The Golden Age of Mediocrity

Electronic databases readily yield a vast and ever-growing list of similar contemporary artistic giants. Type documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' name into the Nexis database, for example, and you'll find 74 articles from U.S. newspapers in which his name occurs within 15 words of the word "genius." Movie director Quentin Tarantino racks up an even more impressive 108 hits--a remarkable feat, considering that he's directed only five full-length films in his 12-year career (including the upcoming part two of "Kill Bill").

The late Kurt Cobain racks up 109 hits, an even more remarkable feat for a musician whose output consisted of three studio albums. Nevertheless, he not only beats out Gehry (65 hits), actor Johnny Depp (44) and conductor and composer Andre Previn (24), but totally trounces Jonathan Franzen, author of the critically acclaimed novel "The Corrections," who scored a mere 15 hits--even fewer than bodice-ripping publicity pawn Justin Timberlake (31). In fairness, such number-crunching has its limitations; Madonna's 282 hits, for example, may be padded by articles that contain phrases such as "She may not be a genius, but Madonna's not an idiot. "

Humans have always argued about what constitutes artistic greatness, and the source of genius. The Romans believed artistic ability came from a supernatural being, the "genius," that guarded each man. The 18th century essayist Joseph Addison decided that there were two sorts of geniuses--those who'd diligently worked to learn their art, such as English poet John Milton, and the natural, untutored, compulsive virtuosity of a William Shakespeare, the sort of savant who created great art as easily as other men breathed.

More recently, developmental psychologist William Therivel, author of the three-volume treatise "The GAM/DP Theory of Personality and Creativity," has argued that genius is a combination of genetics and assistance (i.e., educational opportunities, supportive families and intellectual mentors). There's also the unexpected dash of misfortune or trauma that forces the budding wunderkind to forsake conventional beliefs, taboos and methods of problem-solving that inhibit most of us but allows him or her to see the world in a startlingly different way. The final ingredient is a social milieu in which power is divided rather than absolute, so the artist can play the iconoclast without being crushed like a bug. It results in what is called a "challenged personality," an artistically gifted person who pursues that vision with a single-minded aggressiveness that borders on antagonism.