Structural trouble with curing the genius illusion


Author: Terence Rajivan Edward        
Abstract. Salvador Dali titled one of his books Diary of a Genius. You might think that anyone who would title his book thus must be a spoilt brat and should be "cured" of the illusion that he, or she, is so amazing. But it seems to me that there is a "position" one can occupy in which this is difficult. You plan to do what the self-proclaimed genius does, because he thinks you are only okay and by doing this, you will give him evidence that he (or she) too is only okay. But you don't quite reach his level and people with the talent to do so have better things to do!
Draft version: Version 2 (5th September 2026, minor edits; version 1 3rd December 2022)
PDF of version 1 at: https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWSTW.pdf


The guest Internet goes on and off
Like an old man with a cough


        Salvador Dali's Diary of a Genius: "Why give this title to your book?" "And how are you going to become a member of the community of English workers with such a title?" With questions like these in mind, you might try to cure someone of the illusion that they are so amazing, a genius even. But how? "Well, the things which they do which they think are so amazing, I shall do as well, and they don't have such a high opinion of me. And then they will realize that they are not bad, okay. For example, I shall write some Russian silver poetry as well."


But I think you can get stuck with this project, like so. You cannot quite do this to their satisfaction. And people who can, slightly more talented than you, have other things to do. So you end up stuck with this character and their illusion! This paper was written using an online word processor and the Internet was not very stable, as described in the poem. Despite its brevity, I suspect it is an important point for some to know. (For whom this self-proclamation is an itch they find difficult to resist scratching!) Anyway, Dali himself probably counts!


Reference
Dali, Salvador 1966. Diary of a Genius. London: Hutchinson.