I have had this book on my 'to read' list for a couple of years now. Thankfully I finally have a library that has nearly any book I could ever want. But this is a book I might just purchase.
I have never really considered myself a creative person, so it is strange that I have picked up a couple of "unblocking your inner artist" books this year. I was a math and science oriented person for the first 20 or so years of my life. I played several instruments and even wrote a few songs, but my strength was always "technical proficiency." Even in film school I was consumed with the technical side of productions. How do lenses work, or how do different film stocks compare? While classmates ran on about Goddard I was studying depth of field charts. My screenwriting class was a disaster. I was told that every good writer is at worst an amateur psychologist. As I always considered psychology a soft art at best, and at worst, one step above new age religion. As I struggled to craft a coherent, character driven story, I resolved myself to leaving the creativity to others. Luckily, I got to work on enough student films to persuade me away from running off to be a Hollywood cable puller. The only difference between my material and most of the other stuff I read was that I knew my writing sucked.
Earlier this year a friend loaned me Julie Cameron's "The Artist's Way." It is a type of workbook for unleashing your inner creative spirit. As I have slowly tried to undertake more creative endeavors, I have come to feel the frustration of a frustrated artist, though likely in a less painful and debilitating way than many of Ms. Cameron's other readers. The book is a quick read, which is almost detrimental considering that you only read a few pages weekly during a 3 month process. She describes the process of growth eloquently and accessibly. However, her AA style reliance on a higher power was not something I could ever really get behind. I am, above all else, a humanist. Cameron insists that her method is just as effective for people who refuse to accept a higher power and suggest that such readers feel free to think of said power as the subconscious while unceasingly referring to it as God. However, she always externalizes this force, making that task difficult. Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell are far more convincing in internalizing this power within the subconscious than Cameron is in externalizing it in God. The other knock I have with "The Artist's Way" is that, at least early on, I felt it was forcing me to turn out garbage and preventing me from focusing on work that I was already very excited about. Perhaps I was not quite blocked enough to dive into this book.
While it seems as though I am reviewing "The Artist's Way" instead of "The War of Art", it is important for me to frame my remarks by Cameron's work. I was very excited to finally get my hands on "War of Art" and started reading it immediately. To my dismay, the introduction was written by Robert McKee (famously lampooned in Charlie Kaufman's 'Adaptation'.) I decided that poor association would not be enough to ruin the book for me, so I dove in anyway.
I as quickly stopped in my tracks. McKee praises Pressfield heavily and actually convinced me to add a lot of Pressfield's non-golf related books to my queue. He further praises the first two sections (or 'books') of "War of Art" as being spot on. McKee has been around, and if he feels Pressfield has his finger on the pulse of creative blockage, I am at least willing to listen. Then McKee droped a bomb. He criticizes the 3rd section for externalizing inspiration, clinging to muses and angles. I immediately had visions of "Artist's Way." McKee then jolted me back to earth by saying he felt inspiration and creativity were internal stimuli. The fact that this heavy language actually made it into the book made me hope that perhaps I could at least read the book without offending my sensibilities.
But McKee was not done there. He goes on to say that he personally believes that creative talent is no different than basketball talent. You can't teach seven foot tall; it is genetic and you have either got it, or you don't. I am not sure who McKee is writing that sentence too. Perhaps himself or the millions at stake for him as a screenwriting yogi. But the juxtaposition created in the span of a few sentences created a crack. Perhaps there was some middle ground between Julia Cameron's creative father figure and McKee's raging ego. Perhaps that middle ground was Pressfield.
Once I actually got to Pressfield's text, I could not have been happier. The book is an incredibly fast read. It is written in short observational essays that describe Pressfield's outlook on blockage, the solution and philosophy. Pressfield is careful to not push "artist" down our throat, and frequently includes references to a would-be "plumbing supply venture" that could benefit from his insight. I think this is wise because his observations are so universal. You don't need to aspire to be the next Goethe to get something out of this book.
To me, the nuts and bolts of the book is the middle section, which espouses Professionalism as the cure for Resistance. His outlook is very rational, very pragmatic, and I hope, very applicable. I think a combination of "War of Art" and "Getting Things Done" could unblock nearly anyone creatively.
I really think that McKee gets it wrong as well. Yes, Pressfield is infatuated with the iconography of Homer's muses and medieval angels. However, I think he describes his vision of a transcendent artistic plane that could exist anywhere: heaven, nature or subconscious. He states that he believes in God, but is far more convincing that his outlook allows for many different world views.
After reading this book, I am inspired to get to work and churn out "art." You have got to punch in, and pay your dues. And that is what I am doing right now.
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