John Rattray's Paranoia in Portland
Feature: 9.6SE
Life / Film
Some time after Gus Van Zant released his film Paranoid Park (adapted from Blake Nelson’s young-adult psychological crime drama novel of the same horrible title), Burnside picked up the unfortunate moniker. But for some reason, that title just electrocutes my fillings every time I hear it. What is so annoying about calling Burnside Paranoid Park? Well, if I’d gone to buy beer with some dude I’d just met, and we accidentally bludgeoned and dismembered a security guard, I think I’d be within my rights to be scared too. But that’s not paranoia. Paranoia is based on a delusion. I decided that if I was going to get to the bottom of this, the best thing to do would be to: 1) visit the inspiration for Paranoid Park’s setting and 2) subject myself to some vicious mental torment. So I went to Portland with Matt Mumford and this is what happened.
