For All You Mad Men
Last week I stumbled upon Thomas Mann's introduction to a collection of Dostoevsky's short stories. In the preface, called, quite ironically, Dostoevsky-in Moderation, Mann presents to us the mad men. Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, shown here as brothers in spirit, while acknowledged as "inmates of Hell," "criminal," and "diseased," Mann pays tribute and gives well placed reverence to these men who were sick so that we in some ways don't have to be.
I highly recommend the read to anyone interested in the human soul as it exists both spiritually and bodily. Mann exposes the intimate connection between the bodily reality and the spiritual reality of these men and how each shaped their kindred souls.
In order to tantalize, here is a short passage: "Disease... First of all it is a question of who is sick, who is insane, who is epileptic or paralytic: an average dolt, whose disease, of course, lacks all intellectual and cultural aspects-or a Nietzsche a Dostoevsky. In their cases the disease bears fruits that are more important and more beneficial to life and its development then any medically approved normality. The truth is that life has never been able to do without the morbid, and probably no adage is more inane then the one which says that 'only disease can come from the diseased.' Life is not prudish, and it is probably safe to say that life prefers creative, genius-bestowing disease a thousand times over to prosaic health; prefers disease, surmounting obstacles proudly on horseback, boldly leaping from peak to peak, to lounging, pedestrian healthfulness. Life is not finical and never thinks of making a moral distinction between health and infirmity. It seizes the bold product of disease, consumes and digests it, and as soon as it is assimilated, it is health. An entire horde, a generation of open-minded, healthy lads pounces upon the work of diseased genius, genialized by disease, admires and praises it, raises it to the skies, perpetuates it, transmutes it, and bequeaths it to civilization, which does not live on the home-baked bread of health alone. They all swear by the name of the great invalid, thanks to whose madness they no longer need to be mad. Their healthfulness feeds upon his madness and in them he will become healthy."

In short these two men are the "crucified victims" sacrificed for our more "sublime health."

Let us be bold.