An amusing and only exceedingly tangentially related story is the story of the poet, anthologizer, and literary critic Fujiwara Shunzei (1114-1204). He thought he was dying around age 59/60--which wouldn't have been an unusual age to die--so he took the tonsure... and then recovered and lived to like 90.
...yeah, he wasn't a hero and he didn't have a tragic death, and even if he had died at 60, it would hardly qualify as genius nipped in the bud, but it's kind of funny to think of him preparing for and expecting his own demise and then having to go on and be fabulously successful for longer. Kind of if someone handed Yoshitune the imperial throne, three healthy, even-tempered heirs, and a never-empty chest of gold or something...
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Date: 2008-09-28 09:12 pm (UTC)An amusing and only exceedingly tangentially related story is the story of the poet, anthologizer, and literary critic Fujiwara Shunzei (1114-1204). He thought he was dying around age 59/60--which wouldn't have been an unusual age to die--so he took the tonsure... and then recovered and lived to like 90.
...yeah, he wasn't a hero and he didn't have a tragic death, and even if he had died at 60, it would hardly qualify as genius nipped in the bud, but it's kind of funny to think of him preparing for and expecting his own demise and then having to go on and be fabulously successful for longer. Kind of if someone handed Yoshitune the imperial throne, three healthy, even-tempered heirs, and a never-empty chest of gold or something...