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A Beautiful Mind
The John Nash of Nasar's biography, while less likable, is far more fascinating and multidimensional than his cinematic counterpart; he is a draft dodger, a vicious prankster (one practical joke of Nash's involved filling a light fixture with water, which could have electrocuted a hapless victim when he turned on the light), and an arrogant braggart.
Hollywood has whitewashed much from Nash's life; besides working to dodge the Korean War draft out of fears that it would hurt his career, Nash fathered an illegitimate son whom he refused to help care for, despite the fact that his own circumstances were far better than those of the child's mother. The woman he married, Alicia Larde, is portrayed in the film as the one and only love of Nash's life; no mention is made of their 1963 divorce. (Nearly forty years later, the couple remarried.) To read Nasar's biography is to discover fascinating episodes like Nash's stint in Europe, when he attempted several times to renounce his American citizenship and obtain political asylum, and his encounters with fellow patient and Pulitzer prizewinning poet Robert Lowell in a Massachusetts mental hospital.
The book is as absorbing a history lesson as it is a story; Nasar sets Nash's life beautifully in the context of his time. Nash's bisexuality, for example, was much more of an issue then than it would be now; while today many areas have laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, in 1954 not only was it legal for employers to dismiss a homosexual employee, but any evidence of homosexuality was sufficient grounds to deprive a government employee of security clearance. Later, the reader learns of many once-credited treatments for mental illness, like insulin injections (thought to deprive the brain of sugar and thus kill off defective brain cells), colonic irrigation, and even "fever therapy," given by inoculating patients with malaria or typhoid. Nasar's description of the politics by which Nobel prizes are awarded, a process purposely shrouded in mystery by the various committees involved, is a particularly fascinating read. Her inclusion of these and other details paints a rich historical picture that's a pleasure to read.
The one thing missing from A Beautiful Mind is, of course, the voice of John Nash himself. Where possible, Nasar plucked quotes from his writings and the recollections of friends and colleagues, but Nash himself maintained, as he put it to a New York Times reporter, "a position of Swiss neutrality" toward his biographer. Throughout the extraordinary story of Nash's life -- his rapid rise to fame, his loves, his illness, his disappearance for decades from the academic community, and his recognition at last as a Nobel laureate, one wants to ask him, "What were you thinking?" Unfortunately, it's a question Nasar was unable to answer.
One true merit of the movie, so highly altered from Nash's real story (and, considered apart from the facts, it is both moving and interesting), is that it will undoubtedly inspire many to pick up Nasar's beautifully written biography. It's time to meet the real John Nash.
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I have seen the movie, it ok , more enttertaining when you watch it as FICTION, which basically it is.
Only hollywood could turn a Bisexual, Schitophrenic, Deadbeat dad into someone you fell for, or the Nazi's propoganda machine did with that whole crew of loonies.
Its amazing, it sells so sugar coat it. I doubt many would have wanted to see Crowe portay the REAL Nash.
BUT in this country, and much of the world, the CONSUMER rules, who wants to see a movie about an asshole no matter how smart he is.
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
Godel was always arrogant and always thought he was correct, regardless of his actual expertise... He had many arguments and 'enemies' in various educated circles...
There are those that are mentally superior in various things that are socially inept and at the same time are unwilling to deal with people that aren't as capable in their field... People should expect this, because it's simply the case... It's not that you're given a "free pass" by being an asshole to mentally handicapped people, and decide one day to do that... That's just how you are... An idiot doing that will still seem like an idiot, just like a whiney fuck on Slashdot complaining that his 'brilliance' was overlooked because he doesn't see himself as a socially inept fuck that must reduce others to a pulp lest they be ignored entirely.
The number of brilliant people I know that display no arrogance in their normal operation are pretty rare... Those that won't display arrogance in an argument are absolutely nonexistent... At best they try to be subtle about their trump cards, they're never truly humble... Why the fuck should they be, again?
"J. Edgar Hoover, what a fuckhead he was, when he died they found out he was a Transvestite, they said, 'ah, that explains his weird behaviour'. Yeah, Fuckin Weirdo Transvestite!"
darius
Plenty of biographers get mushy (or starry-eyed, or sexually aroused) over their subjects. Do you really think it's possible to spend such an inordinate amount of time writing/researching one person and stay objective?
... ultimately a biographer is a narrator, so their personality, feelings, beliefs do a lot to make or break the work. I wouldn't trust someone who claims complete objectivity.
When writing about another human, objectivity is as false of a stance as any other