The lecture was begun by a disclaimer that he was not condoning criminality. This is an important act; we are dealing with a subject matter that necessarily involves evil, even if not inherently evil itself. This suggests the provocative question, why are we thinking about it? What is it’s purpose?
Daryl leads us to look at crime as a breaking of rules. Great philosophers like Kant also consider genius in art to be not a following of patterns (rules) but a breaking of them. These genius artists take extreme intellectual risks by defying the popular notions.
This notion of the artist as a criminal has founded Western art. It has spawned various genres of film in modern cinema, crime films from heist movies to serial killer murder fests. As the genre has grown popular there has been an increasing parallel between artists and criminals – consider the Italian Job, in which the greatest thieves are not in it for the money but for the job, and the villain is the one who is not creative but a mimicker.
This lecture served to revitalize a question that has dwelt in my mind before: is that thing of utmost creativity, the creating of art, truly a matter of breaking the rules? Is the nature of the trade truly the same as that of the criminal?
My understanding answers firmly in the negative. What of Kant’s geniuses who break the mold, who refuse to mimic other artists? Is this a true example of “criminal intellect?” If we leave criminal activity as defined by its disobedience, the answer is “no.” Great art, if it contains truth, must adhere to principle. However, if the artist perceives a principle deeper than others can see, perhaps it appears to be breaking their more rudimentary rules. For example, air-planes and other flying machines are said to defy the law of gravity – but their amazing feat is really achieved by obedience to laws of aerodynamics and lift, which appears to be breaking the law of gravity for those who are unaware of these deeper laws.
That artists can be looked at as rule-breakers is a fact of society; this may be the established vantage point of Western Thought. However, I do not believe this to be the truth of the matter.