intellect emotion and irrationality
The very idea of a lunatic genius is actually romantic, supreme ability with a critical flaw; making the spectrum wide. While conclusive evidence is yet to arrive scientifically, the idea thrives as a truism in people's minds. Supreme ability is indeed a statistical aberration, placed at the very fringes of the 'normal' distribution curve. Does it 'attract' other extreme themes also?..... Well one view can be that this particular way of looking at geniuses is a way of 'getting back at them' by society, a vengeance for it's own mediocrity, afterall anything that's not very familiar seems to be threatening and hence a 'flaw' in it, is very welcome.
Or as Schopenhauer probably believed, the ability to feel or sense pain increases up the evolutionary ladder, correlating positively with intellect across species, within species also this seems to be true. This brings us to the point of extreme sensitivity of a genius, creative throes are coupled with emotional upheavals; even a scientific discovery is not without an emotional component, eureka! eureka! The literary and musical genius can be especially though of to be more prone to 'creative labor pains'.
The relationship between intellect and emotion seems to be very contorted, at one end intellect has to overcome emotion to clear its vision of the fog that surrounds all that is human, on the other hand intellect devoid of emotion would be sterile, it would be nihilistic ; knowing all that is knowable would lead to eventual self destruction. God if it exists, and if is not human would have had surely self destructed......
Einstien's 'Autism', Picasso's tryst with the 'other' side of reality, Van gogh's bouts, Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe.... the list is endless; but a mere coincidence of two extremes in some cases does not prove anyting. If we have a close look at the 'generative' process, the process of creation is not a very logical phenomenon, there are gaps, leaps and jumps, islands and unfathomable deeps, murky waters and alien terrains; the 'brew' goes through much fermentation before a clear radiant result surfaces. The emotional component of the generative process is a paradox, irrationality leading to rationality, for extreme emotion is extreme blindness, a fugue, a muse, a delusion....... and it still lights the path of supreme discovery. Every discovery, especially of laws of nature, be it a 'new' particle or a hitherto unknown gene, is a dialogue with nature; patterns are revealed and puzzles solved, as answers come through the haze..... the mist of human emotion.
As a student I used to wonder about statistical extremes, have heated exchanges about how to place Gandhi, Raman Raghav (Indian Jack The Ripper), and 'Messiah'; the messiah has visions like Raman, on messiah's dreams wars have been fought, Gandhi appears to defy logic; my patriotism can be treason for you. Chemicals in brain, do they have similar patterns in statistical anomalies?, and do patterns go together in groups/ or the underlying process is fundamentally unconcerned and free of our labelling it as a lunatic or heroic or 'touched by divine'. Howsoever we attempt, the effort is flawed; only a 'higher' process can comprehend the vicissitudes of supreme intellect, which sadly is unavailable.
The movie 'The Aviator' beautifully potrays a representative sample of an 'anamolous' genius unparalled intellect, unbriddled emotion, combining in an explosive mix. The case is akin to a classical Greek tragedy, wherein the protagonist thrives at the fringes of the normal distribution curve, has an inevitable 'bug' in his design, and spirals toward untold misery and hardship, nearing self destruction, leaving a thick soot of emotions, akin to a stalling aircraft in a predictably unpredictable way................. to be redeemed....maybe by a sea of emotions....
Shakespearan tragedies also follow a similar line, infinite woe befalls upon an exceptional specimen.... It seems that nature favours averages, and is harsh to extremes, so do we and so does 'luck'. Statistical normalcy is a snapshot of our inability to comprehend what is superior, different or extreme. I cannot stand on my own shoulders to see that far.........
Logic, rationality are sterile, impotent- can only describe what already exists, can palely reflect borrowed light, but irrationaliry and emotion are dark yet potent, powerful and raring to take a plunge, in the abyss of the unknown. The struggle between Appollonian and Dionysian forces signifies how serendipity draws us to irrational voyages, in universes unknown. Emotion fuells intellect and are born symphonies, theories, epics, lunar landings, rockets, nuclear bombs, Guernicas and Monalisas.
What flies high is pulled by the earth; it's strange attraction toward self destruction is also abnormal, like itself..........
..............................Does intellect have a 'soul' of itself, to 'be' it needs to cry, to fly, to dance on the edge........ of the dark abyss.......
Or as Schopenhauer probably believed, the ability to feel or sense pain increases up the evolutionary ladder, correlating positively with intellect across species, within species also this seems to be true. This brings us to the point of extreme sensitivity of a genius, creative throes are coupled with emotional upheavals; even a scientific discovery is not without an emotional component, eureka! eureka! The literary and musical genius can be especially though of to be more prone to 'creative labor pains'.
The relationship between intellect and emotion seems to be very contorted, at one end intellect has to overcome emotion to clear its vision of the fog that surrounds all that is human, on the other hand intellect devoid of emotion would be sterile, it would be nihilistic ; knowing all that is knowable would lead to eventual self destruction. God if it exists, and if is not human would have had surely self destructed......
Einstien's 'Autism', Picasso's tryst with the 'other' side of reality, Van gogh's bouts, Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe.... the list is endless; but a mere coincidence of two extremes in some cases does not prove anyting. If we have a close look at the 'generative' process, the process of creation is not a very logical phenomenon, there are gaps, leaps and jumps, islands and unfathomable deeps, murky waters and alien terrains; the 'brew' goes through much fermentation before a clear radiant result surfaces. The emotional component of the generative process is a paradox, irrationality leading to rationality, for extreme emotion is extreme blindness, a fugue, a muse, a delusion....... and it still lights the path of supreme discovery. Every discovery, especially of laws of nature, be it a 'new' particle or a hitherto unknown gene, is a dialogue with nature; patterns are revealed and puzzles solved, as answers come through the haze..... the mist of human emotion.
As a student I used to wonder about statistical extremes, have heated exchanges about how to place Gandhi, Raman Raghav (Indian Jack The Ripper), and 'Messiah'; the messiah has visions like Raman, on messiah's dreams wars have been fought, Gandhi appears to defy logic; my patriotism can be treason for you. Chemicals in brain, do they have similar patterns in statistical anomalies?, and do patterns go together in groups/ or the underlying process is fundamentally unconcerned and free of our labelling it as a lunatic or heroic or 'touched by divine'. Howsoever we attempt, the effort is flawed; only a 'higher' process can comprehend the vicissitudes of supreme intellect, which sadly is unavailable.
The movie 'The Aviator' beautifully potrays a representative sample of an 'anamolous' genius unparalled intellect, unbriddled emotion, combining in an explosive mix. The case is akin to a classical Greek tragedy, wherein the protagonist thrives at the fringes of the normal distribution curve, has an inevitable 'bug' in his design, and spirals toward untold misery and hardship, nearing self destruction, leaving a thick soot of emotions, akin to a stalling aircraft in a predictably unpredictable way................. to be redeemed....maybe by a sea of emotions....
Shakespearan tragedies also follow a similar line, infinite woe befalls upon an exceptional specimen.... It seems that nature favours averages, and is harsh to extremes, so do we and so does 'luck'. Statistical normalcy is a snapshot of our inability to comprehend what is superior, different or extreme. I cannot stand on my own shoulders to see that far.........
Logic, rationality are sterile, impotent- can only describe what already exists, can palely reflect borrowed light, but irrationaliry and emotion are dark yet potent, powerful and raring to take a plunge, in the abyss of the unknown. The struggle between Appollonian and Dionysian forces signifies how serendipity draws us to irrational voyages, in universes unknown. Emotion fuells intellect and are born symphonies, theories, epics, lunar landings, rockets, nuclear bombs, Guernicas and Monalisas.
What flies high is pulled by the earth; it's strange attraction toward self destruction is also abnormal, like itself..........
..............................Does intellect have a 'soul' of itself, to 'be' it needs to cry, to fly, to dance on the edge........ of the dark abyss.......
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