Rosa Montero warns us in this essay about “The danger of being sane.” It seems a somewhat strange statement and typical of a madman. But, as the author mentions in a humorous tone, “she was never very normal.” It is about analyzing what is normal and what is meant by madness. In her essay, she tries to give space and even relevance to the much discredited madness. We know that many of the great geniuses of humanity suffered from psychiatric disorders and thanks to “their madness” they have contributed with their contributions changing the history of humanity.
From these “non-normal” minds came the most creative ideas and, without the intention of romanticizing mental pathologies or placing them as a condition sine qua non of genius, perhaps these different or somewhat deviated minds from “the normal” deserve special attention to understand creativity in human beings. Therefore, perhaps "being normal is not so good" and that is why the author points out: "The danger of being sane."
Synopsis
A passionate defense of the value of being different.
Based on her personal experience and reading numerous books on psychology, neuroscience, literature and memoirs by great authors from different creative disciplines, Rosa Montero offers us a fascinating study on the links between creativity and mental instability. And she does so by sharing with the reader numerous amazing curiosities about how our brain works when creating, breaking down all the aspects that influence creativity, and assembling them before the reader's eyes while she writes, like a detective ready to solve the scattered pieces of a investigation.
Essay and fiction go hand in hand in this exploration of the links between creativity and madness, and thus the reader will witness the creation process itself, discover the theory of "the perfect storm", that is, that in the creative explosion brings together a series of unrepeatable factors, chemical and situational, and will share the personal experience of how Rosa Montero lived directly, and for years, very close to madness.
The danger of being sane He talks about how "the fairies" give us a gift, and make us pay a price for it; We normal people do not pay that harsh price, but we run the risk of dying of boredom, instead of dying of love. "As in everything, the key is in the balance between the percentage of detachment and that of feeling, in achieving a certain harmony between the self that suffers and the self that controls," says the author herself.
About the author: Rosa Montero
Biography:
She was born into a humble family, the daughter of a banderillero and a housewife. From an early age, she demonstrated her inclination towards writing by composing her first novel at the age of five. In 1969, she entered the Complutense University of Madrid, then known as the University of Madrid. Initially, she enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters with the intention of studying psychology and, later, journalism.
During his university years, in 1970, at the age of 19, he began his career as a journalist, contributing to several news media, including Pueblo, Fotogramas and Posible. Despite his initial intention to study psychology, he abandoned these studies after four years to graduate from the Madrid School of Journalism.
Simultaneously, during his time at university, he participated in collaborations with independent theater groups such as Canon and Tábano, thus demonstrating his interest and participation in various artistic expressions.
In 1988, she married journalist Pablo Lizcano. Her personal life faced deep sadness when Lizcano passed away in 2009 after a prolonged illness. Throughout her career, this writer and journalist has left her mark not only in the field of communication, but also in the cultural and artistic scene., standing out for its dedication and versatility.
Publications and recognitions:
He has published the novels Crónica del desamor (1979), The Delta function (1981), I will treat you like a queen (1983), Amado Amo (1988), Temblor (1990), Bella y Oscura (1993), La hija del caníbal (1997, Primavera Novel Award), The Heart of Tartarus (2001), The Crazy Woman in the House (Alfaguara, 2003).
Qué Leer 2004 Award for the best book of the year, Grinzane Cavour Prize 2005 and Roman Primeur Prize 2006, France), History of the Transparent King (Alfaguara, 2005; Qué Leer Prize 2005 for best book of the year, and Mandarache Prize 2007), Instructions to save the world (Alfaguara, 2008; Prize of the Readers of the Festival of European Literatures of Cognac, France, 2011), Tears in the rain (2011), Tears in the rain. Comic (2011; Award for Best Comic 2011 at the Barcelona International Comic Fair), The Ridiculous Idea of Never Seeing You Again (2013; Madrid Critics Award 2014), The Weight of the Heart (2015), The Flesh ( Alfaguara, 2016), The Times of Hate (2018) and Good Luck (Alfaguara, 2020).
She has also published the book of stories Lovers and Enemies (Alfaguara, 1998; Círculo de Críticos de Chile Award 1999), and two biographical essays, Historias de mujeres -republished in an illustrated edition, revised and expanded with the title Nosotras. Stories of women and something else (Alfaguara, 2018) - and Passions (Alfaguara, 2000), as well as stories for children, compilations of interviews and articles and Write with Rosa Montero (Alfaguara, 2017).
Since the end of 1976 he has written in the newspaper El País, where she was editor-in-chief of the Sunday supplement during 1980-1981. In addition to those mentioned, she has been awarded the World Interview Award (1978), the National Journalism Award for reports and literary articles (1980), the Madrid Press Association Award for lifetime professional achievement (2005), the International Columnists of the World Award (2014), the National Award for Spanish Literature (2017), the Leyenda awards from the Association of Bookstores of Madrid and City of Alcalá de las Artes y las Letras (2019) and the Cedro Prize (2020).
Es Doctor Honorary by the University of Puerto Rico and his work is translated into more than twenty languages.
Analyzing the essay on “The danger of being sane”
Honor the madness
We could say that this book tries to value madness. This is not about romanticizing mental illnesses or entering a loop of magical or delusional thoughts that applaud mental disorders. Perhaps it is opening the way to a philosophical and scientific understanding of madness.
In his work, Montero examines questions about what madness is, what is normal and abnormal, and what relationships these conditions have with creativity.
About normality
The author remembers the concept of normal: From a statistical point of view, normal is what predominates in a population, the most frequent. What is not normal is that which is less frequent, also called rare. But the rare or infrequent is not necessarily the worst, defective or an error.
This is a common confusion in the general population and it is important to start by understanding the meaning of the language. Rare doesn't mean extravagant either.. The latter is an attribute that defines a certainly striking aspect of the person or their behavior, somewhat exaggerated or peculiar. The first, rare or not normal, is a purely quantitative term, referring to a quantity in a population: the least abundant or least frequent.
The creativity of crazy people and their manias
On the other hand, we have the concept of madness. Colloquially, crazy is understood as a person who suffers from mental disorders and has behavior that deviates from the normal or most frequent. And it is true. Then, crazy people are not very common in the population (or are they?) in statistical terms.
Human beings tend to discredit that which is out of the norm, that which is strange. Finding him different, he sees him as some kind of danger. This is where Rosa Montero intervenes in her essay where, in a pleasant way and with notes of humor, she tries to contemplate that crazy people may not be so crazy, and those who are, perhaps deserve a space in the world. We all remember great geniuses of humanity who have suffered from depression, phobias and other psychiatric disorders. and what would humanity be like without their great contributions. Basically “we have a lot to thank the crazy people of the world who have given us so much.”
Hence the author titles her essay “the danger of being sane”: a fully balanced and calm mind sometimes lacks those “special” neural pathways from which the most brilliant and creative ideas emerge. Putting it in the feminine (“rope”) is because the author herself already refers to herself – in a humorous tone – that “since I was little I was not very normal”. Note that:
- KafkaIn addition to chewing each bite 32 times, he did gymnastics naked with the window open in the middle of winter.
- Socrates He always wore the same clothes, walked barefoot and danced alone.
- Proust He went to bed one day and didn't come out again (and they did the same thing) Valle-Inclan y Juan Carlo Onetti).
- Agatha Christie I wrote in the bathtub.
- Rousseau He was a masochist and exhibitionist.
- Freud I was afraid of trains.
- Hitchcock I was afraid of eggs.
- Napoleon fear of cats.
- Vincent Van Gogh He suffered from depression and we all know about his famous ear cutting during an artistic crisis.
- Virginia Woolf He suffered from depression and some have suggested that he may also have suffered from bipolar disorder.
And the list could go on…