“… I became conscious that I was being haunted by a strange genius… Where he came from I cannot tell. At some time in his existence he must have wandered long in Alice’s Wonderland… He was sincerity itself, and he had the simplicity of a child combined with the wisdom of old father William. No mortal could compare with him for ingenuity and inventiveness. He could do wonderful things with a piece of knotted string. There was one thing he lacked and that was a sense of humour; perhaps this was not a loss, for strangely enough it made him all the more humorous. It seemed wrong, however, to laugh at one so earnest, so guileless and free from cynicism, but at times he was irresistible. Fortunately, he was far too busy to care whether I laughed or not.”
from W. Heath Robinson, My Line of Life, 1938
Illustration © W. Heath Robinson
Visit SurLaLune Fairy Tales to see more illustrations by W. Heath Robinson.
12 February 2011 at 5:32 pm
Just clicked through from your comment on Phil Nel’s website. This is a seriously beautiful blog … pretty much every post contains an image I wish I owned (and by “wish I owned” I mean “wish I’d come up with”). Way to raise the bar!
The personified “genius” reminds me of Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk from a while back on nurturing creativity — not a bad way to waste 20 minutes: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
13 February 2011 at 12:07 pm
Wow, Jonathan, thanks!
I’m glad you put this link up here. I like this TED talk too – definitely worth the 20 minutes, especially for anyone who got a kick out of this post!