Is Henry Darger eccentric?

Ok so the biggest conclusion about Henry Darger was found by an article which is our class assignment. I would like to attribute the source that I will copy the paragraph from but this is so true and it explains a lot about Henry's life:

"Schizotypal personality is a milder version of the clinical psychiatric condition called schizotypal personality disorder, which is among a cluster of personality disorders labeled "odd or eccentric" in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The schizotypal diagnosis grew out of large epidemiological studies in which researchers noticed that the relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia were more likely to exhibit odd behaviors and beliefs than relatives of those not afflicted with schizophrenia. Schizotypal people, for instance, may dress in an idiosyncratic style; their speech patterns may be somewhat out of the ordinary; they may respond ineptly in social situations; their emotional responses may be inappropriate; they may believe in supernatural phenomena such as telepathy and omens; and they may be hard to get close to -- both physically and emotionally. In short, schizotypal individuals are eccentric."
(Scientific American Mind; May/Jun2011, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p22-29, 8p)

Henry appears to have schizotypal personality. He has magical thinking which was able to motivate him to create a whole new world with so many unreal things. He has unusual perceptual experiences. His childhood was abused by a lot of people. It was rough and probably that is the reason why he wrote about children. Last but not least, he has mild paranoia. He snuggle himself into his own little world. No one knew about him or his work until he was gone. Henry possesses all the forms of schizotypal personality, and what it is was explained above. This symptom is one of the explanation for Henry Darger's behavior.

In fact, no one really cared about what he was doing. They kept thinking that he was weird and lonely and all. He never talked to anyone. If it was you, would you come and talk to some people like him? But when he died, luckily, the neighbor found his work. From that, the whole world would open their mouth with a great surprise. But that is just the later story. His life was poor. Everything was so gloomy. The real life was boring even his inner one was rich and exciting. All the circumstances must of had impacted on his behavior that some people might suppose it was mental disorder. However, it is actually not.

The big question about Henry Darger is: Is he really creative? YES HE IS. Sir and ma'am, the story happens in his writing has NOTHING to do with his real life. Well it does somehow but most likely that it is unreal. Then since the story is not like his real life, he must of created something new. That new thing is creativity. The ability to create such a huge story like "The realms of the unreal" is enormous. But also the time he spent to write it was not small at all either. And the way he made it long but not boring is an appearance of creativity. He had to come up with new ideas, new paintings, and new contents. Nothing was repeated identically. Then why are we questioning his creativity? He must care about his paintings so he drew them so perfectly. The proof is now all of his work is presented in a reputable museum in New York city. He is truly talented. 

I would doubt his mental health. However, his behavior did not seem to be crazy at all. He really only got that schizotypal personality. A lot of things have impacted on him to push him to the top of his ability, to create his world. I admire and appreciate that so much. Rest in peace Henry.

My first shitty draft - What is creativity?

Creativity legitimately is an outstanding perspective of life. Now a day, the trend of the people who keep their innovative positions in the society is getting bigger, and for a reason: they are creative. For example, you think of a new script for a fiction movie. Since the movie fiction, so it is not supposed to be real. Therefore, you need to think over the reality to have a good story and interest the audience. That is one situation when creativity is used.

Anyone can be creative but it depends on the level of thinking out of the box is. Encountering the idea of being able to come up with fresh ideas, being passive and conservative are the two negative adjective that people might be, which takes them away from creativity. No one could ever just sit still and suddenly explode with incredible thoughts. Nevertheless, always holding negative ideas in the head would not help people exploring new ideas. One example of how necessary for being creative is when you do a project in class and it requires your innovation. You cannot just give it up, think simple and never try to figure new ways to solve the problem. It would bring your grade down with poor thinking process, which in this case is non-creativity.

Creativity includes imagination. You tend to imagine things that do not exist. Last class of freshman seminar, the professor assigned each divided group in class three objects and asked them to think of how to survive with those tools. Even the tool might be the bird feeder but one group of student still thought of catching fireflies to have light at night. It is pretty creative even we think that it’s impossible to think of any usage for the bird feeder in order to survive in a wild island. Sometimes, imagination just makes your life more interesting, not only to survive like in the example.

Besides, innovation is a part of creativity. Steve Jobs is a typical paradigm of getting innovative ideas. He invented apple and so far, people still love his products. He created his own label and even now when he is dead, people still remember of him as a great inventor of all time. Think of something new might change the world. Or It would just change some individual’s life but in a positive way.

How to think creatively is not an easy question. There are a few methods proposed during these recent decades. Having listened to the TED talk about fashion, Johanna, who was presenting the talk, made some quiet good points of views. She stated that copying in fashion is not that bad. It, indeed, is a good idea to create new things. Some designers tend to always draw something too artistic and expensive so their products have only upper classmen can enjoy their works, not even buying. On the other hand, with some practical designers, they could copy those famous works and turn them into something utilitarian. What it means is to be practical. You catch the real need of the most consumers and provide them what they want. That definitely will help you make a lot of money. Basically, art is great, but money is more important, too. Therefore, in order to make a lot of money, you should be practical and creative. Think fast.

Another way to be creative is to find your inspiration. When you need to come up with something new, you should find something similar to it, and try to operate what is inside so you can understand the background of the problem better. The movie “The red violin” is about how a violin was made a few centuries ago has been traveling around the world. Based on the way the previous owners play the instruments, the later owners get progressive in using it. But the reason why the violin is loved and moved from people to people is because it is unique. It was painted by the blood of the inventor’s wife. The inventor puts all of his love and uses his wife’s death as his inspiration to create such an incredible instrument. Considering carefully, we can see that to be creative, most of the time motivation is needed till the end.

When you think creatively, you act more positively and efficiently. It trains you to think fast and be able to survive in some odd situations that you are never prepared before. You can make a stand out, a label for yourself that everyone will notice you because you have creativity and you think differently, more openly than the others.

It's humorous to watch John Cleese speaking :D

Creativity is not talent. According to Cleese’s, creativity is what happens in everyday life. You train yourself to be creative and it is not hard to be creative. In my perspective, creativity is when you are inspired by external factors of the environment where you live in or when you are pushed to be creative as doing an creative assignment in class. It is talent too. When you are able to think uniquely every time, everywhere; it means you have to have that inner quality inside of you.

First of all, thinking openly is one factor that helps you be creative. An open mode is a situation that a person is ready to take any idea that comes from the outside of their mind. The person is able to force herself to adjust her mind to think of something different. For example, there was one time that I came to the airport and got stuck there for hours. I did neither have a cellphone nor change to call from the phone booth because no one would exchange my bills to their coins. I was hopeless. But the more I felt desperate, the more I got stuck in this situation. Therefore, I forced myself to think more optimistically. I came to a strange old man and asked him for help. It happened that he agreed to let me use his cellphone so I could call my parents to pick me up. That should be one time that an open mode is used in my life.

There is also a true fact that when you are humorous and ready to make jokes, it makes you become more creative. Once again I take myself as an example. Apparently, every friend of mine says that I am crazy because I always joke around them. I laugh more than necessary and every time I feel happy, I feel hyper and it makes me think of doing things that other people do not dare to do. It is like a stimulation that pushes me to a top mood where I am able to be such a creative person. On the contrary, with a person that is always so serious, supposedly she or he would not even think outside of the box. The thoughts of that person will be stereotypical because they are always in one angry, cranky mood to think of something more positive. When it is not positive, there is no creativity.

As a matter of fact, I cannot force myself to be at a certain mood. However, I am able to do so when the external perspectives are stimulus enough to make me be in an exact expression. Hence, it is sure that creativity is not necessary talent but what you put yourself into in everyday life. You want yourself to think openly to create new things. It is good to be positive and open in order to be creative.  

Here is the link of the video!

What is creativity?

Creativity is what stands out of ordinary ideas. People tend to do the actions that they do not normally do. For example, you think of a new script for a fiction movie. Since the movie fiction, so it is not supposed to be real. Therefore, you need to think over the reality to have a good story and interest the audience. That is one situation when creativity is used.

Creativity also includes imagination. You tend to imagine things that do not exist. Last class of freshman seminar, the professor assigned each divided group in class three objects and asked them to think of how to survive with those tools. Even the tool might be the bird feeder but one group of student still thought of catching fireflies to have light at night. It is pretty creative even we think that it’s impossible to think of any usage for the bird feeder in order to survive in a wild island. Sometimes, imagination just makes your life more interesting, not only to survive like in the example.

Besides, innovation is a part of creativity. Steve Jobs is a typical paradigm of getting innovative ideas. He invented apple and so far, people still love his products. He created his own label and even now when he is dead, people still remember of him as a great inventor of all time. Think of something new might change the world. Or It would just change some individual’s life but in a positive way.

My friend took this for me on Halloween 2011

When you think creatively, you act more positively and efficiently. It trains you to think fast and be able to survive in some odd situations that you are never prepared before. You can make a stand out, a label for yourself that everyone will notice you because you have creativity and you think differently, more openly than the others.

A little introduction about me :)

Hello everyone,

First time using blogger here. And yeah you can totally click on my name to see my profile. BUT, I will shortly introduce myself to you.

Ehem, so my name is Annie. I am a freshman in college. I really enjoy my first few weeks here. I have made like wow, lots of friends. I walk around campus and cannot stop saying hi to people.

The food here is pretty good, which sucks. Why? Because I eat like munchie. I am about to be a freshman 15. If you don't know what it is, basically just think that I am gaining weights like a maniac eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I really hope I can develop something interesting here.Come and read often. I promise you will like my blog.

Peace.