The poem is a first-person narrative from the diary of a person with paranoid schizophrenia, the character complains of persecution from "the old woman in the room above" who "has put an electric suction cup on the floor..." "the waitress says it was salt, but I know arsenic when it's put before me..." and many more horrors. When he is served food with mustard he thinks it is "to mask the bitter odor of almonds," presumably a reference to cyanide. According to the poem, the victim has amassed "500 notebooks with 500 pages in each one" and records all the wrongs done unto him in the books. He thinks that his enemies are part of a massive government conspiracy and mentions the FBI and the CIA. He is also superstitious; he knows chants and he wears charms.
The poem is recursive, ending where it begins, with the stanza "I can't go out no more. There's a man by the door in a raincoat"
The poem also has ties to the Dark Tower epic. When King originally began writing The Stand, he wrote "A dark man with no face." This became the description for Randall Flagg and is an exact line from the poem.
Film, television or theatrical adaptations
The poem was adapted into an eight-minute Dollar Baby short film by Jay Holben, starring Tonya Ivey, in 2000.[1]
paranoid, chant, this, article, does, cite, sources, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, april, 2011, learn, when, remove,. This article does not cite any sources Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Paranoid A Chant news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message Paranoid A Chant is a 100 line poem by Stephen King originally published in the 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew Paranoid A Chant by Stephen KingCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishGenre s PoetryPublished inSkeleton CrewPublication typeAnthologyPublisherSignet BooksMedia typePrint Paperback Publication date1985Synopsis EditThe poem is a first person narrative from the diary of a person with paranoid schizophrenia the character complains of persecution from the old woman in the room above who has put an electric suction cup on the floor the waitress says it was salt but I know arsenic when it s put before me and many more horrors When he is served food with mustard he thinks it is to mask the bitter odor of almonds presumably a reference to cyanide According to the poem the victim has amassed 500 notebooks with 500 pages in each one and records all the wrongs done unto him in the books He thinks that his enemies are part of a massive government conspiracy and mentions the FBI and the CIA He is also superstitious he knows chants and he wears charms The poem is recursive ending where it begins with the stanza I can t go out no more There s a man by the door in a raincoat The poem also has ties to the Dark Tower epic When King originally began writing The Stand he wrote A dark man with no face This became the description for Randall Flagg and is an exact line from the poem Film television or theatrical adaptations EditThe poem was adapted into an eight minute Dollar Baby short film by Jay Holben starring Tonya Ivey in 2000 1 See also EditStephen King short fiction bibliography Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Paranoid A Chant amp oldid 1126089585, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
