Thomas Cotterill

The Creative Person’s Holy Grail

American philosopher of mind and of art, Suzanne Langer, asserted that the expression of one’s vague feelings, to clarify them for oneself, is artistic creativity’s primary purpose. This is certainly true, but her further claim that communication to others is merely a peripheral by-product does not stand up to close inspection. Research has shown that artists have a powerful need to share what they have learned. Art is the medium chosen for the clarification attempt precisely because the creator can share artistic products with others. However, where the attempt to share fails, as in those cases where the artist cannot win an audience, the artist will usually continue producing art anyway.

Creative people get lost and become blocked when they fail to recognize that the endpoint or goal of their project has shifted. (Image: public domain.)

According to Langer, “Art is the objectification of feeling, and the subjectification of nature.” That is, artists make their feelings about the world concrete by embodying them in some form of art, but since feelings are entirely subjective, the process results in an object that presents a subjective view of the world.

Deal Creatively with the Inner Critic

Creative people worth their salt have an inner critic. This critical faculty is essential for the production of high quality work. External criticism can point to larger problems, but only after the work in hand has reached a certain point. The moment-to-moment decision making (keeping this, discarding that) of the creative process must be based on an internal critical assessment. Furthermore, while most creators value feedback from others, they recognize that ultimately the work as a whole must meet their own standards and satisfy their own inner critic.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suspended his inner critic, decided his writings were spectacular, and suffered a massive ego inflation. (Photo: public domain)

The Creative Eureka Experience

One of the most commonly talked about aspects of the creative process is the phenomenon of having sudden key insights after one has carefully considered the facts and, unable to find a solution, turned to other things – the famous “eureka” experience. There are many entertaining anecdotes revealing how famous creators experienced a sudden flash of insight, often while doing something quite ordinary. Because of three particularly well-known stories, one might call this the bed, bath, and bus scenario.

Portrait of René Descartes by Jan Baptist Weenix

Rene Descartes had one of his greatest eureka moments while lying in bed idly watching a fly hover in the air. (Image: public domain.)

It all began in Greece. Archimedes supposedly had his eureka moment while relaxing in the public baths and ran home naked shouting “eureka” (I found it) thereby giving the experience its name. The bit about running au naturel through the streets is probably Roman hokum, but it does vividly capture the sense of intense excitement that accompanies the unexpected breakthrough. Henri Poincaré had his seminal insight into non-Euclidean geometry just as he boarded a bus. The idea seemed to come out of nowhere. The French mathematician attributed his insight to “unconscious work” and claimed an ability to ruminate on math problems while engaged in unrelated activities like chatting with a friend on a bus. Descartes suddenly envisioned his Cartesian co-ordinate system while lying in bed idly watching a fly hovering in the air. In all three cases, the insight followed considerable foundation-laying work that had as yet borne no fruit.

Why Creative People Once Feared Psychoanalysis

Some highly creative people once believed that psychoanalysis would extinguish their creative flame and impair achievement. (Photo: public domain)

In his psychiatric practice, Carl Jung dealt with many creative individuals. Jung noted how often his patients’ psychological difficulties arose from the creative process itself. The ground-breaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli was one of these troubled creators. Jung analyzed Pauli’s dream imagery after the scientist’s unconventional and tumultuous life brought him to the brink of mental breakdown. Pauli had become obsessed with where the insights for his greatest discovery had come from. He felt that he had drawn upon something beyond physics. Swiss-German author, Hermann Hesse was another of Jung’s notably creative patients. Already a famous writer when treated by Jung, Hesse – like Pauli – went on to win a Nobel Prize. Hesse suffered from recurring bouts of depression that tended to strike when his writing had reached an impasse.

The Mind’s Task Is to Produce Future

Interior of a Futuristic Rotating Space Colony

The human race depends on its ability to predict the future with reasonable accuracy. At the personal level, mind is the primary tool for “producing” future. (Photo: NASA)

French poet, essayist, and philosopher Paul Valéry said that the task of the mind is to produce future. That is to say, mind is essentially an anticipator, a generator of expectations. We all do this. Sports fans bet on hockey, baseball, football, or basketball scores, or simply on who will win the game. Bloggers guess the number of hits taking into account the day of the week and how good they think their post is. Investors anticipate stock market shifts. Business types estimate demand for their product or service. Workers gauge their energy reserves against what needs doing and pace themselves. Hunters calculate where the prey will run.

Did You Know Writers Play Blog Tag?

Covers of Novels by Mari Biella and Lucinda Elliot — Novels by the friends who tagged me: The Quickening is a wonderfully moody ghost story set in the English fenlands. That Scoundrel, Emile Dubois is an amusing gothic with a touch of time travel and a vampire or two or… Kindle editions of both books are available from Amazon; Lucinda Elliot’s novel can be had in EPUB from Kobo.

As you probably already know, writers get up to all sorts of mischief. We are born troublemakers. You have only to think about the authors self-promoting on Twitter, Facebook, and the book chats to see what I mean. It’s how we avoid working on our books when things aren’t going well or we’re temporarily fed up! I suspect restlessness must be afoot once more because I’ve been tagged in a blogging game by two of my writer friends, Lucinda Elliot and Mari Biella. The game entails answering questions about a novel in progress. With people coming at me from all sides, I need to get a move on, so here goes!

What is the working title of your book?

I’m currently working on five novels but will focus on The Salt Wizard for the game. Why do I have five books underway at the same time? Well, I didn’t plan it that way. In my early years as a writer, every time I became badly stuck, I started another book! As it happened, this mad scheme eventually matured into a conscious technique. Having a number of novels going at the same time gives me something interesting to beaver away at, no matter what. Now I swap back and forth among the novels as mood and opportunity allow. Lately, I have become serious about finishing something and getting it out there, so I’m concentrating on The Salt Wizard.

The Happiness of Constant Striving

Philosophers of happiness have often said that humanity’s eternally recurring and seemingly insatiable desires are a crushing burden and a debilitating problem. To live with an unsatisfied desire, the argument goes, makes one unhappy. Therefore, if one is to be content, expunging desires is of the utmost importance. This dubious notion is the foundation of entire self-denying spiritual practices. Advocates of self-denial invoke the myth of Sisyphus, the king in ancient Greece who offended Zeus. As punishment, he was condemned to push a huge boulder to the top of a hill. However, the simple (but sweaty) game was rigged. Whenever the boulder neared the top of the hill, it rolled back down to the bottom. Some prefer the less strenuous, but equally frustrating Danaidean example. In Greek legend, the Danaides were daughters of the Egyptian prince, Danaus. After they had murdered their husbands, they were condemned in Hades to fill water jars with holes in the bottom.

The Danaides by John William Waterhouse, 1903

Success may not be necessary to attain happiness. For many, the striving itself becomes a fulfilling and satisfying way of life. (Image: public domain.)

What Makes Some People Become Extraordinary?

What makes some people become extraordinary? There have always been child prodigies, but the majority of exceptional human beings are not born with a noticeable gift. Instead, they develop into outstanding achievers as they mature. The explanation for why they reach the creative heights seems to lie with self-alienation and psychological distress, a fact that for centuries has surrounded creativity with myths of wild inspiration and “divine” madness. Research has shown that exceptional individuals come more often from homes where there has been a lot of bickering and conflict.

Painting of the Muses Bringing Inspiration

Formerly, the Muses were thought to make people extraordinary. Nowadays we see inner bickering as the cause. (Image: public domain.)

Yet being troubled is not enough. The extraordinary person also possesses the ability to use that suffering to propel themselves down the long hard road of self-discovery and self-realization. It would seem that inner bickering and conflict are a necessary part of the creative process, leading one to speculate that creative people internalize the chaotic home life when they are children, and then exploit it as a resource when they become adults. When they are young, they raise their eyes from their embattled immediate surroundings. They look up to role models who seem to offer better ideas, better ways of looking at life, better and more interesting ways of living; they hero worship.

Potent Personal Images Drive Creativity

Creativity research has revealed that creative individuals often try to recapture a nuanced feeling tone or subtle mood that has captivated them when they were children. It has also shown that creators repeatedly make use of something called an “image of wide scope.” Like the treasured mood, the creator acquires their image of wide scope when they are young, typically before the age of eighteen. The desire to recapture a specific mood and the urge to create something incorporating the image of wide scope are driving forces propelling the creator down particular paths. Mood and image can meld and their role in the creative process is complex.

Like the fellow in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, creative people struggle to express a significant “image of wide scope.” (Image: public domain.)

Literature Is Philosophy for Its Time

German literary scholar, Rudolf Unger, argued that literature does not merely translate philosophical knowledge into imagery and verse. He claimed that literature expresses the general attitude towards life prevalent in a particular period and place. Therefore, poets (and by extension, writers) tackle important questions which are also within the sphere of philosophy. However, where philosophy is organized and structured, the poetic or prosaic approach is unsystematic. Where philosophy is scholarly and academic, literature is vivid and dramatic.

Literature is philosophy in that it expresses the general attitude towards life prevalent in a particular period and place. (Image: public domain)

Literature typically deals with a narrowed set of philosophical problems that engage even the most ordinary person.

The Problem of Fate

The critical issue with fate is the relation between freedom and necessity. The key question is how much control we have over our own lives. Are we completely free to do as we please? Conversely, do the harsh dictates of necessity determine what we can and must do? Is there middle ground? Do we at least have free will with the ability to choose among a limited number of viable alternatives?