How Much for a Mind?

I've been doing a project for art on Vincent van Gogh, and it made me wonder, perhaps all geniuses are a little bit crazy. In his case, he was quite off his rocker, but perhaps all geniuses are in some way a little off. And then I thought, many people who are considered geniuses die at young ages, or are at the very least misunderstood and ignored. It's hard to say if they are geniuses because they were outcasts or they were casted out because they were geniuses.

In van Gogh's case, his illness (undiagnosed to this day, though many think he was bipolar and a raging alcoholic, on top of possibly being epileptic (seizures could have been induced by his excessive drinking of absinthe)) was drastically exacerbated by the time period and his surroundings; 19th century France hardly had the knowledge, let alone capabilities to diagnose bipolar disorder, or medicate it. So they locked him up, because he had a few lose screws. True, what else could they have done? Let him run amok and possibly injure himself and/or others?

But it is tragic, his life story. He failed out of school so many times and lost so many jobs that all he had left were his paints. And he didn't even mean to be an artist! Then, they committed him to a mental hospital with one tiny barred window (I've seen pictures of it) and tried to take his paints from him. It's no wonder he cut off his own ear; unable to name the pain he felt, he must have wanted to be able to pinpoint some kind pain. I think he cut himself because he wanted to know what hurt so he'd be able to stop it. But, of course, it didn't work. Not too long after that Vincent went out into the hospital courtyard and shot himself in the chest. You want to know the worst part? It took him two days to die. Two whole days until he succumbed to blood loss and infection. He couldn't even die painlessly.

Earlier this year we talked about what makes a tragedy. His story is tragic because he didn't start out so screwed up- he just wanted to be normal. He tried his whole life to be somebody to someone but in the end, he was left alone in a cold cement cell. It's tragic because such a gem, such an artistic genius, was ignored and cast out until he finally was unable to bear the pain any longer. His suicide made people finally pay attention, and that worth he had searched for all his life was just a little too late. He never got to see how famous and how loved he became.

It is a common misconception that van Gogh's talent was ignored during his lifetime. Yes, true recognition didn't come until later- the recognition he was searching for didn't come until he had already pulled the trigger- but during his brief and troubled lifetime, some of his paintings did do quite well. It was just that van Gogh was too crazy and too seemingly scary for people to buy his work and admit his genius. That probably had to kill: knowing that his work was liked but that no one would admit it.

And there are other geniuses too that people wanted to ignore. Take Einstein for example; in his lifetime he did gain recognition, but initially he was pegged as a problem child, an idiot, a common, lazy adolescent. And Stephen Hawking has made sacrifices for his genius mind, too. Perhaps it is insensitive of me to say that, to suggest that he has ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a motor neuron disease) because he is a genius. That's not really what I'm saying though. I'm saying perhaps he has the disease because he was given a great gift, the gift of the mind, and that comes with a price. I don't know, who know the reasons for these things, if there is a reason. It just makes you think, is all. It makes you think.