Is He A Genius?

I am reading Ronald W. Clarke's biography of Albert Einstein - "Einstein : Life And Times". I picked up the book in the local book shop for the simple reason that I loved the photograph of Eisntein on the cover :) It is premature to say anything else about the book at this juncture as I have just started it.

The only other biography I have read is "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia Nassar. I remember reading the book while preparing for Term Finals. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and took more (and longer) study breaks to read the same. The book, much to my great delight, did not shy away from Maths. Sylvia Nassar, a former economics writer for the New York Times, has sprinkled the book with very interesting Game Theory and Geometry concepts and ideas. There is a chapter on Nash's theorem on 'Manifolds'. She begins to explain what a Manifold is, in layman's terms, why it was a concept of interest to mathematicians and then explains Nash's Theorem. This scientifc technique of writing befits the biography of a mathematician. The book reflects the respect & awe Nassar feels for Nash (despite his obvious & many shortcomings) and the same transfered itself to me. The results of thorough and meticulous research have been presented in an exceedingly readable manner. No where does the book become boring or tedious.

Interestingly the book was made into a movie that won many Oscars. But I liked the book more than the movie. Considering the fact that the movie was biographical, it did not do full justice to John Nash. The motive of the movie seems to be inspirational or 'feel-good' - the story of a man who fights schizoprenia to win the Nobel for Economics. Nash, in the movie, is portrayed as a saint who is a cruel victim of fate. This is hardly true. In real life (according to the written biography) Nash could never suffer people less intelligent than himself, was addcited to drugs and was unfaithful to his wife. He had a son by a relationship before his marriage and he abandoned the woman. I agree that the fight against the deadly disease and his triumph over the same is what makes the man stand apart from other Nobel Laureates. Nevertheless, aspects of Nash's professional life have been ignored. Of course, this can be forgiven considering the fact, that for example, it is difficult to depict the Manifolds Theorem and Nash's thinking process visually. Nash's character on screen, lacks depth and does not stay faithful to the biography. It is a pity that the sensation of the movie has overshadowed the book and its obvious merits.

There is another genre of books called Biographical Novels. Many years ago, I read 'Lust for Life' by Irving Stone based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. The novel was good. But it had the same flaws as the movie 'The Beautiful Mind'. The author seemed to be apologising for the eccentricities of the great man.
A biography or a biographical novel should leave the reader with a sense of deep respect for the genius in the protogonist. One is interested in reading Vincent Van Goh's Life Story because he is a genius and not just any other man on the road.

The Moon and Sixpence by W.Somerset Maugham, is a great novel. Based on the life of the artist Paul Gauguin (Interestingly Van Goh and Gauguin were friends and he is one of the characters of 'Lust for Life'), the book describes the few encounters of the author with the artist and a few other incidetns to which the author was a witness. Gauguin seems almost inhuman in his ruthlessness & callousness and yet, one cannot deny the fact that he was a genius. Such is the effect of the book.

Now, Autobiography is an entirely different genre of books. But I'll harp about that some other day...
By the way, you can click on the image to read about the respective book.