Erik A. Mattila wrote:
> Peter H.M.Brooks wrote:
>> Dennis' Newsgroups wrote:
>>
>>> Well, alot of the great art of the history was from depression or
>>> some other state of emotional pain. This holds true for paintings,
>>> sculptures, music, writing, etc. Nothing like mental anguish to get
>>> the creativity juices flowing to express it.
>>>
>> The artist starving in a garret is certainly still a popular
>> stereotype and, as such, has to be taken seriously.
>>
>> So, yes, unhappy people have produced wonderful work - most recently,
>> I read a review of a biography of Josef Conrad that seems to confirm
>> that view in spades. He left a happy life as a seaman for an unhappy
>> one as a writer and family man.
>>
>> I'm not sure that it is necessary, though. It certainly isn't
>> sufficient - unhappy people also produce crap.
>>
> Yes, but it's well-known that Conrad had a heart of darkness.
>
Mmm. Nice enought pun, I suppose, but a little weak.
To have written a work so powerful as to be able to be transmogrified
into 'Apocalypse Now' with hardly any fundamental artistic modification
is quite extraordinarily able. He also wrote many other hugely powerful
works.
English wasn't even his first language.
Strangely he had little confidence himself in his magnificent ouvre.
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