Oct 13

Oct 13 Book Review : Jason Hartley - The Advanced Genius Theory (2010)

Our society doesn’t have a good relationship with genius. Individuals tend not to tolerate people who stand out for being more interesting than they are and groups usually frown on anything prone to break their inherent rules. We love to elevate people, but we don’t like it when they’re staying above us. Anything that goes up must come down, said Sir Isaac Newton. It’s physics. No one can fuck with the laws of the natural world. No one, except the advanced.

The Advanced Genius Theory is a little known idea devised by a man named Jason Hartley went almost unnoticed and immediately forgotten when it came out in 2010. Advancement was too advanced for 2010, but not for 2020.

What is advancement exactly? The best was I can put it is that it’s a state of disassociation from one’s artistic identity and public image that is achieved only by a select few celebrities, which allows for a radical creativity that can only be appreciated in the future. In other words, it’s when you think a recording artist has lost the fucking plot only to realize fifteen years later that he or she were ahead of their time. It’s a form of cultural enlightenment if you will.

In order to become advanced, a celebrity first needs to be overt. What is overtness exactly? Glad you asked. Overtness is a creative state of quasi-advancement where artistic integrity and public identity are more important that the process of creation itself. They are artists who are trying waytoo hard to appear advanced that it become evident that they aren’t. I’m sure this sounds extremely complicated and abitrary, so let me give you examples.

Who is advanced?

David Bowie is a great example of advancement. After spending sixteen years pioneering glam rock and weird, progressive elements in mainstream music, he flipped the script in 1983 and released a quintessential eighties pop record: Let’s Dance. He also starred in the kids movie Labyrinth, collaborated with Trent Reznor on an awesomely weird record and completely alienated his original fanbase in the process. That is pure advancement.

That said, David Bowie’s story of advancement is a happy one. Advancing emancipated him from his original artistic identity in order to be culturally embraced at large. Hipsters would not be unironically singing Space Oddity in karaoke bars around the globe if it wasn’t for Labyrinth. Advancement is usually a one-way street that leads to frustration, bewilderment and too often: post-mortem reappreciation of an artist’s career.

Jason Hartley calls Lou Reed one of the most advanced artists in the world, which sounds about right. No one liked Metal Machine Music when it came out and arguably no one likes it now, but we all understand what it did for music at large. Hartley also predicted that Kanye West would advance. Bipolar disorder aside, no one in retrospect debate that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus and The Life of Pablo are culturally important records.

Is advancement important?

Yes and no. It’s a contrarian theory that was invented by two men eating pizza. It’s thoroughly unscientific, but it’s applicable to just about everyone and meant to challenge conventional taste. That is the part that I like about it. Don’t get me wrong, not all bad music is necessarily advanced. The Metallica and Lou Reed record LuLu is not a gem waiting to be rediscovered, mostly because Metallica are incorrigibly overt or, at least, where when they recorded it.

Metallica are not advanced, but their albums Load, Reload and Garage Inc. are the closest they’ve ever been.

I’ve talked about musicians, but actors can be advanced. Nicolas Cage would be the poster boy for on screen advancement with recent roles in Mandy and Color Out of Space being where the rest of the world catches up to him.. Athletes can advance too. Jimmy Butler is a prime example. A role player with a rags-to-riches story becoming a superstar in Miami, selling 20$ coffees to other players while beating them in the playoffs is pure advancement.

I love The Advanced Genius Theory because it’s a potent antidote to cultural platitudes. You know what I’m talking about. It’s impossible to scroll your Facebook or Twitter newsfeed nowadays without someone calling Kanye West crazy, Nicolas Cage bad at his job or Radiohead incomprehensible (which is a stand I held in the past). It’s a challenge to how you think about culture and if you embrace it, hindsight will almost always be in your favor.

A decade ago it wasn’t the case, but we think about our culture more than we ever did now. It’s time to embrace its weirder, more difficult wrinkles. Let’s advance.

7.8/10