A Beautiful Mind Revisited
Well, I'm just about done wading through the book A Beautiful Mind and have to take back what I just said about the film's being one of those cinematic rarities that adds to the understanding of a novel. A Passage to India will have to remain alone in that category.

I never thought I'd say anything bad about a Ron Howard film, but here it is.
I'm sorry to say that the film A Beautiful Mind bears so little resemblance to actual facts as to be an abomination: short of using John Nash's name and one sentence he is said to have uttered, about not feeling he should be in the faculty lounge, it has no resemblance to reality at all. Worse, its fanciful portrayal of schizophrenia is so Hollywoodized as to do a great disservice to schizophrenics. Now, I will look into John Nash's autobiographical essay to see if perhaps there is anything contained in there that supports what we saw in the film, but I'm doubtful.

John Nash's schizophrenia was typical of the schizophrenia suffered by genius; one is already isolated by a high degree of intelligence and, if one's talents lie in a field that few work in, the isolation is even greater. It tends to megalomania. Schizophrenic delusion is perhaps the only common thing about John Nash.

A Beautiful Mind was indeed an entertaining movie. I'll have to revisit it to see if it is still as entertaining as a fiction. It was stimulating to think that it was a careful representation of a delusional state of mind; it is, however, a fantasy.