David Wong
Only in the sense that society determines what is "creative" and who is "insane" and does it based on the same criteria: "Is this person doing or thinking things that a normal person wouldn't?" If the person is just a little different, then they are celebrated, an object of fascination. If the person is TOO different then they're broken and need cured.
Not that mental illness isn't a real thing - it is, and causes suffering that should be alleviated. But people with true illnesses go untreated all the time purely because the nature of their illness makes them fun and interesting to others and otherwise healthy people have been rejected from society in the past, and often institutionalized, because they were eccentric in a particular way that made people uncomfortable.
Creativity of all kinds requires a personality type that is either willing to reject cultural norms or just be unaware of them altogether. How people treat you depends on whether or not you land in that sweet spot of challenging what they think they know about the world, but in a way that doesn't really threaten them.
Not that mental illness isn't a real thing - it is, and causes suffering that should be alleviated. But people with true illnesses go untreated all the time purely because the nature of their illness makes them fun and interesting to others and otherwise healthy people have been rejected from society in the past, and often institutionalized, because they were eccentric in a particular way that made people uncomfortable.
Creativity of all kinds requires a personality type that is either willing to reject cultural norms or just be unaware of them altogether. How people treat you depends on whether or not you land in that sweet spot of challenging what they think they know about the world, but in a way that doesn't really threaten them.
More Answered Questions
Morgan Kane
asked
David Wong:
Whilst the JDatE movie was good, it was obviously limited by the fact it was, y'know, a movie. Have you ever considered a web series, etc. to get more details from the books in? And, on the subject of adaptations, can we ever expect a JDate or Futuristic Violence graphic novel/broadway musical/whatever?
Timothy Knutson
asked
David Wong:
You have written three of my all time favorite books, and I think a huge part of why I love them so much is the characters, both main and secondary. Even just the characters who tend to wander in for a chapter seem fleshed out and funny. I was wondering how much backstory you personally imagine for your characters that doesn't make it into the book? Do you know their whole lives as you write them?
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