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"You've been tellin' me you're a genius since you were 17, and all the time I've known you I still don't know what you mean"--old Steely Dan song

There's a certain kind of insightful person who fascinates me--someone who seems to "get" and intuit everything, but never makes the choices that go with insight. Not every choice is a "bad" choice, of course--sometimes entirely good choices prove to have worked out poorly. Yet there's this elusive quality to the way some of the brightest people handle some of the most important choices.

They talk a lot about the coyote trickster. But what of the perpetually tricked genius? Perhaps an animal would be in order there, too. Sometimes, diplomacy fails, and one finds oneself merely negotiating with people who are far cleverer than one could ever be. They leave, truce declared, and plunge down the edifice. You hear of their choices across the decades--genius, sadly, at work. Cleverness leads them there. But is cleverness rewarded? Is that squeal on Autumn nights the shriek of the genius self-tricked rabbit?

When Diplomacy Fails

Date: 2006-01-24 02:24 am (UTC)
ext_8703: Wing, Eye, Heart (Default)
From: [identity profile] elainegrey.livejournal.com
I enjoyed that piece and the poem (which you have shared before?). I thought of commenting at CCmixter, but feel at home in this comment clique. And what you say about the perpetually tricked genius leads me to less than charitable pop psy conclusions, which i wish to resist. Instead, i'll reflect on a sheet of paper my work therapist gave me, which described resilient people. There's something in how we react to outcomes, to those in our control and those out, that also plays out here.

I suddenly think of http://www.makingfiends.com/ Here, we meet an (evil) genius, Vendetta, and Charlotte. Is Charlotte stupid, as one of her classmates intones? (Second season, i think) Yet how do we measure the final results: here is the creative (evil) genius Vendetta, perpetually yowling in failure, and here is Charlotte -- ultimate Polyanna? Creative songbird?

Could it be, in cleverness and genius, some of us are tied to specific outcomes, expect our efforts and decisions to turn out just so? And we can't bear it when it doesn't turn out that way, and it becomes failure?

Date: 2006-01-24 04:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gurdonark.livejournal.com
Yes, this is a rerun. I did post it before. I agree with you--it's that tied to outcomes thing. That's the truth in the situation. Perhaps the person who grows beyond an outcome is the person who realizes the playbook doesn't always set forth how the game plays out.

Date: 2006-01-24 02:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missprune.livejournal.com
My take on it would be that very intelligent people tend to second guess themselves right out of the road of direct, effective action. Hmmm? I'm sure you are very intelligent but much too wise to fall into that trap.

Date: 2006-01-24 04:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gurdonark.livejournal.com
I'm not smart enough to be that kind of intelligent, which, I suppose, is a very good thing.

Date: 2006-01-24 04:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theoldanarchist.livejournal.com

I just love that line, one of my all-time favorites in any Steely Dan song---and I know almost every song they ever recorded. It's a typical Donald Fagen put-down. And, it's from the song "Reelin' In The Years".

Date: 2006-01-24 04:40 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I love a lot of Steely Dan songs, but "reelin' in the years" is about as good as they get!

Date: 2006-01-24 04:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gurdonark.livejournal.com
I love a lot of Steely Dan songs, but "Reelin' in the Years" is one of my very favorite.

Date: 2006-01-24 04:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theoldanarchist.livejournal.com

Yeah, it's a good one. I've been listening to the album "Countdown To Ecstasy" quite a bit recently. That, if memory serves correctly, was their 2nd album.

Date: 2006-01-24 05:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gurdonark.livejournal.com
Countdown is great, although I always thought Katy Lied was second. I used to know these things, but I've aged a bit since then.

My favorite Steely Dan song is probably "Any Major Dude", but "Reelin" is also great, almost every song on Aja and I take it back, because "Time out of Mind" is my favorite.

Date: 2006-01-26 05:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theoldanarchist.livejournal.com

You could be right, maybe it was Katy Lied. Any any rate, both "Any Major Dude" and "Time Out Of Mind" are great songs. I've had numerous conversations about Aja, and the consensus amongst my friends is that it is their most perfect album---every damn note is right on the mark. A jazz musician friend of mine says its more like a suite, that the songs all fit together as one large work.

Date: 2006-01-24 04:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mesawyou.livejournal.com
okay now I feel craptastic about my life. (and this wasn't even about me)

Date: 2006-01-24 05:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gurdonark.livejournal.com
I think that when you come from a very small town in Arkansas, you're largely immune to that sort of cleverness, so don't feel down!

Date: 2006-01-24 05:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mesawyou.livejournal.com
HAAAA.... well alrighty then.

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