# Terrence Howard: The Gene Ray of Hollywood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392 "2015-09-15T19:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/1 "2015-09-15T19:02:30Z")
This is just screwy. “Terrence Howard’s Dangerous Mind” > **[Terrence Howard's Dangerous Mind](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/terrence-howards-dangerous-mind-37057/)** > > He's the leading man on network TV's biggest new show, but trouble and turmoil have chased him his entire life. The 'Empire' star opens up > [@](#): > > In response, the formerly redheaded little motherfucker did what he had to do. He continued to love himself by buying scissors, wire, magnets and vast numbers of sheets of plastic. He had a theory. It might seem crazy, it may even be crazy, but a long time ago he’d gotten hold of this notion that one times one doesn’t equal one, but two. He began writing down his logic, in a language of his own devising that he calls Terryology. He wrote forward and backward, with both his right and left hands, sometimes using symbols he made up that look foreign, if not alien, to keep his ideas secret until they could be patented. In 2013, he got married again, to an L.A. restaurateur named Mira Pak, and the two would spend up to 17 hours a day cutting shapes out of the plastic and joining them together into various objects meant to demonstrate not only his one-times-one theory but many others as well. > … > He steps across the room, considers some other objects — straight lines and curves in plastic, clear and colored, bending and unbent, stitched together with copper wire, soldered in places — and returns with a roundish one. > > “Since I was a child of three or four,” he says, “I was always wondering, you know, why does a bubble take the shape of a ball? Why not a triangle or a square? I figured it out. If Pythagoras was here to see it, he would lose his mind. Einstein, too! Tesla!” He shakes his head at the miracle of it all, his eyes opening wide, a smile beginning to trace itself, like he’s expecting applause or an award. And all you can do is nod your head and try to follow along. He just seems so convinced that he’s right. And that he is about to change the world. > > “This is the last century that our children will ever have been taught that one times one is one,” he says. “They won’t have to grow up in ignorance. Twenty years from now, they’ll know that one times one equals two. We’re about to show a new truth. The true universal math. And the proof is in these pieces. I have created the pieces that make up the motion of the universe. We work on them about 17 hours a day. She cuts and puts on the crystals. I do the main work of soldering them together. They tell the truth from within.” ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/2 "2015-09-15T19:10:11Z")
Yeah, I read a news article on bbcdotcom about this. Not gonna throw my neck joints out with all the head-shaking _I_ could do. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/3 "2015-09-15T21:37:57Z")
Momentarily confusing Clint and Terrence Howard made for some pretty odd mental imagery there… ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/4 "2015-09-15T21:54:13Z")
I thought that dopers would be all over this. Instead I get one person not willing to disjoint his neck, and an abstruse remark about Clint vs Terrence mental imagery. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/5 "2015-09-15T22:16:07Z")
It’s just terribly sad. He’s a very talented actor that I have enjoyed watching in a number of projects, but he’s clearly mentally ill. Unless he gets help, this story is going to end very, very badly. [sup]makes note for 2016 Death Pool…[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/6 "2015-09-15T22:20:59Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > It’s just terribly sad. He’s a very talented actor that I have enjoyed watching in a number of projects, but he’s clearly mentally ill. Unless he gets help, this story is going to end very, very badly. The story has already run badly. Howard has a history of violence. In my unprofessional opinion, he appears to be a sociopath; he even talks about other people not being real. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/7 "2015-09-16T00:12:40Z")
17 Hours a day assembling plastic and metal doodads to prove that 1 x 1 = 2. His wife has left him. As you say, this can’t end well. Does he fit the definition of sociopath? For whatever my unprofessional opinion is worth, he sounds schizophrenic. (Maybe you can be both.) His thinking is certainly disordered. I compared him to Gene Ray (of [timecube.com](http://timecube.com)) because they both adamantly expound mathematical theories that have no connection to reality, aren’t even internally consistent, and sound like the ramblings of a schizophrenic. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/8 "2015-09-16T00:27:08Z")
Thank god he was never given access to repulsor technology. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/9 "2015-09-16T00:40:10Z")
He sounds like a tweaker. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/10 "2015-09-16T00:59:54Z")
Terence Howard is a serial abuser of women, including at least two of his wives, and at least two complete strangers, one of whom has permanent facial deformities because he sucker punched her for no good reason while she was just trying to get dinner at a diner. But his history as an unrepentant batterer has been whitewashed by Fox and Lee Daniels to prop up "Empire and is now going to be buried under sympathy for him because he built a delusion to cover his inability to understand math. Screw Terence Howard. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/11 "2015-09-16T03:22:39Z")
He can be both a serial abuser of women and a crazy man with genuine delusions. It’s not an either-or proposition. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/12 "2015-09-16T04:29:23Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > He can be both a serial abuser of women and a crazy man with genuine delusions. It’s not an either-or proposition. And AND also a tweaker. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/13 "2015-09-16T04:34:29Z")
sad to hear about his acts of violence pretty good actor but will be harder to enjoy is roles now… ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/14 "2015-09-16T04:41:18Z")
He’s a sad nutcase serial abuser of women. I can’t watch things that he’s in. (I did watch _Wayward Pines_ but I did laugh when his character got hit by a car. ) My sister can’t figure out why I don’t like Empire. I’d probably like it if he weren’t in it ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/15 "2015-09-16T04:57:15Z")
I knew very little about him. Obviously there’s a lot more to this man than his mathematical genius. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/16 "2015-09-16T06:42:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The story has already run badly. Howard has a history of violence. In my unprofessional opinion, he appears to be a sociopath; he even talks about other people not being real. That doesn’t sound like a sociopath, it sounds like he’s psychotic, and everything else in the story supports that. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/17 "2015-09-16T19:41:56Z")
This part: > [@](#): > > After high school, he attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, studying chemical engineering, until he got into an argument with a professor about what one times one equals. “How can it equal one?” he said. “If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. One times one equals two because the square root of four is two, so what’s the square root of two? Should be one, but we’re told it’s two, and that cannot be.” This did not go over well, he says, and he soon left school. “I mean, you can’t conform when you know innately that something is wrong.” Just how did he get into any kind of engineering class thinking this? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/18 "2015-09-16T21:05:23Z")
You have to wonder if the man was ever taught the definitions of the basic arithmetic operations, although obviously his problems go beyond simple ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/19 "2015-09-17T02:46:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > That doesn’t sound like a sociopath, it sounds like he’s psychotic, and everything else in the story supports that. As I said, I’m not a psychologist. But my understanding is that psychotics are delusional; they see things that aren’t there. Sociopaths are just emotionally disconnected. So a psychotic will kill you because he thinks you’re a robot trying to steal his soul. A sociopath will be aware you’re a human being but he’ll kill you because you took the parking space he wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392/20 "2015-09-17T04:34:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As I said, I’m not a psychologist. But my understanding is that psychotics are delusional; they see things that aren’t there. Sociopaths are just emotionally disconnected. So a psychotic will kill you because he thinks you’re a robot trying to steal his soul. A sociopath will be aware you’re a human being but he’ll kill you because you took the parking space he wanted. IANAP myself, but it seems to me that sociopaths aren’t irrational - if anything, they’re \*too \*rational, in that they don’t let emotions get in the way of their own self-interest. In a way, sociopathy is the \*opposite \*of insanity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrence-howard-the-gene-ray-of-hollywood/731392.md?page=2)