Genius Destruction

            There is a fine line between being a genius and being stark raving mad.  All too often we see people that are brilliant, stars, or musicians walk the line and end up losing the battle.  There is some type of inner demons at play that many times the public simply doesn’t know about.  In Salman Rushdie’s, “The Harmony of the Spheres” in his book East, West, a genius writer named Eliot Crane walks this line and loses as well.  Rushdie explores these ravings of a madman/genius and tries to unearth reasons for his demise.

            Eliot Crane was a genius writer that was actually working on a book at the time of his suicide.  His best friend, Khan, remembers thinking that Eliot will “…probably make something half-way decent of his life, if he doesn’t kill himself first” (145).  Everyone around him knew that he had a bright future if he could simply escape his demons.  However, he was simply unable to.  He often was paranoid about aliens, thought his wife was spying on him by putting microphones in the butter, and even drove out of his way to show his friends where he wanted to be buried.  He had very odd behavior and the people who knew him best felt this was coming.

            Rushdie continues to write about the causes of this fine line between being mad and a genius.  Eliot, himself, has a simple explanation for why he is “sick.”  He simply thought he had “a simple biochemical imbalance” (134).  Like many Rushdie stories, the title tells a lot about the story.  The title of the “The Harmony of the Spheres” can be interpreted to both sides of the brain (left and right) needing to be in perfect harmony for a person to be mentally healthy.  Clearly, Eliot’s imbalance leads to disharmony and is thus the main reason for his demise.

            Finally, Rushdie offers some more keen insight on those that are left behind following Eliot’s suicide.  Khan learns that Eliot has been having an affair with his wife and Khan “feels an explosion in his chest with an unbearable raucous crack” (146).  Moreover, he feels the “collapse of harmony” (146).  One has to wonder if Khan is going to follow down the trail his friend Eliot Crane took.  His harmony is collapsing just like Eliot’s did.  Here Rushdie is offering no solution to this type of madness that is consuming Khan and had consumed Crane.  It is a fine line they are both walking and one you do not want to lose.

            Paranoid schizophrenia is a very dangerous disease and can be the deciding factor in many people’s life.  Rushdie displays this catastrophic event in the destruction of a genius in Eliot as a shadow of everyday society.  He further explores the damaged caused of those left behind and leaves the reader wondering what will become of his dear friend and other colleagues.