May 292010
Suddenly everything makes sense. Read this BBC piece on art and schizophrenia.
On an autobiographical note: In Paris, Christmas 1969, I saw Salvador Dali emerge from a limo with a lovely young woman in a leopard skin coat (leopard or ocelot–some patchy feral cat). Ask me what I was doing in Paris. Getting into trouble mostly. Also taking acting and movement lessons from an aged Javanese temple dancer named Madame Jodjana.
Ah, more information than you need.
dg
I’ve always suspected this.
Does writing cause us to become schizophrenic, or do we write because we’re schizophrenic? I need an answer!
I don’t think there’s a cause and effect–it’s a symbiosis.
This is my thought. The world is schizophrenic — there is plenty of evidence to support it — and writers/schizophrenics (if there’s a distinction here) are more sensitive to this fact. But this means that writers/schizophrenics are, in fact, normal. They’re more in tune.
This article was absolutely fascinating. The other night while I held severe pressure on my patient’s radial artery to prevent her exsanguination, I told her about this article (she was a psychologist, so I thought she would find it both interesting and distracting – I was causing her quite a bit of pain). She nodded her head, in wise agreement with the theory. She and her lover had the same first name – Merle – and looked so similar it was frightening.
This is what happens when writers attempt to work regular jobs.
Very strange. There is nary a trace of the mysterious Madame Jodgana on the internet, except for this tantalizing mention. Could she be a figment of someone’s imagination?
The spelling has been bothering me all day (packets, too). I think it was Jodjana. But I doubt there would be much on the web. She was very old then and lived in a “pavilion” at 55 Mouse Street (although in French). But I didn’t make this up. 🙂
Hmmm, does VCFA have skunk works as well, or do they just refer to it as “workshop?”