Status Updates From The Genius Myth: A Curious ...

Lewis has assembled a book around a category error. Her problem isn't with "genius" per se, it's that we (society) make allowances and create indulgences for high status individuals. This is an aspect of basic human behavior. All the justifications are post hoc anyway. Dissecting them is like trying to chase down shadows. No one thinks Trump is an actual genius but normal political rules do not obtain.

Begins to trace the cultural origins of the "genius myth" starting with Avonian Willy then proceeding through to the Romantics and then eventually settle on Galton, who systematizes the concept and makes it an innate property.

Opens with Musk portrait, who would most likely be the consensus figure of genius identified by the zeitgeist when corrected for partisan blinders. She uses the flawed Musk to transition to her criticism of our cultural understand of genius as a property inherent to an individual - usually a domineering and eccentric male with talents that happen to be in demand in a particular time and space.