With reference to Lisa Brennan-Jobs talking about her father, Steve Jobs (Family, 1 September); typing on my beautiful Apple Macbook, by the side of my beautiful fan leg table (by Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto), I’ve got a moral dilemma. Both these much-loved products were designed by men of vision, talent and firmness of purpose who, according to their daughters, had been not-there-fathers. If they had been more-there-fathers, would these iconic products have seen the light of day? It is probably the wrong question to ask, as creativity is rarely governed by moral philosophy. I suspect that “dysfunctional” fathers Jobs and Aalto could not help themselves, being forever under the spell of some idea and the need to realise that idea in some form. However, both men were altruistic in their own way. Jobs wanted to “put a ding in the universe” and for Aalto: “Even the smallest daily chore can be humanised with the harmony of culture.”
Trevor Jones
Sheringham, Norfolk
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