It's good to know that some people can write intelligent things about the nature of genius without advocating murder in the process. Genius is what happens when a lot of hard work meets superior ability and turns it into an extremely high level of skill, and Robert Fulford summarizes the process nicely.

Boyd draws parallels between the theory of evolution and the work of artists - Homer, Dr. Seuss, whoever. Natural selection, motiveless and unconscious as it is, nevertheless follows certain patterns. Again and again it randomly sets in motion possible solutions to problems of survival, fails, then starts again, re-using whatever elements have proven valuable. "In time, it can create richer solutions to richer problems." Put that way, evolution sounds exactly like the work of a writer.

Dr. Seuss's genius, as Boyd sees it, was the product of a brilliant artist who was also a tireless worker. Boyd contends that literary genius arises, in a perfectly naturalistic manner, through familiar Darwinian processes. A genius tests ideas, discards many, concentrates on a few. Like evolution, literary genius "does not know quite where it is going until it arrives there, usually after a long cycle of generate-test-regenerate." It builds on partial discoveries and then arrives at lasting solutions to problems no one could have formulated in advance.

In his youth Theodor Geisel [Dr. Seuss] found it easy to make people laugh. "He turned these into his speciality: he worked and worked and worked at play." He was a superb problem-solver, like evolution. He spoke to the world's desire for meaningful forms of play and provided (as Boyd eloquently puts it) "the pleasures of amused surprise."

There's an anecdote about Jascha Heifetz who was supposedly told by an admirer "I would give my life to be able to do what you do on the violin" and answered with a stern "I have, madam, I have". If that really happened, Heifetz told the truth - he had to give his life to sound like he did. However, that's only half the truth - if that anonymous woman had sacrificed as much as he did, she would more likely have ended up really good rather than great. Fortunately once in a while natural ability meets tireless practice and we get someone truly extraordinary such as Heifetz or Dr. Seuss.