There’s likely something in the idea that quirkiness or slightly strange behaviour May Have a connection with mental illness, neurodiversity or inventive ability

Do not you just enjoy an eccentric? Not the sort of person who intentionally cultivates an”I am so wacky, me!” Vibe, however the authentic, wonderful eccentrics of the past. I enjoy discovering about incidences of individual behavior that — how will we say? — are somewhat from the box.

A rich supply, as you may expect, are creatives: the writers and artists and film-makers whose whims or customs or likes or dislikes were bit off-kilter, which makes for great Wikipedia entrances and impressive pieces of trivia. Patricia Highsmith, the writer of The Talented Mr Ripley and The Cost Of Salt, Amongst Others, was a Massive fan of snails. She attended a London cocktail party having a handbag filled with these plus also a head of lettuce, declaring that they had been her”companions for the day”. Animals are a recurrent motif. Novelist Edith Wharton loved dogscampaigned to get a water bowl around the corner of each street in Nyc. Meanwhile, who knows if Oscar Wilde actually did walk around using a lobster on a lead?

Away from critters, my favorite historical, inspirational perform clinic was employed by Demosthenes, who it’s said, compelled himself to compose by shaving half his mind so that he had been too ashamed to leave the home. (This would not work for me; I would just wind up shaving another half) More recently, I have been motivated by Barbra Streisand’s alleged insistence which houseguests organize their outfits into her decoration.

It is not merely the exploits of this famous that encircle me. Carvajal stopped midway through to select and eat any apples, which turned out to be sterile.

There’s likely something in the concept that quirkiness or slightly strange behaviour may have a connection with mental illness, neurodiversity or imaginative ability. Though sometimes it only sounds a side-effect of getting too much time or money. The English aristocracy, by way of instance, are great value for being extra.

Regrettably, some are weird maybe not intentionally. A lot of people throughout history have died in eccentric ways. According to legend, in 620BC, Draco of Athens was smothered to death by presents of cloaks and hats left on him by taxpayers during a visit to the theatre. While it’s doubtful he would have enjoyed that, I am scared I actually do.