Advanced Genius

Advanced Genius

As originally proposed
by Hartley and Bergman,
the Advanced Genius Theory
revolves mostly around figures
who have already been,
generally speaking,
recognized for their genius,
who then descend into
material that seems to
obscure their legacy,
but instead continue
working at the same
level that first brought
them to public attention,
at a rate the public can
no longer keep up with.

Basically, a genius is
someone who changes
everything, and continues
to change, past the ability
for the audience to accept it,
according to this theory.

And while I admire
Hartley and Bergman for
pursuing this theory,
I propose a new one,
that the public doesn’t
always recognize genius,
even at the start, or for
some reason finds
a way to ignore its value.

This would be an
Advanced Genius
that is so advanced
it is never properly
understood, even when
it seems to be.

***

There are many examples,
throughout history, but
I can only concentrate now
on those that have affected
me personally, that have
helped form the index
of my life as I have known it.

***

The young nation of the United States
was far more contentious than we
can sometimes appreciate, no matter
how much we read about it.

I think the first real victims of our history
were the John Adams, who were the second
and sixth presidents, who failed to capture
properly even in that age the glamour
some invariably seek in their leaders,
lost in the shuffle, the only of the first seven
to serve single terms, victims of politics.

It was certainly ironic for the father,
who had been bold enough to represent
British officers in the aftermath of
the so-called Boston Massacre,
and worse for Quincy, who might have
permanently avoided the course
to Civil War, given the chance, but
they doomed, like Henry Clay,
American Cassandras.

***

I still don’t understand how Kennedy
is not more appreciated today, how
anyone could think that his legacy
might somehow be forgotten;
only if we let it, I say.

All that the Clintonians played at,
he was, the consummate politician,
who was a modern Adams, unpopular
but bold, a visionary whose vision
became obscured by lesser men.

***

As far as presidents go, I could not
exclude W, another unpopular son
of an unpopular president, but who
defied history, tried to forge it,
despite every opposition,
who maybe, as we all are,
was more flawed than I
sometimes seem to admit,
but was still the last man in the room,
capable of suggesting what others
only cared to suppress, that there
are better ways to live, if only
we refuse to settle.

***

Anyway, for levity’s sake, most of
this genius stuff concerns entertainers,
so don’t worry too much.

***

Star Trek has been advanced genius
from the start, struggling to find its audience
even when everyone knew everything about it.

You’d be hard-pressed to find
more contentious fans than these,
who can’t even decide between
Trekkers and Trekkies,
who reject easily and sabotage themselves,
even while bemoaning the lack of amusement,
when the most they can do is entertain themselves
with all the things that they hate.

I don’t pretend
to understand it.

When you try to be expansive,
to tell the human adventure,
you would be hard-pressed
to find a lot of humans
who will really appreciate
what you’re trying to do.

***

Even Star Wars lost its original fans
when it tried to expand, right at the same time
the Wachowskis unfortunately confirmed
that there was more than just a big idea
and fancy fighting
behind their Matrix.

***

Jim Carrey couldn’t find his audience
despite becoming a star with the same routine
after about a decade of trying,
and even then, hardly anyone could keep up with him.

Hey, you try watching
Once Bitten
(early, still obscure),
Ace Ventura
(big break, talking ass),
The Cable Guy
(audience confusion),
The Truman Show
(artistic breakthrough),
Man on the Moon
(artistic channeling),
The Majestic
(dramatic effort, little respect),
Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas
(big hit, critical heat),
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(critical love, cult audience)
and understanding his relationship
to the audience.

***

U2 is recognized as the biggest band in the world,
but really, you’d hardly know it.

They’ve been popular through four decades now,
but there is still a lack of critical respect,
as if their music hasn’t been iconic
several times over at this point, still
chasing the ghosts of the Beatles,
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, untold others.

“Gloria”
“Sunday Bloody Sunday”
“New Year’s Day”
“Pride”
“Bad”
“Where the Streets Have No Name”
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
“With or Without You”
“Desire”
“One”
“Mysterious Ways”
“Beautiful Day”
“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”
“Vertigo”
“Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”
“Moment of Surrender”

And that’s only a sampling, probably their
most popular and iconic material.

I could list tons more.

Perhaps Hartley is on to something
when he excludes them from his own theory,
saying they’ve been too popular,
but the continuing reputations of
Rattle & Hum, Zooropa, Pop, that their
Passengers side-project is still obscure…

No one actually argues that all of U2’s material
is actually beloved, and that they still can’t
take their place beside the rock gods…

***

Coldplay and Oasis have the great fortune
of standing on the shoulders of these giants,
U2 I mean, producing great material
and being overlooked by most surveys.

***

I have come to appreciate the musical genius
of Thrice as well, but you’d hardly know
they possessed it by the utter lack of recognition,
even for their most ambitious projects,
even for The Alchemy Index.

Yeah, I just don’t understand it…

***

But I mourn most for Hootie & the Blowfish.

If modern music had a soul, it would belong
to these boys, who are very much men these days,
well into their family lives, past the college days
and wolf brothers, past their glory year
and slowly rapid decline in public fortunes.

They were brilliant enough to identify
the cracked rear view from the start,
to call out all the fairweather johnsons;
just as they were starting to make
the songs they really loved, radio
played musical chairs, and they
were left looking for lucky.

Hey, Darius (who was not Hootie)
became a black country star,
so it’s not like they were forgotten,
just become painfully unpopular,
“uncool.”

They were only “cool” in the first place
because everyone liked them, for a moment.

But they always had their tastes
scattered, smothered, and covered,
and it’s still all I believe.

***

Colin Farrell became in an instant
one of my favorite actors, but
Hollywood took one look and
saw only an object that needed
to be exploited, so that audiences
never had the same opportunity.

But you sit back now
and can begin to see
where all the talent was:

Tigerland
(brash new face),
Hart’s War
(upstaging Willis),
Minority Report
(fighting Cruise),
S.W.A.T.
(turning TV into his own),
Daredevil
(having fun),
Alexander
(commanding history),
The New World
(inhabiting it),
Miami Heat
(growling a repeat),
Cassandra’s Dream
(heart on his sleeve),
In Bruges
(heart in his throat),
Crazy Heart
(finding the notes of a weary place)

***

He fell into the same pit as Oliver Stone,
I guess, someone who lost favor the more
he tried to explore his potential.

Stone, not surprisingly,
has explored both Kennedy and W.

***

Did I mention Melville?

The dude was a genius then,
and still hasn’t been properly discovered,
a century before Welles, a giant obscured
for no good reason I can fathom
even now.

***

Brando, and Welles,
identified in Hartley’s theory,
along with Bob Dylan,
who has enjoyed a resurgence
a lot of critics love, but fans
want to see end already.

***

Johnny Cash, or so
Walk the Line goes,
was rejected until he found his voice,
and then did a fine job
of obscuring it again,
trying to live too hard,
became an outlaw who aged,
and his twilight and final years
still aren’t appreciated as they should be.

Who to compare his late period to?

***

They probably still think
Harry Potter will be easily forgotten,
but I think that’s nonsense.

Narnia has a better chance,
Tolkien’s Middle Ages fantasies.

Harry is one for the history books.

***

Peter Ackroyd; no, really,
please explain to me how
this writer is not more
acclaimed, not more
well-known, how he isn’t
as celebrated as those
he periodically writes about?

***

How anyone ever failed
to understand what Lost
was doing is beyond me,
far more convoluted than
its study of essential human nature
could ever have been.

***

He may not have conjured
Huck Finn in so many words,
but how is there any doubt
that Dave Barry is Mark Twain’s
successor? Is he somehow too
irreverent? Cherish him now,
because by all rights you
will still be reading him
tomorrow.

***

Comic books
comic books,
like professional wrestling
a primal exercise
of modern might and myth.

When the proper respect?

***

For that matter, when will
Grant Morrison be recognized
as a literary genius?

***

I can only thank god
I was there when
Green Lantern was finally elevated
thanks to Geoff Johns
to the level the concept
really deserved.

***

I think the battle over
accepting Stephen King
is being won, too.

Thankee.

***

I don’t know, this isn’t
an index
so much as it is
the beginning of
an argument,
perhaps the same one
in Hartley’s theory,
to stop this unnecessary
impulse to overlook
the treasures that are everywhere,
to quit making excuses
we constantly make to not like something,
when that accomplishes nothing.

Every day there will be things
no one ever finds out about,
great things that might have
changed the world,
so what’s the point of
ignoring the things
we already know,
that beat the odds
and entered the popular consciousness?

I suppose that’s what
the Metaphysics of Value
are about, but as advanced genius,
there’s another name to call,
a way to identify what people
apparently refuse to enjoy
for no conceivable,
or at least good,
reason.