Okay, I’ll admit it: I don’t know what Jason Hartley is doing. Maybe that’s because I’m trying to understand his Advanced Genius Theory without having taken and passed the prerequisite course, Genius 101: Elementary Genius Theory.
Is he having some good clean fun at our expense? Is he rationalizing the guilty pleasure he gets from favorite artists’s creative missteps? Does he actually have a theory that is borne out in reality? And how come he can state what he believes in simple declarative sentences while I’m framing all of my thoughts as questions?
Probably because Hartley genuinely believes in the Advanced Genius Theory. The bedrock assumption behind the theory is that once someone has revealed themselves to be a genius, they remain a genius, while you and I serve the equally important role of forming the madding crowd whose cloddish thinking and mediocrity of spirit provide the intellectual fog from which the genius’s beacon of light emerges.
But wait – for Hartley to have realized this, and to be able to discuss it in such creative and witty fashion, he too must be an advanced genius! Now his book makes sense to me: not that I understand it, but it explains perfectly why I don’t understand it. He’s a super genius and I’m not! And when I read his introduction and think, hmmm, he’s making some really good points, and then halfway through the book think, jeez, he’s really lost it… that’s exactly the trajectory that is the hallmark of the advanced genius!
It also explains (finally) that Bob Dylan Christmas album from last year.
What musician do you think is an Advanced Genius? Leave a comment.
John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
