Faking Genius (A Tiny Essay I Wrote About Twenty Years Ago)

[Syrinx]

True genius is certainly an inborn gift, that cannot be
manufactured, even with the benefit of a lifetime's education
and an obnoxious personality. If you're like most people, with
a mass-production mentality, appearances are what count anyway.
Armed only with a sense for the bizarre and a will to deceive,
you can be well on your way to chat-show fame.

You should spend your nights alone, in a candle-lit cave,
memorizing sundry facts from the Encyclopedia Britannica
Micropedia and clipping newspaper fillers from the New York
Times. A TV Guide subscription is essential for memorizing the
public t.v. schedule and the story lines of "gritty, realistic"
shows like Hill Street Blues.

Firing Line is required viewing for any fake worthy of the
title. You must grasp the opportunity to rustle a multitude of
patented polysyllables from humble Mr. Buckley, witnessing the
powers that a pseudo-intellect can bear, as the guest
left-winger squirms in his seat and wishes death to Roget for
allowing a thesaurus to fall into Billy's shameless hands.

Your personal living habits should border on the disgusting, as
a tidy home will certainly raise doubts concerning your
priorities. Piles of obscure hardbacks and cryptic scribblings
on cocktail napkins should fall naturally into disarray, waiting
to impress the uninformed.

Intelligence and eccentricity go hand-in-hand, and you won't be
taken seriously as a genius unless you show a self-destructive
flair. For this reason, heavy drug abuse is common among the
tortured possessors of great minds. From the uncorked spirit of
Dylan Thomas to the Technicolor opium dreams of Coleridge and
Baudelaire, seemingly sublime verse, full of symbolism and
meaning, pours freely from the unhinged mind.

[Demit]

1. You were quite a cynic twenty years ago!

Who were you thinking of then, and do you still feel this way--that people celebrated for their genius are actually charlatans?

[Syrinx]

2. actually it was meant to be humorous

I was cynical then, and I'm cynical now. But probably not that cynical.

[southlandshari]

3. Brilliant! n/t

[Syrinx]

4. you're too kind Shari

But I'll take it. :)

[southlandshari]

5. Best thing I'd read in a while,

here in my little candle-lit cave.

;-)