Requesting Psychodrama Works

[2ndSerpentarius]

Yeah, that's what I'm going to call it for now, since I don't have a better name for it.

Specifically, works with characters going mad. I'd prefer if they eventually lose out to madness, but seeing characters overcome madness is nice sometimes too. It's kind of sick I'll admit, but I absolute love watching people fall to pieces or explode with psychotic violence. A good non-literature example I can think of off the top of my head would be Twisted Metal Black.

I don't know why I like insanity in works so much. It just fascinates me so much and leaves me feeling electrified. It's guaranteed to pull me into a work. Maybe it just appeals to my rarely fed sadistic side? Or maybe it's a more personal then that? I don't know but I'm unapologetic enough to ask for it by name. Thanks.

[kiki1982]

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys is one, I believe, although it can be debated. It is by some considered to be a prequel to Jane Eyre, but was never really admitted to be by the writer. Anyway, then it would be about Rochester's wife who goes mad in Jamaica.

There is a section all through Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf about an ex-soldier of WWI who is suffering from post-traumatic stress.

[paranoia]

For your sadistic side, pretty sure you have read Sade's "Justine"?

Aldous Huxley "Brave new world" ?

Mikhail Bulgakov "Heart of a dog" ?

[kasie]

How about Shakespeare? See if you can get hold of the following:

King Lear with Ian McKellan in the title role - it seems to me that McKellen's heart-rending performance of Lear's 'madness' is based on some close observation of real senile dementia sufferers.

Hamlet with David Tennant in the title role - Tennant's 'manic' performance seems to me to deteriorate from a 'feigned' madness to the real thing.

Macbeth with Patrick Stewart in the title role - from the banquet scene on, his Sottish Kng descends into a tormented personal hell.

[kelby_lake]

I agree with the Shakespeare recommendations. Also try Greek tragedy. Everybody's mad there. Medea is a good example.

Also try:
Wuthering Heights
Lolita

There's probably more so I'll add more later.

[2ndSerpentarius]

thanks for the recommendations.

No I haven't read 'Justine' yet. I actually haven't been reading books in a long time. I'll be sure to check that one out.

To further elaborate on my request, I think madness fueled by paranoia is the most interesting to me. I've been meaning to resume my education on Greek Mythology anyhow. I used to be such a huge fan before the internet...

[bouquin]

Sophie's Choice - William Styron
The Collector - John Fowles
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis




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Currently reading: The Adventures of Augie March (Saul Bellow)

[kelby_lake]

Anna Karenina?

[sixsmith]

Sabbath's Theater - Philip Roth

[Lord Macbeth]

I see others have already recommended Shakespeare.

I ALSO see, however, they've recommended David Tennant's version of Hamlet.

And while it's a good version...Kenneth Branagh's uncut,. 4-hour epic is just that--EPIC.

It is THE version of the play to watch.

And I see a man named Lear and MYSELF, apparently, have been listed...hmmm...who else...

TITUS! Titus Andronicus was Shakespeare's first tragedy, and his bloodiest, with around 14 or so dying, evening out to a death every other scene or so on average, and with the most gruesome deaths this side of my friend Duncan's decapitation (which I know absolutely NOTHING about, I swear!) Titus Andronicus goes COMPLETELY mad, and even feigns madness in the middle...he's really a template for different aspects that Shakespeare will eventually transform into King Lear (an old man in power who is respected who is done in by poor decisions and deaths in his family), Macbeth (the Gothic overtones and deaths...and in this play the Goths are actually IN the play) and Hamlet (as has already been said, tje whole feigning madness bit.)

The play often gets a bad rap with Shakespearean scholars--some have even tried to say Shakespeare DIDN'T write it because they don't want to acknowledge the possiblity Shakespeare DID write a play that's extremely violent even by Elizabethan standards and is far cruder and more blunt in style than most of his celebrated works--but I like it for what it is: Shakespeare's first tragedy (so it's really fascinating and even funny at times to watch knowing that all these elements are going to be used later in better and more memorable plays, and yet these brilliant characters and ideas all stem from a story in which a Titus quite literally turns into Sweeney Titus and bakes his enemies into a pie as revenge for their raping his daughter and cutting out her tongue and hands and leaving ehr on a stake in the wilderness to suffer for days until she's found by her family...I TOLD YOU it was violent even for Shakespeare!) and a very Gothic work that's so dark it actually borders on being a black comedy, it's so over the top.

The movie by Julie Taymor is BRILLIANT, it has Anthony Hopkins in the title role and is just spectacular to just look at, and all the performances are just perfect.