Thursday 30 June 2016

Super Humans - Minou Drouet

Marie-Noëlle Drouet, known as Minou Drouet (born July 24, 1947), of La Guerche-de-Bretagne, France, is a former poet, musician, and actor.

Drouet gained fame in 1955 when some of her poems and letters circulated privately among French writers and publishers, generating controversy over whether or not Drouet's mother Claude was their true author. Drouet soon overcame much of this skepticism by writing poems before witnesses without her mother present. In one such test, she wrote a poem to gain admission to France's Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers. Drouet also studied piano and guitar. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Drouet toured as an author and musician. Jean Cocteau said famously of Drouet, "Tous les enfants ont du génie sauf Minou Drouet" (In English: All children have genius, except for Minou Drouet). After her grandmother became ill around 1966, Drouet worked as a nurse for two years before returning to public life as a singer-songwriter and children's novelist. She wrote one adult novel; its title in English translation was Donatella. Eventually, Drouet returned to her childhood home in La Guerche-de-Bretagne. She now lives with her husband Jean-Paul Le Canu and has left public life except to publish a memoir, Ma vérité, in 1993. New Yorker critic Robert Gottlieb describes Ma vérité as "reticent and skimpy," saying that it focuses on facts rather than subjective interpretations of Drouet's childhood.

Wednesday 29 June 2016

Super Humans - Lope de Vega

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈfeliks ˈlope ðe ˈβeɣa i ˈkarpjo]; 25 November 1562 – 27 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature is second only to that of Cervantes, while the sheer volume of his literary output is unequalled, making him one of the most prolific authors in the history of literature.

Nicknamed "The Phoenix of Wits" and "Prodigy of Nature" (in Spanish: Fénix de los Ingenios, Monstruo de la Naturaleza; because of the volume of his work) by Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega renewed the Spanish theatre at a time when it was starting to become a mass cultural phenomenon. He defined its key characteristics, and along with Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina, took Spanish Baroque theatre to its greatest heights. Because of the insight, depth and ease of his plays, he is regarded as one of the greatest dramatists in Western literature, his plays still being produced worldwide. He was also one of the best lyric poets in the Spanish language, and author of several novels. Although not well known in the English-speaking world, his plays were presented in England as late as the 1660s, when diarist Samuel Pepys recorded having attended some adaptations and translations of them, although he omits mentioning the author. Some 3,000 sonnets, 3 novels, 4 novellas, 9 epic poems, and about 500 plays are attributed to him. Although he has been criticised for putting quantity ahead of quality, nevertheless at least 80 of his plays are considered masterpieces. He was a friend of the writers Quevedo and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, and the volume of his lifework made him envied by not only contemporary authors such as Cervantes and Góngora, but also by many others: for instance, Goethe once wished he had been able to produce such a vast and colourful work. 

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio was born in Madrid to a family of undistinguished origins, recent arrivals in the capital from Valle de Carriedo in Cantabria. His father, Félix de Vega, was an embroiderer. Little is known of his mother, Francisca Fernández Flórez. He later added the distinguished name of Carpio from one of his in-laws. After a brief stay in Valladolid, his father moved to Madrid in 1561, perhaps drawn by the possibilities of the new capital city. However, Lope de Vega would later affirm that his father arrived in Madrid through a love affair from which his future mother was to rescue him. Thus the writer became the fruit of this reconciliation and owed his existence to the same jealousies he would later analyze so much in his dramatic works. The first indications of young Lope's genius became apparent in his earliest years. His friend and biographer Pérez de Montalbán stated that at the age of five he was already reading Spanish and Latin, and by his tenth birthday he was translating Latin verse. He wrote his first play when he was 12, allegedly El verdadero amante, as he would later affirm in his dedication of the work to his son Lope, although this statements are most probably exaggerations. His great talent bore him to the school of poet and musician Vicente Espinel in Madrid, to whom he later always referred with veneration. In his fourteenth year he continued his studies in the Colegio Imperial, a Jesuit school in Madrid, from which he absconded to take part in a military expedition in Portugal. Following that escapade, he had the good fortune of being taken into the protection of the Bishop of Ávila, who recognized the lad's talent and saw him enrolled in the University of Alcalá. Following graduation Lope had planned to follow in his patron's footsteps and join the priesthood, but those plans were dashed by falling in love and realizing that celibacy was not for him. Thus he failed to attain a bachelor's degree and made what living he could as a secretary to aristocrats or by writing plays. In 1583 Lope enlisted in the Spanish Navy and saw action at the Battle of Ponta Delgada in the Azores, under the command of his future friend Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, to whose son he would later dedicate a play. Following this he returned to Madrid and began his career as a playwright in earnest. He also began a love affair with Elena Osorio (the "Filis" of his poems), who was separated from her husband, actor Cristóbal Calderón, and was the daughter of a leading theater director. When, after some five years of this torrid affair, Elena spurned Lope in favor of another suitor, his vitriolic attacks on her and her family landed him in jail for libel and, ultimately, earned him the punishment of eight years' banishment from the court and two years' banishment from Castile.

Tuesday 28 June 2016

Super Humans - Seth F. Henriett

Henriett Seth F. (Hungarian pseudonym Seth F. Henriett; birth name Fajcsák Henrietta; born 27 October 1980) is a Hungarian autistic savant poet, writer, musician and artist who became world famous with one book titled Autizmussal önmagamba zárva ("Closed into myself with autism") and her one sentence on many cubes from her book made one monodrama, titled Nemsenkilény, monológ nemmindegyembereknek ("Notanobodycreature"), before the age of 30. worldwide and nationally having regard to her childhood autism and heart disorders as mitral valve prolapse, three eye disorders as nearsightedness, astigmatism, strabismus, orthopedic diseases and other physical disorders. She gave up creative music career altogether at the age of 13, creative writing altogether at the age of 25 and she also gave up creative painting altogether before the age of 27. Henriett Seth F.' s life and arts can be compared with Arthur Rimbaud' s life and her arts took after her "Little Wassily Kandinsky" 's. Henriett universal effect of all that was what we now call autism and savant syndrome. 

Henriett did not make eye contact in her early childhood. In 1987 all the primary schools in her town refused her admission application because of her communication problems. She was placed in a music and art class, but she never sang songs, so, in 1989 she was sent to a mentally handicapped primary school by two teachers, although she remained in music and art class. She played flute at the age of 8 and played contrabass at the age of 10–12, and until the age of 13 she was in many concerts in the Garrison and Soldiers of Club (in Hungarian: Helyorsegi Klub). She gave up creative music career altogether at the age of 13. She was also found to have echolalia, communications problems and repetitive behaviors, see Henriett as a young girl – on the first digitized videos of childhood autism and savant syndrome on Hungary – on investigations and language development with her photos of paintings by Hungarian Autism Research Group, Budapest, 2002. She was diagnosed with childhood autism by Hungarian Autism Research Group (Autizmus Alapítvány és Kutatócsoport) and two psychiatries of Eger. Henriett had a long history of visual art, poetry and writing in her childhood; beginning at age nine and finishing at age thirteen. Henriett universal effect of all that was what we now call autism and savant syndrome, she painted autistic art paintings to the House of Arts, Eger, and Hotel Stadion of Budapest in the East-European Autism Conference, 2004. She won the Géza Gárdonyi Prize at the age of 18 for her art and literature. Henriett went to Eszterházy Károly College at the age of 18 to the Psychology Institution, but her communication and her behavior problems finished with a diagnosis of childhood autism in 2002. She has Raven IQ above 140 and Magyar Wechsler Intelligence Test (MAWI) IQ above 120 with part some under IQ 90, so she was considered handicapped genius, a perfect example of childhood autism and savant syndrome, see disability support. In 2005, she wrote a book, Autizmussal önmagamba zárva ("Closed into myself with autism"), that was published by the Hungarian Autism Research Group and Ministry for National Cultural Heritage. Henriett was invited to the Friderikusz Sándor's documentary film, to Szólás Szabadsága ("Freedom of Speech"), in 2005, that was seen by 700,000 people. This documentary film was entitled Esőlány ("Rain Girl"). In 2006 Henriett wrote one novel, Autizmus – Egy másik világ ("Autism – Another World"). That work was published by University of Pécs, in the New Galaxy anthology. Henriett won the 6th-place prize in the International Literature Competition in 2000, at the age of 19. She came in first in 2001, at the age of 20 (by International Alliance of Hungarian Writers). Henriett wrote novels and poems during her childhood, as well as in college life to the periodical Esőember ("Rain Man"), 2006. She showed her last art work in Brody Sandor Public Library in June 2007. She gave up creative writing altogether at the age of 25 and she also gave up creative painting altogether before the age of 27. She did not sold work of her childhood and teen age literature and visual art at her mother's advice, but her own room was transformed childhood autism and savant syndrome memorial room at age 30. She also had three autoimmune disorders and now living with childhood autism, heart disorders as mitral valve prolapse, three eye disorders as nearsightedness, astigmatism, strabismus, orthopedic diseases and other physical disorders. Her organism was attacked by cancer in 2009. In 2010, Orlai Produkciós Iroda made a monodrama, Nemsenkilény, monológ nemmindegyembereknek ("Notanobodycreature"), from book of Henriett Seth F. The text book contains details of Donna Williams' s Nobody Nowhere: The extraordinary Autobiography of an Autistic Girl, Don't want to Be Inside Me Anymore: Messages from Autistic Mind. That played in Esztergom, Budapest, Pécs, Tatabánya, Székesfehérvár and Eger theatres and made from it TV documentary in Hungarian Television, 2010, and Budapest, Gyöngyös theatres in 2011. Henriett Seth F.' s life and arts can be compared with Arthur Rimbaud' s life and her arts took after her "Little Wassily Kandinsky" 's.