SUE DE GROOT | Oh for a creative genie who could return genius to its genuine gist

South Africa, if you ask me, has more than its fair share of geniuses, among them some exceptionally brilliant scientists. But few of us are likely to encounter these superlative beings. They are for the most part too busy doing clever things in laboratories and other places of work to have time for chitchat with mere mortals.

I would hazard that hardly anyone has ever met a bona fide genius. But that doesn’t stop the word from being scattered around all over the place, like popcorn on the cinema floor after the screening of a horror film.

Genius has also become an adverb, as anyone with ears cannot fail to have noticed. If someone thinks of a new way to tie their shoelaces or cut cucumber, the polite thing to say to them is: “Wow! That’s genius!”

The noun form of genius is still just as popular, however. I’d be surprised if you don’t bump into at least a dozen geniuses before breakfast, because these days everyone’s a genius, even the plumber.

I’m not saying plumbers aren’t clever — some can unblock a toilet with one hand while completing a Rubik’s cube in the other — but does that make them geniuses? This used to be a word reserved for people who did extraordinary things, like inventing the flush toilet or the Rubik’s cube.

Albert Einstein was a genius. Being able to understand his theory of relativity might bring you close to the genius ceiling, but there has to be a line separating the exalted from the merely lofty. Whoever wrote Shakespeare’s words, possibly Will himself, was a genius, but the actress who won an Oscar for reading those words (before going on to start a “wellness” company that makes icky gooey stuff to put on your exterior parts and unspeakable things to put in your interior parts) is probably not.

Keeping any word separate from and above the rest is difficult, however, because we live in an age of anarchic exaggeration, where superlatives are kidnapped and set to work in common streets. 

“Awesome” used to mean something which inspired great awe. Now it’s a synonym for “oh, OK”. Jokes can’t just be funny, they must be hilarious. No longer can you merely admire someone, you have to be a “huge fan”.

Similarly, no one is content with being just clever. Clever is the new stupid. Now you have to be a genius. Where will it end? When parents start describing even other people’s children as geniuses, you know the word is in real trouble.

I am a huge fan of compliments and believe in bolstering everyone’s self-esteem, but I do think we need a clear definition for those rare, supremely talented beings who seem to come from another planet. If it’s too late to reclaim the word genius, we need to commission a person formerly known as a genius to come up with something new.

There’s a word that has suffered even more than genius, and that is 'creative'. Once reserved for great art or astonishing minds, it has been torn down and made tawdry.

There’s a word that has suffered even more than genius, and that is “creative”. Once reserved for great art or astonishing minds, it has been torn down and made tawdry. Have any pea-brained idea: put parsley on the soup, paint a flowerpot red or wear odd socks and you’ll be hailed as “so creative”. It has even, in advertising circles, become a noun: “creatives” are the people who don’t handle the money or the clients.

But let’s get back to genius. In ancient times, a genius was a guarding spirit that worked from outside to guide people and make them look clever (though there were also “evil geniuses” who made you slip on banana skins and look silly). As our egos grew, we stole this word from the gods and turned it into a human capacity for greatness.

Etymologically speaking, genius comes from the same place as the words “gene” and “genie”. 

Genes and their offshoot genomes (nothing to do with little bearded men who wear tall hats and live in gardens) are often studied by geniuses. 

Genies are wish-granters believed to wear turbans and live in lamps or bottles. 

If genies were geniuses, why would they choose to live in lamps? There must be far more comfortable places — kettles or toasters or bamboo steamers. Still, I suppose it is quite clever to be able to fit oneself inside a lamp and pop out when rubbed the right way. Even Einstein would be impressed.