“The pleasure that comes, for me, is in writing a book and in writing the book well, and in spending a lot of time in getting it right and in understanding the real world, and it is the power game, the seduction game, whatever. And then creating a book that goes out in the real world. So half the game of life is doing something that you love and in engaging in it deeply and it’s study and your field and whatever you produce. But that’s only half of it, because if you don’t understand the social part, then the book that I write — if I don’t know how to deal with people, and I don’t understand human nature, and I can’t market my book and my editor hates me, and my agent doesn’t know how to work with me — I could love my book but it won’t get out there, it won’t get published, it won’t have success and I won’t be happy.”
– Robert Greene
Yale Speech Pt 2., Source ~ x
Lecture
Gresham College Lecture on the relationship between Genius and Madness
Keep in mind, I do have differences of opinion, but I’m presenting it because the professor brings up interesting discussion points.
For instance, I’d posit that there are just as many female genius/madness types as there are men, but they’ve been relegated to obscurity in most cases. Culture and society ushers women into the background and usually punishes them for their genius/madness while men are rewarded. Who is to know how many women, and POC as well, have been forgotten by history due to these biases? And who is to say a genius does not in fact, become mad by the very action of being suppressed by social and cultural systems and norms? Madness then seems a very sane reaction to a genius dealing with an ocean of masses who are, in essence, of lower intelligence than the person they seek to control and relegate, usually because their genius is so overwhelming and frightening, and a threat to their status quo.
Martin Rose 