Comments on: Update 2: ‘Genius’ In Contemporary America https://barelyablog.com/genius-in-contemporary-america/ by ilana mercer Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:29:09 +0000 hourly 1 By: Gumdrops https://barelyablog.com/genius-in-contemporary-america/comment-page-1/#comment-2791 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:42:07 +0000 http://barelyablog.com/?p=596#comment-2791 The kid is exceptional in his natural ability. Whether he is able to channel that ability into “genius” is another thing. But there is no doubt that he is talented. Most people aren’t self-taught and writing symphonies by age 6. It’s something most people cannot do at any age. If Bach were alive today, he could very well fall prey to the same sensationalism and it could have muted his “genius”. Let’s face it, the “greats” of the past certainly had their moments of genius – but most of their work is passe and not something that most people are at all interested unless under tutelage.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in the “death of objective standards”. These standards have always changed and always will. They come and go with the tide, for better or for worse.

[This is not true, to put it mildly—contradicted by Charles Murray’s monumental, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. The study is the most scholarly account of human achievement to date. It makes it crystal clear that accomplishment in music in the past half century or so have not approached—not on any level—the accomplishment of the “greats” you baselessly dismiss.—IM]

]]> By: Ira Newborn https://barelyablog.com/genius-in-contemporary-america/comment-page-1/#comment-2789 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:03:32 +0000 http://barelyablog.com/?p=596#comment-2789 Oh yeah; Did I mention how fabulous I think you are?

I.

]]> By: Ira Newborn https://barelyablog.com/genius-in-contemporary-america/comment-page-1/#comment-2788 Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:05:41 +0000 http://barelyablog.com/?p=596#comment-2788 Well, first I must start off with my traditional,”Ilana, you just KILL me.”
O.K, now that that’s over with, let’s get down to business and say that the appellation “genius” has been so overused and cheapened that I can now say without scruples that my dog is a genius.
He lets me know when he has to go out, wants to eat dinner and have his biscuits. Sometimes he even barks frantically to let me know that Timmy has fallen down the well and needs to be rescued. Amazing! That dog is a genius!
If people only knew him the way I do, they would agree with my assessment of his brilliance without hesitation although I have to admit that it’s a bit of a disappointment to me that he has shown no interest in playing an instrument or in composition… but one can hope.
Oh! One time he sculpted the face of George Gershwin in his food but he ate it before I could alert the media.
On a slightly more serious note (Get it? Note?), most people could not recognize a “true genius” of almost anything because they wouldn’t know enough about whatever subject the “genius” is supposed to be a genius in to make a credible assessment of whether he/she is a transcendent genius or merely an exceptionally talented wight.
Having played guitar for and even been fired by Leonard Bernstein (for an insignificant little soto voce comment), I would say that considering “West Side Story” and the quality of his conducting, he was probably some kind of musical genius. I had an amazing time working with Ray Charles who made the hair stand up on the back of my neck because he was certainly a musical genius. It’s a good bet that most of the great Western composers whose works have endured were musical geniuses. Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan are musical geniuses. Johann Sebastian Bach could eat most everyone else for breakfast and still write 2 cantatas before lunch. Of course a lot of this nonsense about who is or isn’t a “genius” is on the level of “My dad can beat up your dad” and is a waste of time for everyone except Ripley’s Believe It or Not, The Enquirer and today’s carneys on TV.
A friend and I used to lament the fact that we had both been stuck with this loathsome status since we were very young and how it caused us nothing but misery as we could never live up to whatever it was that people thought we were capable of. And if we were geniuses, what the heck was Bach?
I feel bad for the poor little arrogant sucker that you refer to. His parents are setting him up for a big fall and they are being aided by the bottom feeding sensationalists who are equally thrilled by a baby with two faces or a woman with three breasts.
I’d love to ask this kid what he thinks about Bach.
By the way, the reason Bach never erased is because the pencil hadn’t been invented yet but there are plenty of spots that he just crossed out.
Deo soli gloria.

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