Name one good writer who didn't suffer from a mental illness or a disease

I never implied it didn't, you dumb fuck.
It still doesn't render what I said incorrect.

You ARE NOT a tortured genius. Do you understand?
You are a fucking moron who has been duped by romanticised versions of history, and the promotion of the notion that mental illness and creativity/genius are somehow linked. (They may well be in certain cases, but it certainly isn't the rule)

>"True art"
Hahahahahahahahaaahaahhahaahhaa

this user is right. they are linked in cases, but they are exceptions.

you know what makes a good artist 9 times out of 10? dedication to your craft and a whole lot of work.

the romantic aspects of the "tortured genius" will always strike a note with younger guys, because it accords well with their youthful notions of themselves and the injustice that they feel their past experiences have unfairly meted out to them.

it's a meme fantasy that you should try to move past, though.

>Miguel de Cervantes
>Not suffering dementia from a life of dissapointments, PTSD, failed family honor and being outplayed and bullied everywhere by Lope De Vega.

all of those were fucking maniacs what are you smoking nignog

You can have PTSD from disappointments?

Suffering is the only way to have a true encounter with Jesus Christ on the cross.

No one implied that "mental illness" as it's commonly shilled by script happy gp's and psychiatrists is real. Everyone suffers, the ennui is just another word for original sin.

The "true art" the other user was referring to is the sublimity breaching the chasm between us and God.

Name one human who didn't suffer from a disease, ever, in their entire life

St Augustine

Main character of MDD

mira gonzherpes

Everyone's had a stint of depression or anxiety in their lives.

Nabokov

DFW killed himself due to depression silly goose

>Leo Tolstoy

Apart from a massive case of egocentrism, this writer (one of the greatest of all time) was probably quite mentally healthy.

He contracted gonorrhea and syphilis, though, and I am not sure how he could get cured from that syphilis living in the time that he lived. I know he submitted himself to treatments that used mercury.

>Shakespeare

This other writer (also one of the greatest, perhaps THE greatest of all time) seems to have lived a normal life. We know little about him, but for all we know he knew how to deal well his his personal business, his finances and his social life.

nabakov had synesthesia

>Shakespeare
>Implying he existed

No but you can have PTSD from fighting a literal infantry warfare aboard ships, losing the mobility if your right arm and being captured by moors.

Just ugh at all the plebs saying that mental illness isnt necessary to be a good artist. Fucking ugh. These are the same people who fucking voted for Trump.

Excluding malaria.

I've no official source but apparently Tolstoy refused to carry a rope or a gun with him for the fear that he might kill himself.

Don’t fall for his own talk. He had supreme vitality and will to be, a forever-demanding desire to taste the world and influence it, to bend it to his vision. Late in life he was willing to create a saintly persona for himself, an image of someone who has sinned and walked through the dark slime and bottom of the deep and managed to reach the sun once again. But it was always the same: pride. He wanted to be more than a great writer, he also wanted to be a great philosopher and saint.

Tolstoy would never really thought on killing himself. But you might say that he was somewhat mentally disturbed by the fact that he was a colossal narcissist.

doesnt compute, cause all the people who DIDNT vote for trump said hes insane. And many of the people who did say yeah he's a little unhinged and we like that. And he is a genius at the art of politics and tweeting obviously

Here is a quote from Tolstoy -- unfortunately I cannot give context but I've always thought it was interesting:

"I found that for people of my circle there were four ways out of the terrible position in which we are all placed. The first was that of ignorance. It consists in not knowing, not understanding, that life is an evil and an absurdity. From [people of this sort] I had nothing to learn — one cannot cease to know what one does know.
The second way out is epicureanism. It consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making use meanwhile of the advantages one has, disregarding the dragon and the mice, and licking the honey in the best way, especially if there is much of it within reach… That is the way in which the majority of people of our circle make life possible for themselves. Their circumstances furnish them with more of welfare than of hardship, and their moral dullness makes it possible for them to forget that the advantage of their position is accidental … and that the accident that has today made me a Solomon may tomorrow make me a Solomon’s slave. The dullness of these people’s imagination enables them to forget the things that gave Buddha no peace — the inevitability of sickness, old age, and death, which today or tomorrow will destroy all these pleasures.
The third escape is that of strength and energy. It consists in destroying life, when one has understood that it is an evil and an absurdity. A few exceptionally strong and consistent people act so. Having understood the stupidity of the joke that has been played on them, and having understood that it is better to be dead than to be alive, and that it is best of all not to exist, they act accordingly and promptly end this stupid joke, since there are means: a rope round one’s neck, water, a knife to stick into one’s heart, or the trains on the railways; and the number of those of our circle who act in this way becomes greater and greater, and for the most part they act so at the best time of their life, when the strength of their mind is in full bloom and few habits degrading to the mind have as yet been acquired…
The fourth way out is that of weakness. It consists in seeing the truth of the situation and yet clinging to life, knowing in advance that nothing can come of it. People of this kind know that death is better than life, but not having the strength to act rationally — to end the deception quickly and kill themselves — they seem to wait for something. This is the escape of weakness, for if I know what is best and it is within my power, why not yield to what is best? … The fourth way was to live like Solomon and Schopenhauer — knowing that life is a stupid joke played upon us, and still to go on living, washing oneself, dressing, dining, talking, and even writing books. This was to me repulsive and tormenting, but I remained in that position."

where did the stereotype come from? Are there a few very famous, influential writers who had a mental illness, and that's where people today get the impression? Is it just that we romanticize of mental illness? Or is it true that people who suffer from a mental illness have the potential to be more creative than those who don't, meaning is there actual merit to this claim?

many teen writers these days use their experience with soft core drugs to write, and I firmly believe drugs alter your mental state for the worse, for a very long time

maybe we like what people who are mentally ill have to say because it's different, a different perspective.

Gene Wolfe.

>Shakespeare
wasn't he gay?

Recreational drug use isn't harmful if used in moderation. The only real potential for damage is if someone uses who has a congenital condition or if someone uses chronically and a dependence forms. Alcohol is just as much if not significantly worse for you than most "soft-core" drugs.

Anyway I agree with the above posters that the tortured genius meme is particularly appealing to angsty hormonal teenagers. It's also appealing to a very large population of mentally ill people who consume literature and have artistic aspirations. People do like to romanticize about it - even people who aren't afflicted with mental illness. It's a great trope to be honest but not necessarily true. I do feel like art created from a different perspective can be a useful lens to see through. Normative social behavior can be very limiting and if we really want to create something new and exciting we need to sometimes attempt to see and feel outside of our own little perspective of life.

You can have PTSD by being outplayed and bullied everywhere by Lope De Vega.

J.K. Rowling

Nietzsche.

It's a meme that dates back to the Renaissance.
Back then people thought that Melancholia was caused, among other things, by overstraining your brain and initially associated with overworked scholars. The whole idea was based on Aristotle, who observed that the greatest playwrights all seemed to be suffering from melancholia. With an increasing interest on artist's personalities, the modern equivalent was soon to be found, e.g. Michelangelo, who was constantly whining about being surrounded by plebs.
By the end of the 16th century, this trend reached England and manifested itself in many melancholic characters appearing in literature, the most famous of course being Hamlet.
In the beginning of the 19th century, both Michelangelo and Shakespeare became popular again among Romanticists, who took it up and started to hype 'le troubled misunderstood artist-genius'-stereotype we're mostly talking about today.

this is fantastic, thanks. this is exactly the kinda summary, subtle history that i generally like: did this come from a single source/author, or did you piece it together? might i ask for a cursory reading list? thanks!

Rowling was depressed for years

George Orwell

/thread

The Romanticism part was my doing, pieced together by some university lectures and papers.
The rest is from a book called 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' by Lawrence Babb. It's an interesting book and I can recommend it, especially if you're interested in this sort of thing.
And if you prefer Romantics, Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel & August Wilhelm Schlegel were the main sources for their contemporaries when it came to artistic genius.

David Sedaris is more or less stable other than his OCD. Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, and Albert Camus also come to mind.

Lol what a fucking stupid challenge.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Homer, Micheal Pollan, J.D. Salinger

Catholic, Homosex, NOT GREAT, NOT GREAT

what else you got?

Catholicism's upbringing not illness you mongoloid.

Not a mental illness or disease fucktard

Religion and homosexuality aren't diseases, also, J.D. Salinger is great, so eat a dick you homophobic Religiomistia

Yes it is, cuck

Are we counting depression? If not, Osamu Dazai. If so, T.S. Eliot desu.

Flaubert was an obsessive perfectionist and probably had autism

This. The idea of genius being akin to madness was invented by plebs who had an inferiority complex
>I may not be good at anything but at least I'm happy!

Barth

>I may not be good at anything but at least I'm happy!

Or

>I may be depressed but this facebook post says depressed people are more intelligent

Gambling addiction.

Apuleius

Goethe was described as a very sociable and generally nice person to be around.

Everybody has diseases, you twat. Marquez. Borges, Kawabata, Joyce, and your mom were mentally pretty healthy though... for me to poop on!

ew... goethe had a foot fetish. If that isn't a mental illness, then I don't know what is.

he was a pedophile though

And he wanted to fug butterflies too. Clearly something was off about Nabokov.

>an informative and interesting post on Veeky Forums
Nicely done, user.

This combination of childishness and name-dropping made me giggle.

Chuck tingle

Brian Aldiss.

Wrong. Creativity has a provable connection with schizotypy, which is in turn correlated with neuroticism.

Isaac Asimov conceded that his sedentary lifestyle had an impact on his physical health. But if he ever disclosed a mental health issue, I don't recall it.

>lolita was autobiographical
when will this meme end

yes it is