A closet genius.

The general feeling one may experience when watching In the Realms of the Unreal may differ from one person to another. The feelings I felt were very mixed. In some parts the movie made me feel pity for Henry Darger, in other parts it made me feel disgusted. This documentary showed the potential of people that most would consider ordinary, or even quite uninteresting. Nobody knew about the epic that Darger had spent his life working on until, as he said shortly before he died "Its too late now." Darger used his twisted childhood to create an epic that was over 15000 pages long. He painted thousands of paintings illustrating the grotesque, violent, and chilling events that took place "in the realms of the unreal". The most amazing part of Dargers story is that not only did he write and paint it, but he lived it. There were numerous accounts of Henry speaking or arguing to people that he was writing about. To someone that didn't understand what was happening it may have seemed absolutely crazy. However I don't believe the underlying cause was insanity. What was actually happening was that Darger completely immersed himself into the epic that he wrote. Much like an actor will take on a role, and then not break character even when off camera or when they go home. They stay in character until the entire production is done with. It takes a truly creative mind to weave together such a plot as shown in The Realms of the Unreal. Darger used events that took place in his own life, and used these events to drive the plot of his story. Aside from his creation, look at this man as himself. To others he may have seemed different or mentally ill, however I believe that most geniuses in the world aren't fully understood by most people. There are many examples in literature that can compare to Darger. One of which is Viktor Frankenstein, who cut himself off from all family and friends for years, and completely immersed himself in his work until it was completely finished. Darger was like Frankenstein in this sense. They both kept to themselves (other than the few acquaintances Darger acquired) and generally tried to completely immerse themselves in the amazing work that they were creating. Darger wasn't insane, he wasn't crazy, and he certainly wasn't stupid. This was a man that simply had a completely different view of the world that we lived in. He blamed God for the evil in the world, other than blaming the true evil, which is the dark hearts of the men who control this world. He saw children as absolutely pure and all that is good, and longed to be a child once more. He didn't see war as means to an end, he saw war as something that destroyed and made situations worse. This mans art is something everyone should educate themselves on. Much like all great novels I believe there is something different that everyone could take away from his works. Every painting should be appreciated, his style of art was unique, and rightly repetitive. The image of the girl being strangled was duplicated over and over, there's no reason this should be viewed as lazy or un-creative. Rather, it should be seen as something that was greatly highlighted. The weak being conquered by the strong and the struggles that are caused by overbearing tyrants and rulers. Henry Darger was not a normal man, he was a better man then most.