“That means that fame may sometimes be cruel, and being exceptional means being lonely. More than others, a talented person needs support and a perspective, he must attract attention to himself, and is therefore very often a victim of violent changes in society. Or in other cases, he is rejected at home, and must work parted from his native country for a great part of his lifetime. Victor Hugo lived nineteen years in exile. Ovid, the poet, died in exile although he was previously one of the Emperor's favorites. Dostoyevsky and Pushkin, Giordano Bruno and Calvin were also sent into exile. Einstein, Dietrich and Fermi all ended as immigrants. And the latest only escaped from his fascist homeland thanks to the Nobel Prize he received.”
Tiny, blond girl whispers to red-haired boy: “Hey ..... I don't like this.”
Red-haired boy: “Hmm....wait, quiet.”
“Thus many die in exile. Exceptional people seem to wear out more rapidly by their intensive life. Such was the fate of Byron, Saint-Exupéry, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Vladimir Vysocky, who all died prematurely. Hemingway, Maiakovsky, Jesenin, van Gogh, London, and Stefan Zweig together with his wife, all committed suicide. Diesel drowned, as did Corbussier, the architect. Tool, a writer, wrote his best book at the age of 26. For two years, the publisher kept returning him the manuscript for rewriting and then rejected it altogether. For four more years, Tool tumbled through life in despair, before he committed suicide, suffocating from exhaust gases inside his car. Eleven years later, his novel was declared book of the year and received all the prominent national awards, and was soon published in fourteen countries.... A true genius is always challenging the era he lives in, but naturally, each era tends to be convinced it is perfect. A genius often points out elementary errors and suggests fundamental changes. Few like the former, and even fewer are enthusiastic about the latter. A quick success of a reformer, or an artist, paradoxically proves that he really did not get very far; he only complimented the epoch, and cashed in.”
Appalled silence in the classroom, buzz of the computer.
“No one else has a question? .....Hey you, the red-hair boy in the back row, whom do you want to be?”
“A computer.”
“Why?”
“I want to know everything.”
“But I do not know everything.”
“I'm saying that I want to know more than you, I want to know everything.”
“Why?”
“Because!”
Provoking silence in the classroom, buzz of the computer.
Teacher entering a room: “Students, why is it so quiet here? Lucy, why are you crying? What's wrong with that computer?”
“So...you seem to have missed your profession -- you should have worked for the intelligence service, being so curious. It is a pity you have not asked me for advice.”
“That's audacious! I shall immediately report you to the school principal and your company!!!”
“So...you crook, crook, croo...”
----
A note in the students' notebooks: The school administration apologizes to honorable parents of our pupils who were confronted with a wrong setting of the POSV-2004 computer for career counseling. The computer was only set to half of its memory and database capabilities, and one third of its twelve output analyzers. We have taken care to correct the damage that had been imposed, in collaboration with the teacher and the computer company. A repeated career counseling session in the presence of parents will take place....
An additional note in the red-hair boy's notebook to his parents: Your son constantly disrupts the class!
(The End)
No comments:
Post a Comment