I worked in academia for many years. I knew a number of people who rode the genius fence. Those folks ranged from really, really smart people who have genius abilities to people who are crazy-ass geniuses who can’t understand why anyone would need to walk and chew gum. It’s both a privilege and an annoyance to know them. Great when you desperately need to know the third declension in Finno-Ugric used in the Kalevala – trust me it happens (Lord of the Rings fans heads up), or how flying foxes improve their local ecosystem.
The fence reference is how a non-genius like me deals with the all things that go along with bringing some of these folks to the standard plane of existence since they also need to do things like find a place to live or eat…
I recently found out one of my favorite fence-riders had passed away a few years ago. It wasn’t shocking nor particularly sad. We weren’t close but was she ever fun to know. I worked on one of her projects in the early 1980s. That research is still highly regarded and appreciated by the people it was meant to benefit. It was odd however, a specialized dictionary in the Miwok language. She helped save a unique and vanishing language.
She cackled like a stereotypic Halloween witch and she was an anti-abortion advocate who was never married or had children but strongly believed that her beloved cats should not be neutered under the same rationale. She once started a protest, t-shirts, buttons and all against a very renown and prominent academic in her field who came to campus to give a talk. It was a pretty small event comparatively but if I were the speaker, I would have loved that people cared enough about my theories to get that worked up. Picture me shaking my head and muttering “Linguistics…”. They are unique breed.
Anyway, RIP crazy cat lady genius. There will never be another one quite like you…hopefully…
Khatzkel Did It 