...and they're loved for it.
Just finished Amber Scott's Fierce Dawn. The heroine Sadie was diagnosed as crazy because she had a breakdown and self-harmed. So for years she was kept on medication, and poke and prodded by shrinks, and her own family didn't trust her, and it was bad. I felt such sympathy for her, because she wasn't treated like a person because she was "crazy".
It made me feel bad for all the real life people that are suffering the same. Yes, there are genuine people who suffer truly debilitating mental problems. But for the most part, I think a lot of people are labeled damaged or deranged, and they really aren't. Maybe they're a little different. Maybe they could just use some support. But they shouldn't be seen as some type of lame puppy.
And it occurred to me that authors can be as crazy and as eccentric as they want, and they're praised for it. Other artists too. If authors are a little bipolar, they're just have sensitive souls. Hell, it's almost expected that there be something different to an author. Being loners, or having problems with crowds, or extreme introverts are all personality traits that are accepted.
Let a regular working stiff express these behaviors, and they "need" to be put on mood stabilizers.
Authors are also allowed to be morbidly interested in murders and forensics, or how a serial killer thinks, or all about the inner workings of mobsters. Nothing is verboten to the minds of artists.
Damn those double standards, but I won't complain about it. Means no one looks at me too strangely when I talk about the local komodo dragon being handsome.
