maxkeanu wrote:charles_bell wrote:Schizophrenia and being "a single man with a grudge against the world that is real." is contradictory. Either he has paranoid delusions, which are not real, or he is justified in his beliefs for his grudge but has a social dysfunction like anger-management or many other issues unrelated to schizoaffective disorders. Norman Bates (Ed Gein) was not schizophrenic, or if he was (of a kind other than a "functional paranoid"), that was not the interesting, fictional-plot producing, part of his mental illness which showed itself in sexual psychopathy.
Interestingly enough, I met Robert Bloch, the writer of Psycho, years ago ( video taped his seminar presentation in film school). Man, was he a comic! I realize now that I write in a similar vein, not the jugular... a pun from him. I'm thinking Eddie Gein originally had a grudge against the world (to say the least, read his bio... holy shit!), as most of us do, but his insanity spiraled out of control and inspired his gruesome taxidermist proclivities. Thanks CHARLES, you reply gave me new insight into my WIP
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction) is another example. And this sort of thing is tied to your comment that writing fiction is all about being paid to lie. An authoress who wrote Romance novels told me exactly the same thing twenty five years ago. I have to disagree in a broad way, even if it is true in a particular way of creation of stories that are not true.
If the "grudge" Patrick Bateman held was of the kind in being bested in business cards or quality of suit or other such which made him fly off into a murderous rage, the point of this "lie" which it certainly is, refers to a political/social point the author wants to make and nothing about psychopathic murderous rage. Similarly the "real" part of the Gein's story was his interaction with his mother, but boring as snot, and certainly by the time Hitchcock got a hold of it, it is turned into a pseudo-schizophrenic delusion surrounding his mother's corpse. Absolutely entertaining but far from the truth, and the problem with such myth-making is the spread of a meme into society about mental disease which is wholly untrue, but rather in part at least believed to be true.
Writing serious fiction can be [IMO] about telling the truth without sacrificing entertainment. This would take the form of satire, perhaps, but I also think sci-fi and fantasy can fit in there as well, though in this generation these are entirely false myth-making [However, see: The Unincorporated Man]. Serious drama as well -- which in TV/movies, even adapted from good books, sacrifices much truth.
