The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers
Helen Lewis
Synopsis "The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers"
The tech disruptor. The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist.
You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate.
Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to the Floridian rocket launches of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Helen Lewis unravels a word that we all use — without really questioning what it means — and asks if the modern idea of genius is distorting our view of the world.
A brilliant, timely and compulsively readable book. With her characteristic combination of deep reporting and lightness of touch, Helen Lewis shows how the idea of genius has warped our understanding of human creativity – and why people of vast accomplishment in one domain can prove so destructively clueless in others. - OLIVER BURKEMAN
This is the book we need right now. Smart, funny and full of surprises, The Genius Myth takes aim at our cultish worship of Great Men. An indispensable companion to our times. - CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ
Typically lucid, funny and fascinating. Not so much a debunking of "genius" as a highly entertaining exploration of why we want it to exist. - Adam Buxton
Helen Lewis argues that "genius" lies in the eye of the beholder. Well, my own eyes saw genius when they read this book. - Lucy Worsley
Lewis issues an effective call for a more carefully tempered understanding of genius in our precarious times, one that celebrates creativity, innovation, and achievement rather than idolizing a maker’s rarity and eccentricity. By degrees unsettling, amusing, and prescient; a much-needed audit of a consuming idea. - Kirkus Reviews
[A] witty book… Lewis is brilliantly perceptive - Observer
[A] provocative, witty book… [Lewis shows that] Genius is no longer synonymous with impunity. The myth is changing - Times Literary Supplement
Original and painfully timely - Economist
Lewis is such a well-read guide to intelligence… she is insightful on the loneliness of the very intelligent - Mail on Sunday
[A] witty and timely critique of a perennially problematic concept - Financial Times
[An] entertaining book - Literary Review
Lewis is one of the best political journalists around… The Genius Myth…is equally lively and illuminating [as Difficult Women] - Critic
Breezy and entertaining - Daily Telegraph
It is when Lewis slows down and burrows into a subject that things get interesting. A case in point is her excellent investigation into how the "IQ Wars" took hold of scientists in the late 19th century, with devastating results. - Sunday Times
