Ahemsia Karnia
Scene Two
Caulan
They say 'isolation breeds creativity.' Would you say this is true?
Mirek
I suppose it runs true, but only till a certain point. As long as you are exposed to the world, influence is all around you. You read books, hear theories, or spot an interesting article in the newspaper. It's impossible to be completely isolated, I think, until you were actually forced behind steel walls and locked up, like a jail or an mental institute. But this saying is half-wrong. It should be phrased, 'among one of the offshoots of isolation is creativity'. You see, there are bad points too. If you are isolated too long, you can be driven insane, lose touch with reality, or start to have dark thoughts that range from anything or everything. You may become obsessed with escape; your imagination may actually be damaged if all you see around you are grey walls. So yes, I suppose to an extent isolation truely does breed creativity.
Caulan
Would you care to give a few examples?
Mirek
Hell. Criminals, evil geniuses who are locked behind bars. Gandhi, who was imprisoned many times in his life, caused him to mellow and have new ideas while behind bars. When Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island to the Elba, he returned stronger than ever and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Dresden, and managed to inflict heavy damage on the allied forces before they brought him down for the final time. That's not all, however. Regions that were isolated from the rest of the world also turned to be more creative on their own. They created their own architecture, their own religion. Take for example the Olmec civilization: they were cut off from the others, and so they created their own structures from stone, crafting unique pieces. Ancient China began to adopt a policy of isolation, as they didn't care about the rest of the Western world, and they became known as the second greatest land empire, apart from Rome. There are a lot more examples, but hopefully you see what I mean.
Caulan
So, what you're saying is isolation is good, except when it's taken to an extreme degree. You can have friends, but it's parents you can't have. Or perhaps we should phrase it this way: 'ignorance breeds creativity'. You see, let's imagine that a car has has already been invented, right? Suppose you knew that, you wouldn't do much to change it. You would be influenced that it existed, and maybe you'd just change the color and the look of it. But suppose you were ignorant, and you didn't know that it even existed, but you were told that it could be created and you were shown the necessary tools. You would probably come up with something similar to it, but a completely different type. But too much isolation is harmful to your brain, especially when you don't have any way of socializing. It would be different if maybe one person came to talk to you once in a while, but you know what I mean. Too much 'ignorance' can stagnate the mind.
Mirek
Absolutely.