#Madness

Kurosawa’s Paradox of Sanity in Chaos

Kurosawa’s aphorism pivots on a paradox: when the world itself is deranged—morally, politically, or epistemically—the people who refuse to adapt can appear unhinged. In such climates, conformity masquerades as sanity while clear-sighted dissent is mislabeled as madness. Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) visualizes this inversion: when reason nods off, nightmares pass for the ordinary. This framing invites a deeper question: if standards are warped, who decides what counts as sane? The line suggests that sanity may be less about fitting in and more about perceiving reality without the filters a sick society enforces. With that, we turn to Kurosawa’s own films, where characters marked as fools or obsessives often see the most clearly. [...]

There Is No Great Genius Without a Mixture of Madness – Aristotle

Those who defy norms are often labeled 'mad' by their contemporaries. In Mary Shelley’s *Frankenstein* (1818), Victor Frankenstein’s obsessive pursuit of knowledge estranges him from society, raising questions about the fine line between innovation and folly. [...]

The Place Where Optimism Most Flourishes Is the Lunatic Asylum — Victor Hugo

It encourages reflection on the nature of optimism and its role in human existence. At what point does positive thinking become irrational, and how does society perceive this boundary between hope and delusion? [...]

When Love Is Not Madness, It Is Not Love - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

This quote suggests that true love is intense and all-consuming. If love does not drive one to extreme emotions and actions, it lacks the depth that defines real love. [...]