Eccentricity. We all know it when we see it. Chances are high that some of you reading this are eccentric. Everyone loves an eccentric. I relate to myself as an eccentric now that people have referred to me as one. Eccentrics tend to be cheerful souls who rarely seek psychological treatment. They tend to obsess about things, and are comfortable being a black sheep among the herds of white sheep. It is quite difficult to label an eccentric in modern day society because many people pretend to be something they are not,. If you eat sleep and breathe eccentricity that is what shall surely define you an eccentric.
“The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor and moral courage it contained. That so few people now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time” — John Stuart Mill, 1859
The only person to have studied eccentricity much at all is David Weeks, a psychiatrist and co-author of the book Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness. What was discussed during a ten-year study of 1,000 fairly odd people may shock you. So many people assume that eccentricity is one short step from serious mental disorder, but David’s case studies suffered less from mental illnesses (such as depression) than the majority of the population. Fewer than 30 had ever been drug or alcohol abusers. He also found that eccentrics visit the doctor 20 times less often than most of us and, on average, live slightly longer. Those are some major benefits of non-conformity! To say it simply, the people who don't repress their inner nature in the struggle to follow the herd of sheep suffer less stress. Therefore, they are happier and their immune systems work more efficiently!
Overall, David found that eccentrics tend to be positive people with a highly developed, mischievous sense of humor, a childlike curiosity and a drive to make the world a better place.
Only about one in every 10,000 people is a "classic, full-time eccentric" and most are marked at an early age. If you can check off the five traits below, chances are you are one of them.
• A non-conforming attitude
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Idealism
• An obsession with a hobby or hobbies
Pythagoras
575 -500 B.C.
The Greek Mathematician who came up with the Pythagorean theorem came up with his own religion. Pythagoras' religion had two primary tenets: souls are reincarnated, and beans are evil. Not symbolic beans, or supernatural beans, but just plain, edible beans…. Are evil?!?
Amongst other preposterousness, Pythagoreanism's greatest commandments include:
-Do not, under any circumstances, eat beans
-Smooth out all bodily indents on pillows and/or beds
-Do not step over a crossbar
-Do not sit on a quart
-Do not walk on highways
-Do not leave the pot's impression in the ashes after removing it from the fire
-Do not stir a fire without iron
-Do not let swallows nest under the roof
Pythagoras' clique had some more logical rules, such as vegetarianism and nonviolence, but he tended to break those. The vegetarianism rules were bent when, upon discovering his famous theorem, he celebrated by slaughtering an ox. His message of nonaggression suffered greatly from his dying in a fight.
Michelangelo
1475-1564
Michelangelo had a major issue with personal hygeine. Not only did he bathe "very rarely" (by 15th century Italian standards, no less LOL), he rarely changed clothes and slept in his shoes. His assistant once complained that, "He has sometimes gone so long without taking his shoes off that then the skin came away, like a snake's, with the boots." That sort of thing has caused some to say that maybe he suffered from autism. He showed all of the signs, including struggling with social interactions (though it probably didn't help that he smelled RANK). He would rarely speak to others, he hated doing so, and he had a tendency to end a conversation abruptly by walking away. When his brother died, Michelangelo skipped the funeral. His autism speculations may be the cause of what made him focus on his work obsessively, to the sacrifice of absolutely everything else in his life.
Simeon Ellerton
1702 – 1799
Simeon Ellerton lived in the 18th century and was a fitness fanatic. Because he loved to walk long distances, he acted as a courier for the locals. On his many journeys he would gather up stones from the roadside and carry them on his head. His goal was to gather sufficient stones to build his own house. Eventually he had enough stones and he made a little cottage for himself. Having spent so many years carrying extra weight, he felt uncomfortable without it, so for the rest of his life he walked around with a bag of stones on his head.
Jemmy Hirst
1738 – 1829
Jemmy loved animals and so he trained his bull to behave like a horse. The bull would draw his carriage about the village and Hirst even rode him in fox hunts. Instead of dogs, he used pigs that he had trained as hunt dogs. He kept a pet jackdaw and also trained a hedgehog to follow him around. Hirst's reputation grew large enough that King George III was intrigued and invited him to visit the castle in London. Hirst sent a reply that he was busy trying to train otters to fish, but that would come at a later time. The day he finally arrived in his bull drawn carriage; he attracted much attention in his outlandishly decorated costume. During this visit, at the dining table; a gentlemen began to laugh and Jemmy proceeded to throw water in his face; announcing that he must be "having hysterics". He regularly invited beggars to his home for free food – which he served out of a coffin. When he died in 1829, he left £12 to twelve old maids who were to follow his coffin. He also hired two musicians, a fiddler and a bagpiper, who were to play happy songs. He also left his accountant a piece of rope to "go hang himself with".
William Buckland
1784 – 1856
William Buckland was exceedingly eccentric when it came to food and wildlife. Buckland’s love of wildlife resulted in his house being a zoo. He filled it with animals of every kind and he then ate them all and served them to dinner guests. He claimed to have eaten every animal in the kingdom. Guests described being served panther, crocodile, and mouse. The creatures that he said tasted worst were bluebottle flies, and mole. Augustus Hare told this legendary story of Buckland: “Talk of strange relics led to mention of the heart of a French King [Louis XIV] preserved at Nuneham in a silver casket. Dr. Buckland, whilst looking at it, exclaimed, ‘I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before,’ and, before anyone could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and the precious relic was lost for ever.” William Archibald Spooner
1844 – 1930
William Archibald Spooner is forever sealed into history books because the linguistic phenomenon known as a “spoonerism” is named after him. A spoonerism involves the accidental (or sometimes intentional) swapping of letters, words, or vowels in a sentence Spooner was a professor at Oxford and he became so famous for his spoonerisms that people would attend his lectures just to hear him make a mistake. He was not pleased about the great publicity that surrounded him but as he neared death his attitude softened and he gave interviews to the press• Once Dr. Spooner raised a toast to Her Royal Highness, Queen Victoria, and proclaimed: "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"
• During World War I he reassured his students, "When our boys come home from France, we will have the hags flung out." • On another occasion, he lionized Britain's farmers as "ye noble tons of soil."
• We learn of these speech errors from the notes of his students, which they generously shared by publishing them. They probably made most if not all of them up themselves. This one was probably a compilation of several others. Dr. Spooner is supposed to have chastised one of his students thus: "You have hissed all the mystery lectures, I saw you fight that liar behind the gymnasium, and, in short, you have tasted the whole worm."
• He is reported to have made a double screw-up upon once dropping his hat then asking: "Will nobody pat my hiccup?" • He reportedly ended a wedding he was performing with: "It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."
• Paying a visit to the college dean (before he took over that position himself), he supposedly queried: "Is the bean dizzy?"
• He replaced "crushing blow" with "blushing crow" in one lecture.
• He once referred to a well-oiled bicycle as "a well-boiled icicle."
• "I have in my bosom a half-warmed fish" (for half-formed wish) is not beyond the pale of actual possibility.
• Once upon entering church, Spooner exclaimed, "Good grief! Someone is occu-pewing my pie!"
Oscar Wilde
1854 – 1900
Oscar Wilde is indisputably the most famous member of this list. During a time of moral traditionalism, Wilde was known for rocking unusually flamboyant clothing and publicly displaying his strangeness. While studying at Oxford University, he walked through the streets with a lobster on a leash. Wilde became famous for his role in the aesthetics and debaucheries. He wore his hair long, spoke strongly against "manly" sports and decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china. He is famous for stating: "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china." He was the direct opposite of what the prim and proper Victorian England expected an Englishman to be and he bold way he openly displayed his eccentricity caused him much turmoil. Unfortunately; an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas send him to jail for sodomy and abruptly ended his career.Sir George Sitwell
1860 – 1943
Sir George Sitwell was a very bizarre eccentric man. He was known for being an expert an extreme gardener. One day, completely annoyed by the wasps in his garden, he invented a gun to shoot them dead. He is known for attempting to pay his son’s tuition fees with produce from his garden. He moved to Italy to avoid taxes in Britain But once he got married but he refused to pay his new wife’s debts which caused her to go to prison. He was a total bookworm that had seven libraries in his home. Sir George had the cows on his estate that he stenciled in a blue and white Chinese willow pattern in order to make them look prettier” On the gate of his manor in Derbyshire, England he hung a sign that states: “I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of my gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night.”
Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson
1883 – 1950
Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson was a Musician, artist and writer. But he was more notorious for his eccentricity, which includes dying pigeons in bright colors. He kept a pet giraffe that would sit with him for afternoon tea regularly. At one point he invited and entertained Penelope Betjeman's horse to tea. He had a Rolls-Royce that contained a small keyboard that was stored beneath the front seat. Near his house he had a 100-foot viewing tower constructed, Farringdon Folly, a notice at the entrance reading: "Members of the Public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk". His epitaph on his gravestone reads: "Here lies Lord Berners One of the learners His great love of learning May earn him a burning But, Praise the Lord! He seldom was bored".Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol
Aka
THE Salvador Dali
1904 – 1989
Dalí was a highly imaginative surrealist artist. He wore a long cape, used a walking stick and rocked an upturned wax moustache. He also indulged in some extremely unusual behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing publicity stunts sometimes drew more attention than his artwork. He was known to avoid paying tabs at restaurants by drawing on the checks he wrote. His theory was the restaurant would never want to cash such a valuable piece of art, and he was usually correct. The entertainer Cher and her husband Sonny Bono came to a party at Dalí's expensive residence in New York's Plaza Hotel and were startled when Cher sat down on an oddly shaped sexual vibrator left in an easy chair. In the 1960s, he gave the actress Mia Farrow a dead mouse in a bottle, hand-painted. Salvador Dalí frequently traveled with his pet ocelot Babou. During a television appearance, on The Tonight Show, Dalí carried with him a leather rhinoceros and refused to sit upon anything else
He is famous for stating "Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí".
Betsey Johnson
1942 – Current
Betsey is a fashion designer best known for her eccentric and whimsical designs. Many will say that the modern eccentric lady shall be fashioned in Betsey Johnson’s traditional tutu Prom dress. She once described her style as a formula: "Take a leotard and add a skirt." She says that she spends $20,000 a year on hair extensions and apparently dyes her hair everyday. When appearing on a talk show at age 70, she entered the stage by doing a cartwheel. In fact when entering or exiting the runway at every single one of her fashion shows it done by that infamous Cartwheel.
Prince
1958 – Current
Prince is known for his music, as well as his flamboyant stage presence and costumes. He is also known for his antics. In 1993 he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, forcing his fans to call him The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. In the late 1980s, an album that was set for release – The Black Album – was sensationally pulled at the last minute because Prince became convinced that it was evil. He also appeared in public with the word 'slave' written on his cheek when going thru a legal battle with his record company. When Prince was asked to open a series of shows for the Rolling Stones, he showed up on stage wearing a trench coat and bikini briefs.Dennis Rodman
1961 – Current
Dennis Keith Rodman is a retired NBA player. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "The Worm" and was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Rodman experienced an unfortunate childhood and was an introvert in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a "bad boy" and became notorious for numerous controversial antics. He repeatedly dyed his hair in artificial colors, had many piercings and tattoos, and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He is most famous for wearing a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography entitled “Bad As I Wanna Be”. Björk
1965 – Current
Björk is a famous Icelandic songstress and actress. She notoriously sent flowers to a stalker who tried to kill her. And if that wasn’t strange enough, she is also known for laying an egg on the Oscar red carpet while wearing a swan dress. She has stated: "I never really understood the word 'loneliness.' As far as I was concerned, I was in an orgy with the sky and the ocean, and with nature." Björk actually won an award for being “The Weirdest Person in the World Ever”.
Brian Hugh Warner
aka
Marilyn Manson
1969- Current
Brian is quite an unusual dark madman of a musician, also sometimes an actor and painter. He takes his role of being Marilyn Manson very seriously. And when taking oneself seriously, while doing ludicrous and preposterous things – that is the key to being a great eccentric. Manson earned himself a reputation of being a controversial figure and a negative influence on young people. Marilyn Manson obviously has an affinity for the macabre. He is known for self-harming himself on stage and music videos. He has a vast collection of vintage metal lunch boxes and medical prosthetics including artificial limbs and glass eyes. At some point, he admitted to owning a fetus contained in a jar, given to him as a gift.
Crazy moments on Marilyn Manson’s stage have included the following:
• Wiping his butt with the American flag
• Tearing pages from the Bible
• Pretending to engage in sex acts
• The use of Nazi-esque symbols
Michael Jackson
1958-2009
Michael Jackson was a singer, actor, musician, dancer, businessman, and philanthropist. The word eccentric doesn't begin to describe the complexity of Michael's lifestyle. Although he is what one would call severely mentally disturbed; he definitely blurs right into the eccentric label with his appearance and his public antics. Michael bleached his skin, and became obsessed with plastic surgery, altering his appearance so much that he was barely recognizable. He was known to have worn a prosthetic nose. Michael built his home; known formally as the Neverland; to be truly a place where no man ever has to grow up. He filled it with animals, fairground rides, all manner of expensive décor and, of course, real lives YOUNG children. In this painting featured Michael, he strikes the same pose as Michelangelo’s statue of David with rippling abs, bulging pecs and smooth, marble-white skin — surrounded by a bevy of young male cherubs.
Peter Thomas Ratajczyk
aka The Peter Steele
1962-2010
Peter was a world known rock musician known for being the Singer/Bassist in the goth metal band Type O negative. He had a very tall stature, rich baritone vocals, sported vampire teeth and had a dark self- deprecating sense of humor. Steele admitted to suffering from stage fright which he overcame by drinking alcohol before shows, and by drinking red wine when on stage. He drove a heavily modified 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix he customized himself. He has many HILARIOUS moments in interviews which portray his eccentric side including the following:
On whether there was a "Normal Peter" and "Stage Peter":
"When I go onstage, I do have to access that part of my personality. But it's really funny, like, going food shopping and being recognized by fans. And of course, I’m taking toilet paper off the rack when they come over. I’m like, 'I’m sorry. I (defecate), too.' I love to see people’s reactions. We’re just 'humanzees.' When people see something different, they’re stunned. You know, like a stunned George Bush staring with his mouth open? And then people will laugh at things that are different. You know why you’re laughing? Because I’m a threat to you. That’s why you’re laughing. Because every time you laugh, you kick the reaper in the (scrotum). So keep laughing. Because I am the reaper. I am the prophet of doom."
On other ways of getting a response:
"If you drink two-week-old milk and you have vomit breath…€” oh man, they love it. I just like being a social experiment sometimes. I really should not be allowed in public. But I just go out into the public just to see people’s reaction. The thing is, I can do anything I want, virtually, within reason, just to see people’s reaction. ... People laugh at me because I get in the shopping cart and push myself down the aisle, like, knocking over cereals. People are laughing at me. Then I pull over and I’m like (in lowered voice), 'The day will come when you will never laugh again.' And then I go look at pork chops. 'Whattaya mean they’re $10.99 a pound?' Sometimes, I just buy stuff just to see people’s reactions. Because everybody looks in everyone else’s carts. If you’re buying low-fat yogurt and 100 boxes of tampons, it gains a little bit of attention."
On styling himself:
"I was thinking about bleaching my hair white to look like the Winter Warlock, and to put green streaks in it. But all these hairdressers were like, 'Oh, you’re hair’s going to fall out!' I’m like, 'I’m dead already! What do I have to lose?' The hair on my head is a wig, anyway. I just thought it would be really cool. I’m, like, 445 years old now. I don’t feel my age. To see someone 70 years old with dyed black hair, you’re like, 'Hmmm, I dunno. Is that a wrinkled teenager? What is that?' So at some point, I’m going to have to stop doing this. It’s gonna look ridiculous. I don’t wanna look like Elvis Presley at 60 years old. There’s this great thing: If you take a Now Or Later (brand) taffy, and you push it onto your gums, and you take peanuts and push them into the taffy, it looks like 'baked bean' teeth. The girls love it."
On November 21, 2011, an oak tree was planted in Prospect Park to commemorate Steele.
Lady Gaga
1986 - Current
The last eccentric character of this post is the Lady GaGa. I sometimes think she is the real deal eccentric. A grade-A, not-from-this-planet, non-conforming, Kermit dress-wearing, eccentric. Many will never EVER forget her infamous Meat dress.
Most of her antics may be just a stage presence, but I think she is eccentric enough to make this list.
• Rotating on a giant barbeque spit on stage.
• Being vomited on by Millie Brown while on stage
• Wearing lampshades in public
If you find that you identify as an eccentric, you should OWN your personality. Always remember that while there will be those who reject you and make fun of your antics, it’s truly not your problem, its THEIR problem. If you choose to march your own beat, you are doing yourself a favor and will stride full speed towards self awareness and happiness.
