Brief notes on Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Parts of it I loved. Parts of it I did not. ★3
Oh, am I torn about this book. Parts of it I loved. Parts of it I physically cringed at. If I was going to recommend a book on creativity, I’d probably opt for Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act instead—but there were many similarities between the two. Gilbert’s was also a good opportunity for “take what resonates with you and leave the rest”.
What I enjoyed most:
The section on permission. Permission to call yourself a creator—to identity as a writer. To have your art be frivolous (you don’t have to save the world). To create create create even if some of your results are total flops (because those can make room for the most beautiful works… this, somewhat weirdly, made me think of Taylor Swift. I believe some of her songs are many orders of magnitude better than others. At times I’ve wondered how the songwriter behind “the last great american dynasty” and “All Too Well” is also the songwriter behind “Bad Blood” and then I realize… perhaps creating so much, so freely (so it seems to me, an outsider) is what’s enabled her to give us those truly mind blowing moments?).
I do, indeed, feel inspired. Especially to just make shit! So, success there, Liz Gilbert.
What I did not enjoy:
Elizabeth Gilbert is a little unhinged. I do not believe in ideas as sentient things and I am definitely too “scientific and rational” (as she says) for some of her takes. But I can pull inspiration from what she’s saying, more as a metaphor than a literal description of how the world works.
Stephen King buys into a version of ideas as preexisting things, too. (Many artists seem to.) I was telling Sean it strikes me as like a strict/strong and weak version of the belief—Gilbert takes the strong one, which puts me off, but I can see the merit in how it encourages her to be open/feel fulfilled/etc. And the weak version is more tolerable.
I’m just not crazy about her writing style. (Though after reading Eat Pray Love too, I have to say she hits me with a consistent voice, and I appreciate that. Especially because I don’t think I have that. Anyway! There’s enough criticism in the world already.)
Highlighted passages
Page 9: … when I refer to “creative living,” I am speaking more broadly. I’m talking about living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.
Page 13: … we all know that when courage dies, creativity dies with it. We all know that fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams to to desiccate in the hot sun. This is common knowledge; sometimes we just don’t know what to do about it.
Page 13: [a list of possible fears] You’re afraid somebody else already did it better. You’re afraid everybody else already did it better. … You’re afraid your work isn’t politically, emotionally, or artistically important enough to change anyone’s life. … You’re afraid of being exposed as a hack, or a fool, or a dilettante, or a narcissist.
Page 18: “Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.”
Page 88: Keep in mind that for most of history people just made things, and they didn’t make such a big freaking deal out of it.
Page 89: The guardians of high culture will try to convince you that the arts belong only to a chosen few, but they are wrong and they are also annoying.
Page 98: Oh, and here’s another thing: You are not required to save the world with your creativity. Your art not only doesn’t have to be original, in other words; it also doesn’t have to be important.
Page 167: Perfectionists often decide in advance that the end product is never going to be satisfactory, so they don’t even bother trying to be creative in the first place.
Page 168: I’ve watched far too many brilliant and gifted female creators say, “I am 99.8 percent qualified for this task, but until I master that last smidgen of ability, I will hold myself back, just to be on the safe side.”
Page 171: Possessing a creative mind, after all, is something like having a border collie for a pet: It needs to work, or else it will cause you an outrageous amount of trouble. Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents (eating the couch, digging a hole through the living room floor, biting the mailman, etc.). … I firmly believe that we all need to find something to do in our lives that stops us from eating the couch.
Page 173: And if greatness should ever accidentally stumble upon you, let it catch you hard at work. Hard at work, and sane.