You are a genius

[Affirmation]

Wouldn't it be great if everything -- and I mean everything -- you wrote was brilliant. First draft, straight out, no revisions.

Every article, critique, dissertation, poem, short story, novella, novel, screenplay, epitapth.

Every message, every letter, love letter, e-mail, text, shopping list, pm, sick note.

Every piece of personal information you will ever need to supply.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if you -- yes *you* (and I really mean me) -- could strike genius with everything you write.

Genius. Awe-inspiring, greatness.

Books will be written about you (me).

Every decent volume of quotations will have entire chapters devoted to you (me).

Plato had bad days. Shakespeare had struggles. Yeats got it wrong. Dickens couldn't always hack it. Kafka was a nut, and often not a tasty one. Hemingway lost his way. Amis ambles.

But You... (me)... What if you could get it right EVERY FUCKING TIME?

(Unlike this message, which is deeply flawed on many levels -- and needed revision)

-- Affirmation

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

... What if you could get it right EVERY FUCKING TIME?...

What would be the point?

That would mean I could never improve it

 

[Quiet_Cool]

What would be the point?

That would mean I could never improve it

This is true, although the idea is a nice one...

Q_C

 

[Edward Teach]

What? You haven't noticed my stuff?

 

[minsue]

What? You haven't noticed my stuff?

Your modesty is inspiring, Teach.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Wouldn't it be great if everything -- and I mean everything -- you wrote was brilliant. First draft, straight out, no revisions.

Someone FINALLY noticed!

 

[minsue]

Someone FINALLY noticed!

Yours, too, Carson.

 

[Edward Teach]

Your modesty is inspiring, Teach.

Thanks. I always wanted to inspire you.


Eddie The Accomplished

 

[logophile]

In high school and college I took 6 years of French, but never could speak it well. I can still read it and understand it, but beyond that, I'm pretty much lost. However, I still have dreams where I'm speaking French perfectly. My grammar, pronounciation and accent are just right.

And then sometimes I have dreams like Affirmation's post, where I everything I've ever written is so fabulous that after I'm dead, collectors are bidding against each other for my grocery lists.

Both of those dreams feel so satisfying while I'm dreaming them. When I wake up I feel so ... hmmmm .... *searching for the right word* ... I guess I feel inadequate. Yes, that's it exactly. I feel like my work just isn't quite enough and I must work harder or abandon the craft.

Blah blah blah...

 

[Guest]

No, I wouldn't like it. I love writing and the work of it. The purpose for me is to learn (about language, myself, thinking, feeling, etc.) I also believe the term and idea of genius is much abused. I honestly would not want to have a genius mind, the one I have is plenty for me.

Perdita

 

[LadyJeanne]

I'm thrillingly satisfied when something I write fully captures what I'm tryng to express.

I'd love to get that right every fucking time.

 

[Liar]

If all I did was perfect, I could not exceed myself.

#L

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Personally, I'd rather have one of those Time-turner device/immortality wishes answered instead so I had time to write all the ideas I have ever had in something actually resembling a halfway decent time table, either that or the ability to tap into the right muse every time I finally do get a break to write and continue a story. Genius doesn't matter if I'm not producing up to my capacity.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I also believe the term and idea of genius is much abused.

Agreed. I think Yeats was a genius. I also know he worked himself to an early grave getting, some days, five or six lines of poetry.

Genius that really accomplishes anything is inevitably joined with monstrous quantities of effort.

Shanglan

 

[RebeccaLeah]

In high school and college I took 6 years of French, but never could speak it well. I can still read it and understand it, but beyond that, I'm pretty much lost. However, I still have dreams where I'm speaking French perfectly. My grammar, pronounciation and accent are just right.

And then sometimes I have dreams like Affirmation's post, where I everything I've ever written is so fabulous that after I'm dead, collectors are bidding against each other for my grocery lists.

Both of those dreams feel so satisfying while I'm dreaming them. When I wake up I feel so ... hmmmm .... *searching for the right word* ... I guess I feel inadequate. Yes, that's it exactly. I feel like my work just isn't quite enough and I must work harder or abandon the craft.

Blah blah blah...

Oui, moi aussi. *le sigh*
So nice to know I'm not the only one that has studied French forever and still can't function properly in France. My cousin on the other hand is fluent in German (home), English, and French. Lauren, wherever she is, can speak 50 billion languages, well maybe 5 or so, I don't remember the list.

People are good at different things, perhaps we are all geniuses we just don't always find out what it is in, either that or we have a different passion and prefer to be happy and average in that instead of brillant and unhappy.....
*shutting up now*

 

[scheherazade_79]

Being perfect would be boring. There'd be no more challenges and no sense of excitement when, unexpectedly, you manage to achieve something really good. You also wouldn't get the satisfaction of looking back at old pieces of work and noticing how much you've improved since they were written.
I enjoy living in an unpredictable world, and I wouldn't become perfect even if there were a million pounds attached to the label.

 

[doormouse]

Being perfect would be boring. There'd be no more challenges and no sense of excitement when, unexpectedly, you manage to achieve something really good. You also wouldn't get the satisfaction of looking back at old pieces of work and noticing how much you've improved since they were written.
I enjoy living in an unpredictable world, and I wouldn't become perfect even if there were a million pounds attached to the label.

Well said.

 

[gauchecritic]

Wouldn't it be great if everything -- and I mean everything -- you wrote was brilliant. First draft, straight out, no revisions.
-- Affirmation

They are. It is.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: You are a genius

They are. It is.

Ah ha ha ha ha!!!

Perdita

 

[The_Darkness]

Just one perfect story, be it erotic or not would be awesome. Being perfect all the time....not so much, and only for the reason of that one failure (which if one was perfect would come as often as perfection for the rest of us) would be an eternal black mark.

Nope, better to suck and strive for excellence....and I guess that statement works on many many levels.

Besides, being a genius doesn't precipitate greatness. Genius still needs oportunity, though we tend to find opportunity easier.....

 

[BlackShanglan]

Just one perfect story, be it erotic or not would be awesome.

Agreed. If I had written "Cynara," I would quite literally not care if I died the next day, or if I never wrote anything again. I would hang the pen up on the wall and die content.

Shanglan

 

[The_Darkness]

If I managed to crack out a perfect anything, I think I'd just strive to beat it....and, being the case that the perfect story was perfect, probably die very sad.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Another reason to not become a genius is that most genius authors were heavily ignored or not understood until after their deaths.

I think most of us would rather be alive to see the public enjoy our works, even if they are not works of genius.

A more seductive lure might be the opportunity to write one "masterpiece" that stank of genius, had the most poignant turns of phrases, the strongest emotions, said the definitive word on X theme, and otherwise stood as the best story you could ever even hope to write. To something like that, I'd take it in a blink and sometimes wonder if I haven't already done it already (minus the genius of course. Despite my cardinal sin of pride, I retain some shred of modesty)

 

[The_Darkness]

Lucifer, I think we've all done that. My girlfriend got a poem published in the Book of World Poetry (or something like that) and she just stopped writing because she thinks thats the best she'll ever do.

She was 20 when she wrote it, and yeah, it's damn good, but she's probably going to live to be 80....I'd like to think an experience she has in the next 60 years will give her enough emotion to rival the emotion it took to craft that poem.

Perfection is always perfect; the audience, however, will determine what meets that standard.