posted January 23, 2010 01:57 PM         

http://www.sidis.net/TimeLife.htm

For William James Sidis, a fine mind—perhaps one of history's best—became a kind of deformity. Instead of following the expected meteoric career, the child prodigy opted for what seemed a life of mediocre obscurity that earned him the hatred of a disappointed public and press.

Born in 1898 and named for his father's mentor and colleague, psychologist-philosopher William James, Sidis began his rise to fame at the age of four, when he could use a typewriter to produce both English and French. By five, he could speak five languages and read Plato in the original Greek. Learning a new language was the work of a day for the young genius.

The impetus for this extraordinary development was his father, Boris Sidis, a Russian-born psychiatrist then teaching at Harvard. The elder Sidis was convinced that geniuses are made the way twigs are bent, and he showed off his son to the world as proof of his theory. But young Sidis's mind was naturally spectacular: One psychometrician later estimated his IQ at between 250 and 300.

Under his father's unrelenting tutelage and the glare of publicity (stories about him would appear on the first page of the New York Times nineteen times), Sidis finished his first year of high school and applied for admission to Harvard at the age of nine. Although he passed the entrance examinations, he was rejected on the ground that he was too immature emotionally for college life. Admitted as Harvard's youngest scholar when he was eleven, he amazed his elders with a lecture on the fourth dimension that was beyond the grasp of many professors.

Brilliant as he was, however, Sidis appeared to be out of his depth at Harvard socially and emotionally. Many of his classmates regarded him as eccentric and reclusive. Sidis nevertheless graduated *** laude in 1914, at sixteen. "I want to live the perfect life," he told reporters at the time. "The only way to live the perfect life is to live it in seclusion." His remarks were prophetic.

He taught briefly at Houston's Rice Institute, then entered Harvard Law School. Increasingly radical politically, he left school in 1918 just before graduating. Then, as a conscientious objector and budding Marxist, he was arrested during a May Day riot in Boston and narrowly saved from jail by his parents. But the incident apparently jarred him, for from then on, he seemed to drop out of the intellectual race he had run all his life. Sidis took a series of undemanding jobs, apparently discarding all challenging pursuits. He did write one book about a hobby that became a passion: Notes on the Collection of Streetcar Transfers. He even coined a word for such collectors, peridromophiles.

The press took to attacking the one-time boy wonder as a burnout who had been too smart too soon. A James Thurber article in the New Yorker in 1937 ridiculed him so savagely that Sidis sued for libel, finally winning a small out-of-court settlement. Editorials accused him of betraying the public's expectations. But, although Sidis went his own way, he never really abandoned the inner life of the mind. Instead, as one writer put it, Sidis merely took his intelligence underground.

Three decades after Sidis's death in 1944 of a brain hemorrhage, a Columbia University psychology student by the name of Dan Mahony began probing the lost years of Sidis's life. After much rummaging in dusty attics, Mahony found that Sidis had in fact filled those seemingly empty years with mental activity. He had many friends, whom he amazed with such feats as doing a New York Times crossword puzzle entirely from memory after quickly reading the clues. He could translate some forty languages, and he wrote prodigiously. There were manuscripts for two books and evidence of two more, as well as eighty-nine newspaper columns written under a pen name. His sister, Helena, thought that there must be a dozen more manuscripts, including one book about the lost continent of Atlantis and a science fiction novel. One of the surviving books, The Animate and the Inanimate, published in 1925, put forward a number of precocious theories of the universe, including a description of the cosmic phenomena now called black holes—collapsed stars so dense that their powerful gravity prevents even the escape of light.

Another book, a 1,200-page tome called The Tribes and the States, argued from persuasive evidence that the political system of New England was profoundly influenced by the democratic federation of its Indian tribes. Sidis's search for seclusion, some scholars now believe, came from his having adopted the teachings of the Okamakammessetts, a Massachusetts tribe that taught a principle of anonymous contribution to society.

But the legacy of the man once called "the most remarkable youth in the world" was a general sense that neurotic failure was the inescapable fate of child prodigies. In fact, by jeering at his differences, the world had silenced one of its finest minds.

posted January 23, 2010 02:00 PM         

At the age of 5, William Sidis could speak five languages and read Plato in the original Greek. At the age of 8, he passed the entrance exam into Harvard but had to wait three years to be admitted, whiling away the time by taking mathematics courses at Tufts. In 1909, at age 11, he was finally admitted as Harvard's youngest scholar, and graduated *** laude at the age of 16. But when he died 30 years later, Time magazine ran a full-page obituary of Sidis that called him "a prodigious failure," and for all his adult life he was hounded by a media that called him "a burnt-out genius."

Nearly four decades later, an Ipswich man, Dan Mahony, has found the most conclusive evidence to date that William Sidis was not as the press portrayed him. In a battered suitcase in a Brookline attic, Mahony uncovered a manuscript that he says "should revolutionize New England history."

Sidis wrote a 600-page manuscript that talks mainly about "what is missing from New England history: an account of what was already here when the White Man got here," according to Mahony.

What was here in New England was a federation of 200,000 Indians. Sidis says that not only were they here, but that they were an important influence, and that "the characteristics of the various parts or the country (can be) treated as directly traceable to the varying characteristics and customs of the early tribes of the same regions."

A Classless Society

In contrast to many other Indian cultures, among the dozen tribes that made up the local Penacook federation "there was nothing known which could remotely correspond to, or give any inkling of, any division of caste, class, or rank¯probably the only completely democratic governments that ever existed in the history of the world." This was a true democracy and equality which might well prepare their country (now known as New England) for being, "at all times down to the present, the cradle of the spirit or liberty," wrote Sidis. What he calls Sidis' "Continuity Theory" has been "transforming my life," according to Mahony. But if what he found in the manuscript was startling, his search for it came from the feeling that "no matter what the press said, Sidis was a man that had changed minds, would change minds, with the force or his intellect."

"I guess I'm what you could call a Sidis enthusiast," he says, grinning broadly. His search for Sidis' work goes back seven years to when Mahony had a research grant in child development from Columbia University. In the card catalogue, he found 17 books by a Harvard physician named Boris Sidis. "He was the first one in this country to advocate strong pre-school education and he believed the ages of two to five were crucial, almost a heresy back around the turn of the century when he wrote."

By chance, Mahony came across a mention of Boris Sidis' son in The New York Times. When he followed it up, he found "an astonishing amount of material. There were more than 150 articles on William Sidis. He was in 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' many times. He made the front page of The New York Times 19 times."

'Boy Wonder'

There were basically two kinds of articles. As a child, William Sidis made good copy as a Boy Wonder. "Reporters used to go in teams to corner him on his way back and forth to school: Some would grab him while others got his picture." But when he graduated from Harvard, there was a change in the media coverage. "The New York Times ran a piece saying it would be interesting to see if Sidis lived up to his early promise, or 'whether he would go the way of so many like him.'"

From then on, everything Sidis did seemed to confirm the media's gloomy expectations of him. Sidis took a series of low-paying jobs, and with each one, the press was on the scene to report his "failure." When he published a book on trolley-car transfers, a hobby he named "peridromophilly," he was ridiculed as trivial-minded. When he died of a brain hemorrhage at 46, public opinion seemed unanimous: He was a washout.

"But the more I read about him, the more I felt something was missing," says Mahony. "I finally realized it was Sidis himself who was missing. What was he thinking all this time? What was he doing when he wasn't at his part-time jobs?" To Mahony, reports like the one in the Times that Sidis was earning $23 a week as a clerk in 1924 did not mean much: "Einstein did his best work while he was working at a routine job in a patent office. The great poet Wallace Stevens worked for an insurance company. The question to me was, what was he doing with the rest of his time?"

Undiscovered Manuscripts

Then, in a book by Abraham Sperling titled "Psychology for the Millions," Mahony found what he was looking for. In a chapter on Sidis, Sperling said that Sidis was not a burnt-out genius, but a great thinker, and that he himself had seen a dozen manuscripts in a trunk that Sidis had written.

By this time, Mahony had found out more about Sidis, accomplishments: He'd perfected the perpetual calendar, taught study groups on the Okamakammesset Indians, and had a book called "The Animate and the Inanimate" privately printed; a theory of the universe that predicted black holes 30 years before they were discovered. Under a pseudonym, he even wrote a weekly column called "Meet Boston," containing little-known facts about the city.

When he searched out people who had known Sidis before he died in 1944, Mahony found "they all remembered the same man¯not the media's 'failure,' but a brilliant man with a natural dignity, actively studying and writing until the end of his life." When Mahony met Sidis' sister, Helena, she knew about the trunk Sperling had mentioned in his book. But when they tracked it down, it was empty.

Months later, following a lead from Helena Sidis, Mahony found "The Tribes and the States" in a distant cousin's attic. In 1981, Mahony turned the copyright over to the Wampanoag Nation, although Helena Sidis retains royalties of authorship. A shortened version will be published later this year by Penacook Press of Scituate.

Iroquois Ideas

According to Sidis, white men in New England picked up politics from the Penacook Federation in the same way the Penacooks had learned from their neighbors, the Iroquois. Five separate Iroquois tribes banded together to attempt "a permanent peace conference." Sidis says, "It is the Iroquois Federation that started all this train of ideas¯federation of nations, disarmament of borders, written constitutions (wampums), limitations of the powers of government¯in short, it was this which laid the foundation for most of the modem advances in the art of government." So successful was this political union that the New England Indians had to band together as protection from the combined strength of the more aggressive Iroquois, But while the Iroquois Federation had drawn together the separate councils of the five nations, "the Penacook federal council was an independent body composed of representatives selected by the members of the tribes, both men and women voting, and both men and women being eligible to the council, without regard to heredity¯the first time such a form of federation had ever been attempted anywhere in the world." One of the tribes, the Penacook, gave its name to the entire federation, which also included the Wampanoags of Cape Cod, the Saugus and Agawam from the North Shore, the Naumkeag from Salem, and seven other tribes. Collectively, they were known as The Pine Tree People.

"The emblem of the Penacook Federation was the Pine Tree, the totem which was sacred to the Penacook people, and which represented and symbolized the federation. This emblem, in later American history, reappears repeatedly in the Penacook country as denoting liberty," according to Sidis.

Pine Tree Symbolism

Dan Mahony points out that the Massachusetts Bay Colony flag shows two pine trees and an Indian. The flag flown at Bunker Hill was a pine tree flag, as was the first U. S. Navy flag. For many years the Massachusetts state flag had a pine tree on the back of it.

Within the federation, the council of the Pine Tree people controlled the dams built as fishing weirs which later supplied the power for New England's mill towns. They were also overseers for what Sidis calls "the system of public and neutral couriers" along regular routes. The couriers were used by the white men, even in times of war with the Indians because of their neutrality, and the routes became roads like the local Route 1A, one of the first paved roads in the Western hemisphere.

Sidis also says that the New England Indians of each town also met not merely to keep check on their representatives, but to settle important public questions directly, and over the representatives' heads; this furnished a prototype for the 'town meeting' which was and still is the chief form of local government among the white settlers in the same part of America." As the capital of the Saugus nation, Agawam, which later became Ipswich, must have been the site of many such meetings.

Sidis knew he was presenting many things which "will doubtless be difficult for the average reader to swallow." But he offers them openly, honestly: "But let us also hope that the new point of view will make the reader 'think it over'¯that it will excite his interest, and make him reconsider much that he has taken for granted about his country."

Says Mahony, "I think you can admire the resourcefulness and adaptability of the first settlers more in " Sidis' version than you can in some glossy picture book that pretends the white man always bad it all together."

Founding of Plymouth

In fact, says Sidis, the Pilgrims were equipped with a map from "The Plymouth Company. . . printed in a style similar to the modern 'sucker' real estate literature, showing a town every few miles along the coast, all named after English communities." The towns never materialized, except for "Plymouth," which the settlers themselves founded. And an agreement was drawn up "whereby all the passengers on the ship agreed to abide by whatever government should be established among them as soon as they should settle down. This 'Mayflower Compact,' as it is commonly called, is generally given as one of the original instances of a democratically written constitution; but it was actually hardly more than a recorded oath of allegiance to the future rulers of the colony."

But the first ruler they chose didn't last out the rough winter. And the next they chose in the Spring, John Carver, had no experience with government, "So the church had to handle the government of the colony for the time being. . . but it was reorganized and democratized under Wampanoag influence."

If that first winter was hard on the Pilgrims, it was harder on the Indians, who were not immune to the white men's diseases. Sidis estimates that of over 200,000 Indians in the Penacook Federation, fewer than 50,000 survived that first winter.

According to John Grimes, curator at Salem 's Peabody Museum, lndians are not usually considered as an influence in New England because "so many of them were wiped out so quickly by diseases, and the ones that were left became scattered."

What seems surprising is that the Indians who were left were friendly to the white men despite the many deaths. Dan Mahony points to early deeds and treaties as evidence or the New England Indians' interest in democratic government among the white men.

"Here is a copy of the Penacook deed for Rockingham County," he says, producing an ornate document. "It specifies that all allotments be granted 'by vote of a major part of the inhabitants.' The word 'lot' is said to have originated with the Indian leader Massasoit who, when asked by the English about how to apportion the land they'd been given, recommended that they draw lots to be fair"

Absorption of Values

Mahony interprets Sidis "not as saying the white men deliberately copied the red, but as saying there was an absorption of the values around them. Sidis is showing that the American political system is a blend of two influences, the European. with an emphasis on hierarchy and property, and the New England Indian culture, which was one of great political insight and democratization. It 's only been in the '80s with books like Howard Russell's 'Indian New England Before the Mayflower,' that we're beginning to realize politics was an art form to New England Indians."

Sidis even claims that the members of the Penacook Federation in what is now Middlesex County, the Okamakammessets, although nearly extinct by the time of the American Revolution, passed on many of their principles to the Sons or Liberty, including their idea of "leaderless rebellions," and their preference for tactics that did not involve loss of life. Typical of several early skirmishes was "The Boston Tea Party." The identity of of the white men was a well-kept secret, but they were dressed as Mohawks, enemies of the Penacooks, in a dig at the British, who were their allies. Sidis surmises that the regalia may "have come from the supply captured by some Penacook tribe during the last war."

The legacy of the Indians lives on in sometimes strange ways in the names of places and things all around us. The tribe that Sidis claims was influential in the early days of the Revolution, the Okamakammessetts, supplied the name for a fire engine in Marlborough. When the fire engine was bought by the town of Marblehead in 1800, the firemen thought it might be bad luck to change the name, like changing the name of a ship. There is still a group of "Okoes" in Marblehead who look after the old hand-drawn pump fire engine and take it out on parade.

A Private Man

But if Indian names are a reminder of the Indians who once lived here, another example of Penacook influence might be the life of William Sidis himself, who, according to Mahony, came to absorb many of their values as he studied them. "One of the reasons Sidis didn't take issue with the press was that he came to value his independence, his privacy, above all else," Mahony says. "He didn't care if he was ridiculed for his plain lifestyle, for not earning more money. Many white men treated the Indians with contempt for living simply. The Penacooks genuinely did not understand the white man's idea of 'owning' property and this was really exploited,"

Sidis also learned a lot about detachment and tolerance from the Indians, according to Mahony, "The Indians came up with the idea of incorporating dissent within a system The Indian enlightenment was eclecticism: include everything. Accept all the tribes in a federation, have respect for each other's ways."

As proof, Mahony cites the record of an interview with Masconomet, sagamore of Agawam (Ipswich), who is buried in Hamilton Cemetery. Asked by white questioners in 1644, "1st. Will you worship the only true God, who made heaven and earth, and not blaspheme?" Masconomet replied, "We do desire to reverence the God of the English and to speak well of Him, because we see He doth better to the English, than other gods do to others." Asked, "Will you allow your children to learn to read the word of God?" he replied, "We will allow this as opportunity will permit, and, as the English live among us, we desire so to do."

Like Passaconaway, the chief of the Penacook Federation, Masconomet seems to have agreed to all the English asked of him, not under threat of force, but with a gentle reasonableness.

Tolerance of Dissent

Even conservative history books record the influence of Massasoit on Roger Williams, a friendship which may have led to Williams' ejection from his colony for what Sidis calls "the heresy of freedom of belief in religious tolerance." Massasoit gave land to Williams and to another dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, to found what are now Providence and Newport.

"The Indians never thought controversy was bad. They had a great tolerance for dissent, for beliefs that were different from their own, Sidis really identified with this. People who knew him said he would never argue with anyone who disagreed with him. He automatically accepted their right to think differently about things. He calls 'The Tribes and the States' "an interesting alternative version of history," saying he hopes 'the truth will move you,' but that "I attempt to explain rather than advocate,'" according to Mahony.

It was typical of Sidis, Mahony says, not to quote sources in his manuscript other than the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier (an Amesbury resident) and that or the Okamakammessetts, but Mahony has found some clues about other sources: "We know, for instance, that Sidis himself spoke 32 Algonquin languages, those of the Penacooks. He also read virtually every known early newspaper. And we have the testimony of friends that Sidis could read wampum belts. Sidis talks about these as important 'written' records, but he never says that he could read them. That's typical of Sidis, who would hate to be treated as an authority on anything."

Mahony bears out Sidis' Continuity Theory of people absorbing the characteristics of others they become involved with. Reluctant to have his photo taken or reveal much about himself, he asked. "Do I have to be in this at all? Shouldn't this just be about Sidis?" Like Sidis, he supports his research by taking diverse part-time jobs: He works half a week with alcoholic derelicts In Boston, something he began to do on the Bowery when he was in graduate school in New York.

He gives computer lessons, specializing in working with children, and is currently tutoring several handicapped children on the computer.

"This might be a very good time to reconsider the legacy of the local Indians," Mahony says. "We might learn some things from them that could really help us now."

posted January 23, 2010 02:07 PM         

The promotion of the individual rights of the people of America necessarily involves resistance to war in any form, as war inevitably must destroy those rights and clamp additional governmental rule down upon the people... only those who resist war to the utmost, and with their last breath and last ounce of energy, can be considered as truly fighting to save this country for democracy.

~ William James Sidis

When I think of America again,
Of what it could be, or was meant to be,
I shall see Sidis, with the light upon His face,
the light of genius, that made him more
An angel than a man. He was no failure.
You could roll Harvard, its professors and
Its learning into one. He could have taught
That one. The proof? Not one in Harvard knew
Enough to honor him...

~ Mrs. Nathan Sharman,
"Lament for Bill Sidis" (1944)

posted January 23, 2010 03:30 PM         

great site!

Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted January 24, 2010 02:27 PM         

raymond and LEXX

shura,

"supposed to" ??

I'm not sure what makes you sad,
but I can see a number of reasons
for feeling sadness, or anger, or fear,
or sympathy, or empathy, or curiousity,
or respect, or any number of things.

posted January 25, 2010 08:56 AM         

quote:

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maybe its just my pregnancy hormones, but i feel so sad and i cried reading all this.

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posted January 25, 2010 12:58 PM         

quote:

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"One of the reasons Sidis didn't take issue with the press was that he came to value his independence, his privacy, above all else," Mahony says. "He didn't care if he was ridiculed for his plain lifestyle, for not earning more money. Many white men treated the Indians with contempt for living simply. The Penacooks genuinely did not understand the white man's idea of 'owning' property and this was really exploited,"

---

This must have been a concept he adopted after the settlement from the Thurber article. I'm curious which parts are false and malicious, I didn't think it was defamatory, but I don't know what is truth in it and what is not. It seemed more of a summary of his life than a slanderous article.

Again, he lived his life the way he wanted to by working small jobs so he could concentrate his efforts on the things that interested him. His writings reflect that his studies were for his own purpose, not for anyone else's expectations. Good for him that he lived simply and made no real complaints about it.

I also find this very interesting and humble about Mr. Sidis:

quote:

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People who knew him said he would never argue with anyone who disagreed with him. He automatically accepted their right to think differently about things.

---

I strive for a similar attitude, and am intrigued by the values he in a way "adopted" from the Native Americans he studied.

On a side note, it's ironic that he died from a brain hemorrhage. It seems his "brain" plagued him all his life in some form or another.

P.S. I didn't know that the word *** (e) would not post? ... Kinda made me chuckle.

posted January 29, 2010 12:59 PM         

shura,
As ghanima pointed out, it's somewhat difficult to separate fact from fiction in this case. I agree that the early years are profoundly formative, and I think it's good that Sidis senior adopted this view and publicized it at a time when it was so contraversial. However, it does appear that he may have taken his theories too far in practice. Again, though, it's not easy to know the facts. It's clear only that, while "Sidis The Younger" rather dramatically shunned many of the things his father tried to instill in him, he yet retained a lifelong passion for learning; -- perhaps only the result of his "intellectual blood", and not breeding, -- but who can say for certain? The real tragedy, to me, is his treatment by the press. While the father ought to have sheilded his son from extensive media attention, and certainly scrutiny, it is understandable to me that he would experiment with his son and wish to publicize the apparently successful progress of his little experiment. The problem is that experiments should be scrutinized, while children should not be.

ghani,

Hey. I appreciate your thoughtful response to this thread. It is difficult to say whether Sidis' sensitivity was primarily inborn, or whether it was primarily a result of his upbringing, or his treatment by the public and the press. It seems likely to me that all three contributed strongly to his alienation, and that each factor, perhaps, had a hand in antagonizing the other two.

quote:

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This must have been a concept he adopted after the settlement from the Thurber article.

---

Sidis had a lot of fire in his chart:
http://www.astrotheme.com/portraits/33e9W8W8Rs7p.htm

Perhaps he only pretended to be "above it". This is a common enough manifestation of the shadow side of fire, and, in particular, the Leo Moon. Incidentally, I know you have a Leo Moon and I hope you'll trust me when I assure you that I'm not saying this to suggest a dig at you. I've never judged you guilty of this crime, or diagnosed you with this affliction, or "caught you" exhibiting this infirmity. I say it only because it is an observation, unrelated to you, which may or may not be the case with Sidis. In any case, don't we often profess ideals, even feelings, which we would like to have, and which we try to live up to, but all fall short of, particularly, when things get deeply and intensely personal?

quote:

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I'm curious which parts are false and malicious, I didn't think it was defamatory, but I don't know what is truth in it and what is not. It seemed more of a summary of his life than a slanderous article.

---

It's clear to me that Thurber's article expressed, not merely "a summary of the facts", but, a strong bias against the man, his politics, and ideas. Facts do not need to be twisted, in order to give a twisted intepretation of them, and it matters a great deal which facts you tell, which ones you omit, and which you emphasize. If your expectations for a man run down a path which he was never meant even to walk, certain facts will seem noteworthy and incriminating to you, which are not so. The language Thurber uses to portray the facts he uses shows Sidis in a most hideous light. Perhaps it only appears this way to me because I am largely in sympathy with Sidis' views and lifestyle, while you may not be, or may be less so; in which case, what I intepret as the author's bias would seem to you "a summary". While I do not necessarily agree that the article is slanderous, or libel, I do think it is unjust; which is to say, while I am not convinced that legal action was the best response, I am convinced that Thurber lacked the compassion to deal fairly with his subject; if he did not transgress the laws of men, at least, he acted against the heart.

quote:

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Again, he lived his life the way he wanted to by working small jobs so he could concentrate his efforts on the things that interested him. His writings reflect that his studies were for his own purpose, not for anyone else's expectations. Good for him that he lived simply and made no real complaints about it.

---

I wouldn't say he made no real complaints about it. The accounts I read reported that he spoke frequently and heatedly about his mistreatment in the press, and by the people he worked with and for. He flew into a rage when someone asked about his childhood and life choices. He obviously resented the attention and wished to remain anonymous. While he refused to buckle, and always went his own way, he was continually hampered by those expectations. He'd quit jobs as soon as the people there learned of his identity and began asking questions. Right there, you have an instance of Sidis apparently "going his own way", but, only because other roads had been (unfairly, he thought) blocked off to him.

quote:

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I also find this very interesting and humble about Mr. Sidis:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People who knew him said he would never argue with anyone who disagreed with him. He automatically accepted their right to think differently about things.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I strive for a similar attitude, and am intrigued by the values he in a way "adopted" from the Native Americans he studied.

---

I thought that was interesting, too. He chose to disagree and "argue" for his positions in his work, rather than his personal life, and I'm not sure whether to admire that or not. It is possible to respect another person's right to think (and feel) differently, while still endeavoring to express your perspective, to present it in the best light, clearly and thoroughly, and to desire to persuade others of it's reasonableness (of which you have been persuaded). I think it depends on which path a person is predisposed to take, whether and when they work in secret or in the open, modestly or ambitiously, etc. For a man like Sidis, one might suggest that modesty was unbecoming, and that he may have acquired more attention, awareness, and respect for his theories and discoveries, had he been more inclined to stand his ground in the public arena. It may be that he did not care enough for his work, or believe enough in his work, for it to become, for him, a cause; something worth fighting for. On the other hand, he may have worked in the only way which permitted him to work; in solitude. Another possibility is that he may have been confident enough in his work not to fight for it. He may have believed that it would be discovered one day, just as it has been, and that it would defend itself, at least, against anyone capable of perceiving its merits. For my part, while I appreciate a polite and gently ironic tone, my tastes run more often to the work of those who spoke with Olympian passion, force, and whose pride in their genius and their purpose did not permit them to shrink from razor-sharp sarcasm or firey, sermonizing invective. There is a time to be meek, and maybe there is even a time to wait for listeners who never come so close as to hear you, or hear you out. But there is also a time to mount the pedestal, to shout as far as the voice can carry, and to rally troops to a noble cause. Again, it depends on the path for which you are suited, and to which you are called.

quote:

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On a side note, it's ironic that he died from a brain hemorrhage. It seems his "brain" plagued him all his life in some form or another.

---

It is ironic in the sense that this organ which had served him so well, and been the source of so much that was good, ultimately brought about his end. But it is also perfectly understandable. Is it ironic, when a saint is martyred for the Christlike heart that beats in his breast? I suppose. But it is also exactly what Christ said would happen. Go figure. I don't know about you, but I've read interpretations of more than a dozen factors in my own chart (including certain aspects, sign and house placements of planets, sign/house cusp pairings, etc.) which mention, often in the same breath, kinetic mental activity and the possiblity of mental collapse. The curse attends the gift. Ironic, but just as natural, and just as predictable, as dirt.

quote:

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Thanks for introducing this gentleman, Valus.

---

You're welcome, Ghani.

posted January 29, 2010 01:55 PM         

it doesn't seem surprising to me...... many geniouses are very eclectic....and prefer isolation. some even require it.

and what exactly does one do with an exceptionally talented or genious child, who performs genious? i see 4 year olds paintings in gu and no one thinks or mentioned that kid is exploited. i mean what do you do? it is so exceptional. perhaps his choice of isolation was what had to be.

excellent biography, i had never heard of this gentleman. thanks valus.

posted January 29, 2010 02:12 PM         

you're welcome,
i'm glad you found it interesting, too

i agree with your point. one has to wonder if the development of such children can even be encouraged, or if it is self-encouraging, as that seems to be the nature of genius. it might be abuse to discourage the child's enthusiasm and rapid assimilation of information. and i see nothing wrong with his isolation. many great minds have written many great words in favor of, and in the context of, isolation.

P.S. --

eclectic
means "characterized by variety"
someone with eclectic tastes would decorate
their house, or their mind, with stuff that,
to another, might appear lacking in continuity

i think you mean eccentric

posted January 29, 2010 04:07 PM         

My pointing that out about him was to illustrate that point. He appears to have learned a custom from another culture that allowed him to not think as much on the negativity thrown his way by the press. I believe in his youth, still recovering from the realization that he did not choose to live the way that was expected of him, he would have been hurt and offended by the article by Thurber and others written about him. We always seem to be the most affected when something comes close to the truth that we wish to deny or correct about ourselves. I think as he aged, he discovered that this didn't matter. The only opinion that mattered or should is his own. You can't please all the people all the time, or some of the people some of the time, or any of the people any of the time... You can merely follow what it is within yourself that keeps you breathing and hope that you are allowed that right, but know against opposition or odds, you are doing right by yourself.

As far as the bias goes, if you honestly read it without a pre-concieved notion of what the author's intentions may be, you may not see it as a man being painted in a hideous light. Granted, this article is VERY old, and the language used is more simple and less inflammatory than the types of articles we read today about celebrities. And I did not say "summary of facts , I said a summary of his life. I believe this author was working from previous press releases and writings about Mr. Sidis as a background. Those could have been slanted a certain way first of all, but I could not really see that it was written with ill intent. I believe Thurber liked Sidis and was fascinated by his character. Maybe I'm missing something, but I do have a colder Aquarian side that can ofen miss subtle nuances that can be interpreted by those more vibratory as biased. I don't know that Thurber was out to write the same kind of article that you would want to read. Maybe somebody should have, maybe he wouldn't let them. If he had granted a true interview with somebody that was TRYING to paint him as a kind of anti-hero, perhaps this would be a totally different conversation. And perhaps as he aged, he hoped to be misunderstood. Like you said, perhaps he believed his work would eventually speak for him, which it has. I found humor and a little foreshadowing in the comment "I was born on April Fools day." As though to suggest (in my ignorant interpretation) his naysayers are the fools and he knew all along how it would play out.. Who knows, maybe he did?

posted January 29, 2010 04:41 PM         

quote:

---

still recovering from the realization that he did not choose to live the way that was expected of him,

---

LOL! What the f-ck?!
I wouldn't put it that way.

quote:

---

he would have been hurt and offended by the article by Thurber and others written about him. We always seem to be the most affected when something comes close to the truth that we wish to deny or correct about ourselves.

---

Indeed. Which is why it is cruel to hold someone up to public scrutiny in that way who has comitted no crime. The issue isnt whether or not it is the truth, but, whether or not you have a right to expose it in the way you are doing. I don't think Thurber had that right. If Sidis wanted therapy, he could go to therapy. He was a private man who hurt nobody. He didnt need his issues psychoanalyzed and published in the news.

quote:

---

I think as he aged, he discovered that this didn't matter. The only opinion that mattered or should is his own. You can't please all the people all the time, or some of the people some of the time, or any of the people any of the time... You can merely follow what it is within yourself that keeps you breathing and hope that you are allowed that right, but know against opposition or odds, you are doing right by yourself.

---

Spoken like a true Aries Rising.

I may be paranoid, but it seems like some of your words, especially in the third paragraph, are directed at me, personally, and not in a very positive way. You seem to be playing that game again, where we try to imagine what despicable motives could possibly be at the root of someone else's disagreement with ourselves. I'm not trying to see him as an antihero, btw; "a central character in a narative who lacks the qualities traditionally associated with heroism". He lacks and also exhibits a number of typically heroic qualities.

Whatever his issues were, I see it as cruel and unnecessary to expose them. Everyone has sensitive stuff and everyone would like to keep it private, even those of us who are not especially reclusive. Would you like the details of your life -- including the ones most likely to be scoffed at by the public -- exposed in a national periodical by a celebrated writer? Do you suppose your stoical disregard for the opinions of others would kick in when you need it? Maybe it would. And thank your lucky stars for that -- thank your masculine Sun, Moon, Mars, and Ascendant for that. I dont recall the sign placements of your other planets -- are any of them feminine? How about the house placements? Maybe you can't understand why I vibrate to the bias, or however you put it. That's okay. You understand what it is your business to understand, and I understand what it is my business to understand. Speaking unabashedly on behalf of my most watery tendencies, I can't help but feel sympathy with Sidis, and his privacy, and disgust with Thurber, and his expose. But that's me.

posted January 29, 2010 05:00 PM         

It's not about that.

It's about heart.

posted January 29, 2010 05:12 PM         

I say, if he was recovering,
it was from the burden which society
had placed on him.

Incidentally,
the Thurber article came fairly late
(after he'd been recovering for a while),
and reopened those old wounds.

posted January 29, 2010 06:34 PM         

I find his studies and philosopies of interest, and although it is sad the way things were for him because of society, I don't think that stopped him from accomlishing what he wanted on his terms.

I don't need a reminder of my chart to know that I don't look at things from an emotional level at all times. If I did, I couldn't bear it. You have said it yourself, I am very Cancerian in nature on a whole.