Monsters, Madness, Mania and Meaning
I have long contended that creative genius, or even creative
actions (All forms of Art and progress in the hard Sciences, Math, etc.)
come from the minds of persons who are clinically, or could be determined to
be, mad.
How can any human mind create,
or make, anything beyond what is termed reality
– what is the now, what is part and parcel of “what is known”? These people must have the ability to fantasize and have the full confidence
that they are capable of creating,
from whole cloth, those very fantasies.
These individuals must be
capable of transposing themselves into
the world(s) of their fantasies, just in order to make those non-realities have coherency for others
to perceive.
When A.A. Milne wrote “Winnie the Pooh”, he had to be
capable of transposing himself into the mind, and world, of a very young boy
who believed with absolute certainty, that his stuffed toys were alive. By any outside, professional psychiatric
device, this would be absolutely defined as madness.
It can be said that Milne did not actually believe his fiction was,
in truth, reality. I contest this. His stories might be drawn from his own
childhood, or from one he wished he had had.
But, for these stories to be as universally loved and to simply hold together as a literary Art Form, or
device, he had to be accurate in his
prose. Mostly he absolutely had to be convincing. There is simply no way he could have done
this without the ability to actually enter,
time and again, the mind of
Christopher Robin. Or, even the minds
(non-minds) of the other characters, such as a honey addicted stuffed bear.
This ability can only be defined as abnormal. Or, not
normal.
I contend that this same principle is an overriding principle in the act of creating. Possibly, simply put, “why not”? This is the “Why Not” principle. Anyone, any normal intelligent person, can
observe “what is” and form conclusions totally rooted in what is
accepted as reality. It is only those persons who can
observe what is, form multiple
conclusions as to that data and then expand it to why and then with
an abnormal mindset, why not this other?
Other what? Other anything. Anything other than what is.
The only conclusion left, observing Occam’s Razor, is that to
create anything that is not here now,
must absolutely become the intention of a person who can mentally go beyond that which all of those around them cannot
(or will not). If this person can go beyond they are
seen as either deluded, if their
notions remain as mere spoken notions,
or possible actually insane, if
those notions include actions.
Even, if those actions are
harmless to anyone else. An inventor is just a crazy inventor, until their inventions
work – and they are considered a genius
if those inventions return a lot of money and notoriety. The same fucking person! Unknown
= nutcase; known + money = genius.
From madness to mania is not much of a step at all. Or, often enough the first follows the
second, when it is left uncontrolled.
When the madness raises its
head, the personification is then named a monster. Everybody knows Vincent Van Gogh. When he was alive and working, he was a
societal monster. To be avoided. To be ridiculed. Now that entire museums are named for him and
his work is almost priceless, his mania and
madness are forgiven, since so much
money is involved, it is forgotten. He has not so much been rewritten by history, as he was reborn from the moment his work became recognized as
of value. Of Artistic moment.
Meaning has been attached to his madness and mania,
therefore his monster qualities have
been subjugated to invisibility.
The list of persons who have ever accomplished anything of note and to whom this exact philosophy
has been attached, is nearly endless.
The case could be made, it has happened to every one of them.
dalepeterson.us
Books on Kindle by Dale Clarence Peterson
Peterson ArtWorks on Etsy
Peterson ArtWorks on Etsy
Note: for the brave among my dear readers, I offer a new, separate but different blog:
A study in a matter of theory and conjecture about human brain-mind development towards retaining ever increasing meta-cognitive development. Based on Mathematics, and I refer to Base 3 Calculus. I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of people to give it a try. But if you are in any manner open-minded and intellectually curious, the Math used is truly only a tool to condense the theory proposed.
Just published “Twelve Roses for Kathy – A journey on a motorcycle out of the darkness of bipolar disorder”
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