A month or two before Robin Williams' untimely and
unfortunate suicide, I read a piece
whose author posited the possibility that much of the best writing has been
penned by authors struggling with the disease known as major depression. I
suppose the explanation would be that creativity is a way to break out of the
dullness of the ordinary, to stimulate the mind out of its malaise. It is as if
the suffering are reaching upwards, as if out of a sense of desperation known
only to the unconscious. At the same time, the tendency of depression to dive
deep within, to find or sink to a more meaningful, subterranean basis can
easily translate into providing a narrative with depth. The combination of
creativity and depth may be the hallmark of excellent story-telling, as well as
the ravaging disease to which Robin Williams succumbed. In his acting, he was
incredibly creative in his comedy even as he was fully capable of deep emotions
in dramatic roles. In fact, behind the creative comedic façade may lie just
such emotions, and in the dramatic we might catch the edges of a quick smirk
that says, "Hey, don't take all this so seriously, even though I do. I
can't help it."
