A Beautiful Mind...
I'm currently listening to a "A Beautiful Mind", a biography of Nobel Prize Winner John Nash, who succumbed to serious schizophrenia for many years.
I have to say, I don't like John Nash one bit. We haven't gotten to his years in deep delusion yet, but he was obnoxious, a narcissist, a possible sociopath, and a horrible person to people who cared about him and his col.eagues. His abandonment and irresponsibility towards his son and his mistress, his cruel "pranks", name calling, attitude, snobbery, and proclivity for blowing up animals as a child are just not very endearing qualities. Call me crazy, if you like, it's just how I am.
Wacky, I know.
I've heard so much about how I would love the film of this, and how I would love this book, and I'm baffled as to why no one ever mentions that he was a fucking nutbar BEFORE he had schizophrenia, and MEAN to boot?
I do love books about science and math, and I love biographies about interesting people, and psychological true-novels, so I understand why this would be recommended to me. But at least when I read "Sybil" and "A Fractured Mind", I felt bad for them. I felt like I would want to help them if I knew them. I empathized with them even though I could not sympathize.
Reading about John Nash makes me feel bad for everyone around him, more than for him.
N.
I have to say, I don't like John Nash one bit. We haven't gotten to his years in deep delusion yet, but he was obnoxious, a narcissist, a possible sociopath, and a horrible person to people who cared about him and his col.eagues. His abandonment and irresponsibility towards his son and his mistress, his cruel "pranks", name calling, attitude, snobbery, and proclivity for blowing up animals as a child are just not very endearing qualities. Call me crazy, if you like, it's just how I am.
Wacky, I know.
I've heard so much about how I would love the film of this, and how I would love this book, and I'm baffled as to why no one ever mentions that he was a fucking nutbar BEFORE he had schizophrenia, and MEAN to boot?
I do love books about science and math, and I love biographies about interesting people, and psychological true-novels, so I understand why this would be recommended to me. But at least when I read "Sybil" and "A Fractured Mind", I felt bad for them. I felt like I would want to help them if I knew them. I empathized with them even though I could not sympathize.
Reading about John Nash makes me feel bad for everyone around him, more than for him.
N.