Abstract
Ballard’s essay deftly explores links between art and affective disorder through artists like Tchaikovsky, for whom “[A] sense of bliss… comes over me [when] a new idea awakens in me … I forget everything and behave like a mad man. Everything within me starts pulsing and quivering….” Tracing personifications of “the muse” since Hesiod’s Theogony, Ballard is struck by a friend’s casual question over lunch: “If you were assured of writing something enduring, would you agree to be mentally ill?” Those who devote themselves to art face the same void that people with affective illness face every day, Ballard writes — a void from which something may be made from nothing — a heightening of emotional and perceptual intensity, linguistic acuity, existential preoccupation, and deepening levels of awareness.
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© 2014 Nancer Ballard
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Ballard, N. (2014). Muse Afire: Negotiating the Line between Creative Pursuit and Mental Illness. In: Horton, S.S. (eds) Affective Disorder and the Writing Life: The Melancholic Muse. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381668_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381668_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47966-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38166-8
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