I think you kind of miss the point about Shane's genius - about genius in general come to that.

Shane is a performance artist. there is an onstage persona - like Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, Madonna as whoever she is this week, Mike Waterson as a Waterson.

Shane stays in character some of the time offstage - to sustain his songwriting. The character Shane has chosen is the loquacious drunken, feted celebrity Celtic poet - Dylan Thomas and Brendhan Beham setting out the original paradigms or blueprints, whatever.

Maybe Shane stays in character too much, but as Alan Bennet says in his essay about Louis MacNeice, MacNeice was too normal - if you don't go overboard, you won't make much of a splash.

Shane is a product of the English public school system. A system ruthlessly dedicated to creating leaders of the pack. That's where Shane's clear sighted ambition comes from and what will save him from an untimely death in the Bix Beiderbecke, Jimi Hendrix fashion.