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A review by bookph1le
Big Magic: How to Live a Creative Life, and Let Go of Your Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth Gilbert
5.0
Honestly, there's nothing revolutionary in this book as far as what Gilbert is saying. She hasn't found some magical new formula for unlocking your creativity. Instead, what she has done is create a dialog, as if you were sitting down to coffee with a friend and confessing that you really wanted to be creative but... Gilbert deals with the variety of things that could follow that "but", and she pulls apart each and every one.
Will everyone appreciate this book? Probably not. Gilbert does slay some pretty sacred cows, including the notion of the "tortured" artist, but I think she makes a very compelling case for all the cows she slays. The bottom line of this book, really, is do you want to be a creative person because you want the sense of accomplishment and transcendence that creativity can inspire, or do you want to be a creative person because you're hoping to make millions and be lauded by the masses? If it's the second, Gilbert basically tells you that you need not apply, and I agree with her. Creativity may pay off monetarily or in the form of social approbation, or it may not, but if all you really want is to create, who cares? Gilbert holds up all the fears that commonly hold people back and says, "So what?"
While I'm not a religious person, I got where she was going by likening creativity to a sort of religious calling. As she says, she doesn't advocate for people moving out to a mountain and living a life of solitary devotion to creativity--unless that's your thing, in which case you should do it. Instead, she's advocating for creativity as a form of not just self-expression, but as a way for people to make something beautiful solely for the sake of making something beautiful. As she says, it's both essential and non-essential. At heart, I think that's what makes us human: that we create things that aren't necessary merely because we like the look of them, or the sound of them, or the taste of them, or the way they feel when we wear them. It's in the act of creating--even if our creation is bad or misunderstood or unloved--that we are able to get outside of our own heads for a bit. We can forget about our mundane worries and struggles and we can experience moments of pure joy.
Not that she's saying that all this can come about without some fear and struggle and some sense of pain. What she advises is that we learn to live with these things without allowing them to control us. I know this seems simplistic, but she does such a great job of laying out how to avoid being controlled by your fears. What she's revealing here is that what holds most people back is themselves. What does it matter if people dismiss your creativity or think you're strange? The best kind of creativity, Gilbert says, is the kind that's done entirely because *you* want to do it, not because you're trying to appeal to the masses. The Big Magic, really, is experiencing the joys of creativity for yourself and not for some nebulous, unknown consumer market. If you're fortunate, the market may follow. If not, it won't. Either way, you'll have created something and will have the pride of knowing that it's yours. And when you're done, you'll let it loose, acknowledge that it may not be perfect, and go on to make something else. You can do all this with a sense of awe that you're doing something that fulfills a need deep within yourself. It won't feed you or clothe you or put a roof over your head (unless your creative outlet is something like farming or weaving or carpentry, in which case you may well fulfill some of these essential needs as well), but it will provide you with experiences that you can hoard like treasures, to be pulled out and admired and marveled at whenever you so desire.
Reading this book was so good for me because it helped me to see how counterproductive some of the nagging voices in the back of my head are. It encouraged me to take creative leaps and to be philosophical when those leaps sometimes fail, as they inevitably will. Gilbert has helped me to see that, no matter what, I will always long for that creative outlet, so why bother denying it to myself? I can engage with it for the pure joy of engaging with it, and if anything else comes of it, great. If not, well, I'll have been living the life I want to live, and that really counts for more than anything else.
Will everyone appreciate this book? Probably not. Gilbert does slay some pretty sacred cows, including the notion of the "tortured" artist, but I think she makes a very compelling case for all the cows she slays. The bottom line of this book, really, is do you want to be a creative person because you want the sense of accomplishment and transcendence that creativity can inspire, or do you want to be a creative person because you're hoping to make millions and be lauded by the masses? If it's the second, Gilbert basically tells you that you need not apply, and I agree with her. Creativity may pay off monetarily or in the form of social approbation, or it may not, but if all you really want is to create, who cares? Gilbert holds up all the fears that commonly hold people back and says, "So what?"
While I'm not a religious person, I got where she was going by likening creativity to a sort of religious calling. As she says, she doesn't advocate for people moving out to a mountain and living a life of solitary devotion to creativity--unless that's your thing, in which case you should do it. Instead, she's advocating for creativity as a form of not just self-expression, but as a way for people to make something beautiful solely for the sake of making something beautiful. As she says, it's both essential and non-essential. At heart, I think that's what makes us human: that we create things that aren't necessary merely because we like the look of them, or the sound of them, or the taste of them, or the way they feel when we wear them. It's in the act of creating--even if our creation is bad or misunderstood or unloved--that we are able to get outside of our own heads for a bit. We can forget about our mundane worries and struggles and we can experience moments of pure joy.
Not that she's saying that all this can come about without some fear and struggle and some sense of pain. What she advises is that we learn to live with these things without allowing them to control us. I know this seems simplistic, but she does such a great job of laying out how to avoid being controlled by your fears. What she's revealing here is that what holds most people back is themselves. What does it matter if people dismiss your creativity or think you're strange? The best kind of creativity, Gilbert says, is the kind that's done entirely because *you* want to do it, not because you're trying to appeal to the masses. The Big Magic, really, is experiencing the joys of creativity for yourself and not for some nebulous, unknown consumer market. If you're fortunate, the market may follow. If not, it won't. Either way, you'll have created something and will have the pride of knowing that it's yours. And when you're done, you'll let it loose, acknowledge that it may not be perfect, and go on to make something else. You can do all this with a sense of awe that you're doing something that fulfills a need deep within yourself. It won't feed you or clothe you or put a roof over your head (unless your creative outlet is something like farming or weaving or carpentry, in which case you may well fulfill some of these essential needs as well), but it will provide you with experiences that you can hoard like treasures, to be pulled out and admired and marveled at whenever you so desire.
Reading this book was so good for me because it helped me to see how counterproductive some of the nagging voices in the back of my head are. It encouraged me to take creative leaps and to be philosophical when those leaps sometimes fail, as they inevitably will. Gilbert has helped me to see that, no matter what, I will always long for that creative outlet, so why bother denying it to myself? I can engage with it for the pure joy of engaging with it, and if anything else comes of it, great. If not, well, I'll have been living the life I want to live, and that really counts for more than anything else.