Questions like “What does this mean?” are central to our encounters with art. “How are these signs connected?” or “how do all symbols fit into an unstated scheme?” are the foundational concerns of aesthetics. Yet, when the same concerns crop up regularly in almost any other part of life, we give a clinical, pathological name: paranoia.

These questions were the makings of Paranoia, a symposium held at Verdurin in February 2025.

This episode is a recording of Reading Between the Lines by Thomas Peermohamed Lambert.

Since Paul Ricoeur, literary studies have been dominated by a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion.’ In his presentation, Thomas discusses the strange affinity between literary modernism and conspiracy theory.

He makes example of the paranoia evident in the work of writers like Kafka and Borges.

Thomas also considers the death the ‘inductive’ novel, and the question of whether readers have become rather too trusting of what they read.

Thomas is a writer and scholar. He co-organised the Paranoia event.

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The Paranoia programme in full.

More events at Verdurin.

Thomas' novel Shibboleth.