Beethoven conducted his last symphony while totally deaf his paintings would not be as valuable now if he hadn't sliced off his ear worn that rag around his head and then done it to himself among the cornstalks. and wouldn't that one's poems be so famous if he hadn't faded at 19, given it all up to go gun running and gold hunting in Africa only to die of syphilis? what about the one who was murdered in the road by Spanish fascists? did that give his words more meaning? or take the one who was a national hero those iceberg symphonies soaring cutting that particular sky in half he had it all working for him then he got worried about old age saved his head went into his house vanished and was never seen again. such strange behavior, didn't somebody once say? that the man should be as durable as his art, that's what they want, they want the impossible: creation and creator to be as one. this is the dirty trick of the ages.