Asthma: a creative condition?

People with asthma may be more creative than those with diabetes, according to a new book.
 
New ‘biographies’ have just been published about the two conditions. The reason they are called biographies is because these are conditions we ‘get to know’ just like people. However, the authors think the two conditions are not always alike. One crucial difference is that with diabetes, you either have it or you don’t. With asthma, by contrast, there is no such certainty. As we all know, we have good days and bad days; for some the condition fades whilst for others it is always capable of giving you a nasty shock.
 
This uncertainty, it is argued, may give some of us with asthma a creative spark. He reels off a long list of famous people with asthma, from Hector (who confronts Achilles in Homer’s Iliad) through composer Vivaldi, emperor Peter the Great, writers Dickens, Proust and Pliny to scores of fictional characters in contemporary fiction.
 
No such list appears in the biography of diabetes which seems to enjoy less of a literary history. Presumably the argument goes that the certainty that comes with living with the condition results in less creative energy.
 
Personally I am not sure what to make of this. It’s easy to see that people with asthma have been and continue to be creative – just check out the general pages of the discussion forum. And it’s true that people with asthma continue to inspire characters in books, films and television – although stereotypes are common, which makes it doubtful that the characters are penned by people who actually have the condition.
 
But does the unpredictability of asthma make it different from other conditions? And could that result in a burst of creativity?
 
What do you think?
 
The book, for those who are interested, is Asthma The Biography by Mark Jackson, which is published by Oxford University Press at £12.99.

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