I seem to have struck on a theme in my recent distractions: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lolita, The Psychopath Test and American Psycho.
The correlation between the pieces and their exploration of the darker facets of the mind was accidental (two of the books were recent recommendations from friends and the film just happened to be on at the Prince Charles cinema at the weekend), nonetheless, I've enjoyed wandering through the connections. Instead of putting down a book, reflecting and moving on, the reflection I've had recently has been more of a flow, an interaction between the pieces. I've dissected Dorian Gray in a more meaningful way since reflecting on whether he'd be deemed a psychopath using Robert Hare's checklist. All the main protagonists are antiheros, and the 'other' - both in the sense of the antihero's disconnection from societal norms, the darker side of the human mind, and society's outcasts as other e.g. prostitute, criminal, pedophile, murderer - he darker side of society.
Even as I'm writing this I'm linking it to Frankenstein, which I saw at the National Theatre last year and have in a pile of books waiting to be read - Frankenstein is swimming in an exploration of otherness, detachment and alienation.
I like that instead of having isolated experiences with these pieces, my interactions are nourished, impacted and coloured by the previous reading/watching. The integration of these unconnected pieces into a paradigm of thought has been far more pleasurable than experiencing any of the works in isolation.
I don't propose to stringently apply themes to future reading lists, because although thematic links between pieces appeals to me, it's even more pleasurable when the connections are stumbled upon somewhat accidentally.
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