The coming from a place of privilege thing is hard for me to deal with. My “creative projects” feel so self serving. I should do something for someone else with that time and energy.
Have you read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield? He’s pretty into the higher power idea. I’m embarrassed to say it but I think he might be right. Or at least I find it a useful framework.
So much of me doesn’t like the book The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. Talk about not acknowledging your place of privilege. On the other hand many of his annoying koan-style reflections or provocations did resonate with me.
Those are a couple other sources I’ve come across while thinking about this area.
Thanks for all the recs! I've never heard of Pressfield but i might give it a try. I have the same feeling about Rick Rubin: i console myself by thinking it only resonates because it's so simple anyone else could have written it (except they didn't, he did, so i guess he also gets a bit of credit). I just hate so much of the rest of that book that it's hard to admit some bits were nice ahah
I think the privilege bit is so individual, and depends so much on your track of life! The part that bothers me, is that Julia is saying this book is for "everyone", and everyone includes people like me who have a job (and i don't even have kids!). Maybe for you the book resonates better because you're in more of a similar position to Julia?
And privilege can always be turned around: i don't have the privilege of lots of time to spend on art, but i have the privilege of not feeling guilty when i do!
I get this and appreciate your honesty. I have also gotten frustrated with The Artist's Way and never finished it 🙈. One thing though that I've come to believe - synchronicity (and in many ways creativity in general) doesn't rely on a greater force.
For me, I see the point of exercises to grow a creative practice about freeing space in our brains to make connections and see things that are always there... "synchronicity" is just noticing them. Takes some of the pressure off 🤷♀️
Oh yes, absolutely! I don't think synchronicity needs that force at all, sorry if i was imprecise. Like to me it's the same mechanism behind the déjà vu feeling, or the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon! Once you learn something and train yourself to pay attention, you see a lot more of it.
My gripe is mostly with how Julia herself presents it. When you get into "big forces bring stuff together", it instantly makes me think of the law of attraction and similarly new age practices that aren't grounded in anything.
The coming from a place of privilege thing is hard for me to deal with. My “creative projects” feel so self serving. I should do something for someone else with that time and energy.
Have you read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield? He’s pretty into the higher power idea. I’m embarrassed to say it but I think he might be right. Or at least I find it a useful framework.
So much of me doesn’t like the book The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. Talk about not acknowledging your place of privilege. On the other hand many of his annoying koan-style reflections or provocations did resonate with me.
Those are a couple other sources I’ve come across while thinking about this area.
Thanks for all the recs! I've never heard of Pressfield but i might give it a try. I have the same feeling about Rick Rubin: i console myself by thinking it only resonates because it's so simple anyone else could have written it (except they didn't, he did, so i guess he also gets a bit of credit). I just hate so much of the rest of that book that it's hard to admit some bits were nice ahah
I think the privilege bit is so individual, and depends so much on your track of life! The part that bothers me, is that Julia is saying this book is for "everyone", and everyone includes people like me who have a job (and i don't even have kids!). Maybe for you the book resonates better because you're in more of a similar position to Julia?
And privilege can always be turned around: i don't have the privilege of lots of time to spend on art, but i have the privilege of not feeling guilty when i do!
I get this and appreciate your honesty. I have also gotten frustrated with The Artist's Way and never finished it 🙈. One thing though that I've come to believe - synchronicity (and in many ways creativity in general) doesn't rely on a greater force.
For me, I see the point of exercises to grow a creative practice about freeing space in our brains to make connections and see things that are always there... "synchronicity" is just noticing them. Takes some of the pressure off 🤷♀️
Oh yes, absolutely! I don't think synchronicity needs that force at all, sorry if i was imprecise. Like to me it's the same mechanism behind the déjà vu feeling, or the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon! Once you learn something and train yourself to pay attention, you see a lot more of it.
My gripe is mostly with how Julia herself presents it. When you get into "big forces bring stuff together", it instantly makes me think of the law of attraction and similarly new age practices that aren't grounded in anything.