Shakespeare and Myths About Genius [View all]

[GreatGazoo]

A collection of Shakespeare works was published in 1623 in a very limited, very expensive edition. About 750 copies were printed, of which 235 survive. Interest in Shakespeare languished for 150 years. Few gave thought to the old plays let alone the writer(s) until the 1769 Jubilee which relaunched Shakespeare as an iconic canon of work. Bardo-mania soon reached a fever pitch and was tied closely to a surge of English nationalism and expanding empire.

Shakespeare was published at time when the most literate in England were reading French, Latin and Spanish works; when Cervantes reimagined literature with "Dox Quixote". Spanish was adopted and forced on millions of people throughout the Americas where it dwarfs English as a primary language -- 418 million Spanish speakers vs 280 English (and 209 million for Portuguese). The English defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 but never won the language war.

The printing of the King James Bible in 1611 and the Shakespeare folio (1623) were part of efforts by the elite to make their language as respected and wide ranging as their navy. The 1769 Jubilee created the popularity that Shakespeare enjoys to the present but it came at a time when rationalism demanded more concrete facts. This is the period in which Thomas Jefferson publishes a Bible that omits the miracles so when a biography of Shakespeare was finally published it set off severe questions and issues.

The first biography of Shakespeare was published in 1709, when biografiction was the accepted standard for biography -- nice stories about "great men" who fulfill their destiny to do great things. But the William Shakespeare of Rowe's biography is a humble man educated in a one-room school in a tiny market town in the middle of the countryside. He had none of things that other great writers had such as childhood tutors, university education, access to libraries, world travel and a subculture that values higher education. Rowe's Shakespeare is a kind of Harry Potter figure, outwardly ordinary but gifted with an unnatural talent -- a genius for language.

As interest in Shakespeare grew during the late 1700s, rationalists took a critical look back at Rowe's biography. It was magical. It defied reason. But Shakespeare and his official biography pushed back. The true believers and English patriots dug in -- Shakespeare didn't need higher learning because he was a genius. He didn't need to travel to Italy where eight of his plays are set because he was a genius. Didn't need to have grown up among castles and falconry because...genius.

This flawed concept of genius codified in Bardolotry endures in the present. We are taught, falsely, to think that someone who is a genius and well-studied in one area is a genius in all things. And that like "Shakespeare", genius is a kind of magical conduit that allows those so gifted to know things they have never seen and never seriously studied; to know about other classes and lifestyles than those they experienced. It isn't something that is nurtured and developed but rather something you are either born with or without.

TV and social media favor the bold over the more cautious; the speculators over the prudent. "Facts kill discussions" so cable news needs opinions from "experts" who can be relied upon to opine in areas far beyond their actual expertise. The true nature of genius more often takes the form of imposter syndrome, the opposite of Dunning-Kruger. Genius is often obsessive and solitary. The journey into deeper learning separates a person from all who do not share that interest. The stereotype of a genius as social awkward is often true -- a person with an IQ above 145 is 1 in 10,000, above 160 is 1 in 1,000,000. TV producers emulate this difference with costume items such as bow ties or lab coats, eg talking heads must look unique in order to be perceived as unique.

Genius, by definition, is uncommon but it isn't magical. There is no substitute for experience, nurturing, research and discipline no matter how smart one is. The smartest people know their limits and know that sometimes the best answer is "I don't know" because it is true.