too cool for school

In his 1957 essay "The White Negro", Norman Mailer argued that:

"If the fate of 20th century man is to live with death from adolescence to premature senescence, why then the only life-giving answer is to accept the terms of death, to live with death as immediate danger, to divorce oneself from society, to live without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self. In short, the decision is to encourage the psychopath in oneself. One is Hip or one is Square, one is a rebel or one conforms."

So far, I've met one super over-achiever who also has that kind of crazy hipster cool. Usually, the "psychopath within" tends to overshadow the productive side of the crazy cool people I meet.

Just in April I'd been pitching to a group of people that the truly gifted and avant-garde - the innovators - are hardwired differently. And that, as a consequence, they are often a little crazy too. That was before I'd read the Mailer quote, and I know the people I was talking to thought I was strange.

I feel vindicated now, if at a loss, because the leap from crazy-productive to crazy-subpar may be all too short.

Take Montreal, for instance, the city of my undergrad youth. I've always admired its graceful seediness. The way its people continue to sneer in the midst of its decay. And I've always preferred it over the bigger, richer, more sanitised Toronto as well.

But despite its beautiful people, it's superior fashion, its local arts scene and quirky pockets of tight knit communities, Montreal never beats the Vancouvers and the Torontos for the "Top City to Live In" in the global awards. Perhaps the continuum from haunting beauty to just plain ghoulishness is too close a spectrum for the average citizen to bear.

Still, I remain optimistic that the balance can be made. I think that sometimes simply being innovative, alternative, or daring in one's thinking, is what is seen as crazy. As Einstein quipped:

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions"

and

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"