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Loading... Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages (edition 2008)by Michael Largo
Work InformationGenius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages by Michael Largo
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Lots of famous artistes, whether they be artists, musicians, troubadours, writers or similar, seem to involve themselves in unseemly habits. Thus, the author had no lack of material to work with. Other reviewers have noted that they were not sure what Largo's goal with "Genius and Heroin"; I am however easy to please so I was quite content with the short entries on a range of famous people who have gone off the ropes in one way or another. I will say though that Largo ends the book on a bit of a downer (even for a book about addiction and death) by having as the final entry a story about a 19 year old chess whiz who jumped to her death in 2006 - most likely due to her allegations of sexual assault against her father. Perhaps there could have been a lighter way to end? An extremely shallow look at some of the demons possessing creative or visionary people, I had to put it down in irritation after the second internally inconsistent passage. This felt like it had been written by committee, and then poorly proofread. Disappointing, especially as I was hoping for much more from this author. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. This is an encyclopedic collection of information about heroin-using artists, writers, and thinkers. Some facts about the people themselves are presented, as well as varied-length accounts of their drug usage and some speculation as to how it may have influenced the writing/thoughts/actions for which they became famous. While the reader can identify patterns on his or her own, I would have enjoyed this book more if it did a bit of this in black and white. It was also never clear to me what exactly the author's goal was: to simply make a connection between genius and heroin, yes, but the tone seemed to vary. Perhaps people with genius mindsets are more prone to drug usage? Drug-induced thoughts can masquerade as genius? It's an interesting collection, albeit more informative than exploratory/explanatory/analytical. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Genius and Heroin tells us something we probably could have guessed: creative people may have a tendency to fall into excess. Everything is kind of sad and depressing, despite largo's attempts to inject some humor into things. Am I supposed to laugh? Feel sad? I don't know, and I suspect most readers - unless their morbid curiosity is such that this is the book they've been waiting for all their life - won't, either. no reviews | add a review
What is the price of brilliance? Why are so many creative geniuses also ruinously self-destructive? From Caravaggio to Jackson Pollack, from Arthur Rimbaud to Jack Kerouac, from Charlie Parker to Janis Joplin, to Kurt Cobain, and on and on, authors and artists throughout history have binged, pill-popped, injected, or poisoned themselves for their art. Fully illustrated and addictively readable, Genius and Heroin is the indispensable reference to the untidy lives of our greatest artists and thinkers, entertainingly chronicling how the notoriously creative lived and died--whether their ultimate downfalls were the result of opiates, alcohol, pot, absinthe, or the slow-motion suicide of obsession. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumMichael Largo's book Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)920.02History and Geography Biography, genealogy, insignia Biography General and collective by localities Partial collections not limited to any special country or subjectLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This book is great for those interested in the history of people and the macabre, both of which I find truly fascinating. ( )