sherlock holmes series

[King Mob]

Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, maybe the first conspiracy / paranoid novel ever.

And Grant Morrison's comics The Filth and The Invisibles

[Thespian1975]

1984 - George Orwell