Madness is one of the themes that runs through Nectar of Time. Below is everything in the Nectarium that touches on it.
Where it comes up 5
Within this theme 9
Concepts 2
- Magic Theater
The mysterious theater in Steppenwolf ('for madmen only, price of admittance your mind') with countless doors, each opening onto what the seeker is looking for. Tamir uses it as a symbol…
- Dementophobia
The fear of going insane. Samantha's deepest fear was being committed to a mental hospital for speaking her truth or losing her mind, and being disbelieved when she said she was fine. It…
Books 1
- Steppenwolf
Grant calls it fantastic but 'dripping in imagery', in contrast with the sparing imagery of Japanese prose.
People 1
- Franz Kafka
Tamir asks whether Kafka's absurdity parallels their talk of enigmas. Tyler describes Kafka as crippled by his father yet turning pain into art, a 'special species of happiness', and says…
Quotes 2
Tonight at the Magic Theater, for madmen only, price of admittance, your mind, not for everybody.
The fear of hell was creating hell. I didn't even have to go to the mental hospital, I was already there mentally.
Insights 1
- Pain turned into art
Kafka never resolved his pain, but turning it into art was his 'special species of happiness'; even unresolved suffering can leave something beautiful.
Stories 1
- Facing the mental hospital in a dream
Samantha shares, for the first time anywhere, her deepest fear: being committed to a psychiatric hospital and disbelieved. She deliberately dreamt being taken there against her will and…
Films, music and art 1
- Nosferatu
The 2024 Dracula film, which Tamir saw in a theater. The existential-kink idea calls up its imagery for him: possession, a pilgrimage to sign one's life away, madness. He wonders why such…