Madness and Genius



If we say that the gentle poet with gentle words is elegant and graceful, but to most invisible, then the big ideas, strange in their newness, must be required to get the attention of the public.

So what is madness? A misfiring of dendrites, creating connections in the brain where none should be or the opening of inspiration’s floodgates? Both. Then genius flows through the "mad" mind for where is writer’s block if no stop-thoughts can exist in your brain? Every place becomes a beginning. The only problem, for some, is that there is no end. Some control of this process has been lost and sleep or medication becomes the only pause.

Now there is also self-imposed madness, in the form of intoxicants, which due to metabolism have shorter durations than forever and ever. Though after long periods of use they may change the map of your brain to permanently alter perception, or to activate some latent psychology, accidentally waking the bipolar or psychotic sleeper in your genes.

The “good” side when considering madness is that there is no internal editor, no person or social restriction to coming up with the most unique perspective of the situation. Why is it that Shakespeare’s most remembered words are those of mad rants? How could he so picturesquely portray madness if he was not just a little more mad than the average man?

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