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Chapter 9 and 10 in Hughes

As I read there two chapters, I basically highlighted and made notes where content triggered my mind. First, I highlighted the phrase, “Creativity appears to encompass the concepts both of disease and of cure,” (117). I liked this concept, because the way I imagine it, a person get a disease and can use creativity to fight it. Creativity is catalyzed, but it is also a cure. It is a therapeutic was to fight a disease. The text refers to creatives as “abnormal” in terms of their personality and the way they are seen by society. I came up with a list of creatives that I though would illustrate the idea of standing out in society: Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and the late Michael Jackson.
I found the portion on pain to be rather interesting. I never thought that pain could enhance creativity. When the idea was broken down into physical and mental pain it made much more sense. The text even notes that mental pain is even more influential in the creative process.
I noticed that Aldous Huxley’s name made an appearance in the text. Apparently he had failing eyesight, which was mirrored by his interest in inner visions. We are to read some work by Huxley in class and he is also a well known novelist.
Next I would like to share my experience of visiting the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I traveled there in the summer of 2006 for a family vacation; the Van Gogh museum was a priority on our list. There were several levels to the exhibit. Each floor was packed full of colorful paintings, created with genius technique. The man certainly deserves a museum dedicated to his work. At the time and still I don’t know too much about Van Gogh, but the man had a mastermind.
Last week I presented during the discussion about diseases that enhance creativity. The content of this chapter further explains the surfaced I scratched. It covers many different diseases and disorders, such as manic depression, depression, and schizophrenia. I used to work with an individual, named Todd, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Apparently, when Todd was 18 he feel asleep with over 15 hits of LSD in his hand, which was absorbed through his skin and permanently changed his mind. Now he is a 45-year-old dishwasher at a restaurant in Exton, PA. Poor Todd would never, ever go into the walk-in refrigerator. The voice inside his head, which he referred to as “Wheels”, told him that there was a man waiting to kill him in the walk-in; therefore Todd never took his chances. Wheels also insisted that Todd not try the restaurant’s soup and eat the same sandwich everyday. It’s incredible the control the voice had over Todd. Wheels was in charge. Todd, however, was beyond creativity, I believe. He was so wrapped up in his fears that daily living was a challenge.