A Beautiful Mind....

[fajrdrako]

I finished A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar today - a biography of the mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., who suffered severe mental illness. An interesting book; I found the material about Nash's genius more interesting than the parts about his schizophrenia. Not that I'm not interested in schizophrenia, but Nasar didn't deal deeply with the disease or his mental processes. She seemed to wonder whether his condition really was paranoid schizophrenia, and I didn't understand her reasons for doubting it. If not that, what?

The section where Nash received the Nobel Prize was the only part where I really liked him.

I kept wondering what the movie is like, and how it compares to the book.

Comments

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

I've never read the book. I understand the movie pretties up Nash's life in some ways, and that there are people who found this annoying. I can sympathize, but I had to respect the movie because it does something no film I've ever seen about mental illness has succeeded in doing. I'm tempted to say more, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

While I haven't seen the movie, but I'm beginning to think I'd like to. Movies don't usually treat biographies or history very accurately: their purpose is different. So I'm willing to cut it some slack on principle.

My impression from the book: Nash wasn't particularly saintly, and in many ways his ego was as large as his genius. He was a math geek and laked social skills even before the mental illness came upon him. The author of the book and Nash's mathematical colleagues all seem to have believed that his amazing abilities and his medical connection were interrelated, even if just becuase it was all one brain that was doing the thinking - and there was much fear that treatment, though it might restore his mental health, might also make him less of a mathematician.

Your comment about the movie is very intriguing!

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

Well, if you do see it, and would like to discuss, I'd be happy to. I found the DVD commentary version fascinating. Also, I had an opportunity to speak with the screenwriter, and found him both interesting and committed to his craft. He wrote the script for a superhero movie before doing A Beautiful Mind -- one of the Batmans, I think -- and is as comfortable with genre (graphic novels, etc.) as with "serious" art, which may help to explain how he could approach this from a new perspective.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I will certainly let you know when I've seen the movie. It's moved up on my 'prioty' ratings.

Interesting about the screenwriter - though if he did any of the Batman scripts, I am not necessarily impressed; I thought they were generally poor. (How much of that was the screenwriter's responsibility, of course, is unclear; and I am picky when it comes to interpretations of Batman.)