There's no way up.

The Flight of The Condor: The Sunday Strips, week 96

Hey,

many years ago, I read a book Victor Hugo wrote about Shakespeare. It’s a genius writing about another genius.

The only thing I remember from that book is Hugo’s idea about artistic genius. He said that once an artist reaches the level of Shakespeare or Dante, there’s no way up. That idea shocked me at the time. I thought, come on, there’s always room to get better. Imagination is limitless. Stuff like that.

But not long after, I found myself agreeing with him.

You see, art isn’t science. The idea that there’s no final frontier feels like a scientific idea to me. In art, there are always two sides: the artist and the audience. And if the artist flies too high, the audience may lose sight of them.

What I mean is, if you’re too much of a genius, your audience may get lost.

Let’s suppose what you’re doing is so complex and revolutionary that no one else in the world is capable of understanding it. Then chances are, no one else in the world is capable of enjoying it either.

Victor Hugo’s point was that once you become a genius on the level of Dante, you can be as great as he was, but not greater. You can be different, but not better.

I like that idea.

Now, I don’t know if you’re a Dante-level genius, but if you are, I’d say you run the risk of losing your audience. And even if you’re not, remember there’s another side to the coin. There’s the artist, and there’s the audience.

So be careful, Einstein.

You can be a genius, but I’d say: take it easy.

-

PS: The Flight of The Condor: The Complete Saga. The work of a genius.

Nah, I’m kidding.

Although everyone’s a genius nowadays, so who knows.