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Art about madness-inducing media/entertainment
I'm fascinated by the concept of media (and specific media artefacts) capable of making/conditioning the audience to hallucinate, go mad, transcend, or die.
I'm looking to make a definitive list of media that feature or refers to such madness-inducing art. Any and all suggestions are welcome!
My list so far (in chronological order):
\[ADDED\] **Don Quixote** (1605) - Miquel de Cervantes
* Follows an aging man deluded by chivalric tales who sets out as a self-made knight to revive a bygone code of honour, blurring the line between imagination and reality
**The King in Yellow** (1895) - Robert W. Chambers
* Concerns a never-staged play titled *The King in Yellow* that overthrows the minds of those who read it
**The Necronomicon** (1920s) - H. P. Lovecraft
* A fictional grimoire supposedly written by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred in 730 AD in Damascus. Contains forbidden knowledge that drives readers to madness.
* Referenced in many of Lovecraft's stories and part of his Cthulu mythos
**A Clockwork Orange** (1962) - Anthony Burgess
* Ultra-violent teenager Alex undergoes the experimental "Ludovico Technique" to reform him.
* The treatment is a form of aversion therapy in which Alex is injected with special drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence
\[ADDED\] **And Now for Something Completely Different** (1971, film) - Monty Python
* The Funniest Joke in the World (aka the "Joke Warfare" and "Killer Joke") sketch
* During the waning years of WWII, Britain stumbles upon the funniest joke in the world. The British and their allies were able to weaponize this joke, thus helping end the war in Europe
\[ADDED\] **Mumbo Jumbo** (1972) - Ishmael Reed
* A satirical, genre-blending novel in which a mysterious cultural dance “virus” called Jes Grew spreads through 1920s America
* The dance craze was caused by a mysterious book called *The Work*
**Lookout Cartridge** (1974) - Joseph McElroy
* Cartwright once made a movie someone has since destroyed and he is pressured to find the possible second print of the film or reassemble it from memory, leading to paranoia, danger and death
\[ADDED\] **In the Name of the Rose** (1980) - Umberto Eco
* The “book that poisons mind and body” is a mysterious and forbidden volume hidden in the labyrinthine library of the monastery
\[ADDED\] **Halloween III: Season of the Witch** (1982, film) - Tommy Lee Wallace
* \[SPOILER\] follows a doctor who uncovers a sinister plot by a mask company to sacrifice children using deadly Halloween masks activated by a televised signal
**Videodrome** (1983, film) - David Cronenberg
* The CEO of a small UHF television station stumbles upon a broadcast signal of snuff films. Layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he attempts to uncover the signal's source, complicated by increasingly intense hallucinations that cause him to lose his grip on reality
\[ADDED\] **Foucault's Pendulum** (1988) - Umberto Eco
* Follows three editors who invent an elaborate conspiracy as a joke, only to become ensnared in a web of real-world occult believers who take it deadly seriously
**Ringu** (1991) - Koji Suzuki
* A cursed videotape is circulating that causes anyone who views it to die in 7 days
**Infinite Jest** (1996) - David Foster Wallace
* *Infinite Jest* (aka "the Entertainment" or "the Samizdat") is a film so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die.
* Episodes of M\*A\*S\*H drive one character to prophetic eschatological madness
\[ADDED\] **House of Leaves** (2000) - Mark Z. Danielewski
* A layered, unsettling story about a family whose home is bigger on the inside than the outside, told through a fragmented manuscript that slowly drives its readers into obsession and madness.
* *The Navidson Record* is the home footage of the family's descent into the house
**The Double** (2002) - Jose Saramago
* Tertuliano rents a movie on a friends recommendation and becomes obsessed when he sees an actor who looks exactly like him
\[ADDED\] **The Electric State** (2018) - Simon Stalenhag
* A dytopian society in which technological addiction has become a major issue, leading to a widespread breakdown of law and order
#entertainment
source
I'm fascinated by the concept of media (and specific media artefacts) capable of making/conditioning the audience to hallucinate, go mad, transcend, or die.
I'm looking to make a definitive list of media that feature or refers to such madness-inducing art. Any and all suggestions are welcome!
My list so far (in chronological order):
\[ADDED\] **Don Quixote** (1605) - Miquel de Cervantes
* Follows an aging man deluded by chivalric tales who sets out as a self-made knight to revive a bygone code of honour, blurring the line between imagination and reality
**The King in Yellow** (1895) - Robert W. Chambers
* Concerns a never-staged play titled *The King in Yellow* that overthrows the minds of those who read it
**The Necronomicon** (1920s) - H. P. Lovecraft
* A fictional grimoire supposedly written by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred in 730 AD in Damascus. Contains forbidden knowledge that drives readers to madness.
* Referenced in many of Lovecraft's stories and part of his Cthulu mythos
**A Clockwork Orange** (1962) - Anthony Burgess
* Ultra-violent teenager Alex undergoes the experimental "Ludovico Technique" to reform him.
* The treatment is a form of aversion therapy in which Alex is injected with special drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence
\[ADDED\] **And Now for Something Completely Different** (1971, film) - Monty Python
* The Funniest Joke in the World (aka the "Joke Warfare" and "Killer Joke") sketch
* During the waning years of WWII, Britain stumbles upon the funniest joke in the world. The British and their allies were able to weaponize this joke, thus helping end the war in Europe
\[ADDED\] **Mumbo Jumbo** (1972) - Ishmael Reed
* A satirical, genre-blending novel in which a mysterious cultural dance “virus” called Jes Grew spreads through 1920s America
* The dance craze was caused by a mysterious book called *The Work*
**Lookout Cartridge** (1974) - Joseph McElroy
* Cartwright once made a movie someone has since destroyed and he is pressured to find the possible second print of the film or reassemble it from memory, leading to paranoia, danger and death
\[ADDED\] **In the Name of the Rose** (1980) - Umberto Eco
* The “book that poisons mind and body” is a mysterious and forbidden volume hidden in the labyrinthine library of the monastery
\[ADDED\] **Halloween III: Season of the Witch** (1982, film) - Tommy Lee Wallace
* \[SPOILER\] follows a doctor who uncovers a sinister plot by a mask company to sacrifice children using deadly Halloween masks activated by a televised signal
**Videodrome** (1983, film) - David Cronenberg
* The CEO of a small UHF television station stumbles upon a broadcast signal of snuff films. Layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he attempts to uncover the signal's source, complicated by increasingly intense hallucinations that cause him to lose his grip on reality
\[ADDED\] **Foucault's Pendulum** (1988) - Umberto Eco
* Follows three editors who invent an elaborate conspiracy as a joke, only to become ensnared in a web of real-world occult believers who take it deadly seriously
**Ringu** (1991) - Koji Suzuki
* A cursed videotape is circulating that causes anyone who views it to die in 7 days
**Infinite Jest** (1996) - David Foster Wallace
* *Infinite Jest* (aka "the Entertainment" or "the Samizdat") is a film so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die.
* Episodes of M\*A\*S\*H drive one character to prophetic eschatological madness
\[ADDED\] **House of Leaves** (2000) - Mark Z. Danielewski
* A layered, unsettling story about a family whose home is bigger on the inside than the outside, told through a fragmented manuscript that slowly drives its readers into obsession and madness.
* *The Navidson Record* is the home footage of the family's descent into the house
**The Double** (2002) - Jose Saramago
* Tertuliano rents a movie on a friends recommendation and becomes obsessed when he sees an actor who looks exactly like him
\[ADDED\] **The Electric State** (2018) - Simon Stalenhag
* A dytopian society in which technological addiction has become a major issue, leading to a widespread breakdown of law and order
#entertainment
source
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