Thank you for sharing Rubin's book. In my long history of reading about creativity, I find Rubin to be one of the freshest and most useful voices. This chapter is not only brilliant ... it is exactly the chapter I needed to read this morning ... powerful on so many levels.
Thank you Joyce! Sometimes we find what we are looking for, when we are not looking. Here is another passage from the book, you may find interesting too:
"A helpful exercise might be opening a book to a random page and reading the first line your eyes find. See how what's written there somehow applies to your situation. Any relevance it bears might be by chance, but you might allow for the possibility that chance is not all that's at play. When my appendix burst, the doctor who diagnosed it insisted that I go to the hospital immediately to have it removed. I was told there were no other options. I found myself in a nearby book-store. Standing out on a table in the front was a new book by Dr. Andrew Weil. I picked it up and let it fall open. The first passage my eyes went to said: if a doctor wants to remove a part of your body, and they tell you it has no function, don't believe this. The information I needed was made available to me in that moment. And I still have my appendix.
When clues present themselves, it can sometimes feel like the delicate mechanism of a clock at work. As if the universe is nudging you with little reminders that it's on your side and wants to provide everything you need to complete your mission." Love serendipity!
I do this all the time. I recently wrote about it when I pulled a card for my readers and also mentioned the possibility of randomly opening a book. The messages are so powerful.
Thanks, Paul ... and what a story! I love serendipity also but to allow it to speak louder than a medical pronouncement takes a kind of courage and faith that is pretty remarkable. Have you written this story? I would like to know more.
This passage is in Rick's book in a chapter called "Look for Clues". The book is full of these little nuggets of thought. There are 78 chapters in this 404 page book. He calls the chapters "Areas of Thought." Such an easy book to read, and very markupable.
With all due respect, Rick Rubin is getting on my nerves:
a) You say "his name is synonymous with innovation and excellence in the music industry." Excellence in today's music industry means excellence in producing shit. Once, there were musicians like the Beat;les, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen. Now we have Beyonce and Justin Bieber. The music industry is an agent of mediocrity, decreptitude, decay.
Nowadays, when they want to make movies or make songs, corporations hire committess. They reason: If ten percent of the population likes action sequences, 10 percent of the movie will consist of action sequences. The artist is degraded. We are inundated by a sea of shlock culture.
b) Who drew that over the top, histrionic illustration that is the lead in for your post. When something has to strive hysterically for emphasis, like that image, it is a real turn off. People of discernment reason: The man has nothing to say so he is dressing up his dreck and his vacuity of thought with a flashy, maniacal image. I dislike the image for the same reason that I think women who wear boas, and thousands of Jewels and tons of make up look like washed up whores from hell.
c)There is a current theme in all your stuff: You love people who are successes. Being a success more often than not entails being a CON ARTIST. For example, the Sachler family made BILLIONS with oxycontin and they submitted false reports to the FDA which lied and said that they had an opiod which was less addictive. They made a fortune killing thousands of young Americans. DOW CHEMICAL MADE a fortune in the 60's selling NAPALM to the pentagon. The napalm killed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VIETNAMESE PEASANTS. Should we adore Dow Chemical for making a fortune. No, WE SHOULD SHOOT TO KILL THEM. The people who made facebook were very successful, and facebook, and febrile social media, elected Donald Trump. Most of the misery on this planet was made by rich people who sold products which engendered DOOM.
D) In 1968, the Harvard Dept. of psychology published a study which showed that the VARIABLE MOST HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH THE ABILITY TO MAKE MONEY was the ability to LOOK SOMEONE IN THE EYE AND LIE
E) Tell me: Is Rick Rubin paying your for writing posts adulating, and practically cumming for, Rich Rubin.
OK, you found me out. Rick Rubin paid me to write this short little piece about his new book. Can't disclose how much he gave me, but in some countries it would be a years full time job money.
I am busy contemplating what real philosophers and psychologists have said regarding creativity and the factors which engender the artistic process. So many people are so busy with POP PSYCHOLOGY that they are oblivious to what real thinkers have said re creativity. CONSIDER THESE FOUR THEORIES OF CREATIVITY (and how we can apply them to be more artistic):
1) Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy" 1878: He said, "IN ART WE CREATE THAT WHICH ELUDES US IN REAL LIFE." I have articles on substack in which I apply this theory to music: EG. John Lennon, in his personal life, was often a rude, womanizing SOB. Ergo, in his art he was another person, exceptionally sweet and loving. Another example: Elton John is rather gay, and his best art is found in songs like "Saturday Night's alright for Fighting," where he expresses that which eludes him in real life, i.e., the straight side of his psyche.
HOW DO YOU USE THIS TO MAKE BETTER ART: ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOUR REAL LIFE EXCLUDES AND PUT IT IN YOUR ART.
2) JOHN KEATS AND his theory of "negative capability." He says that in art we hold in our heads two thoughts which are logically inconsitent or contradictory. We believe in A and we believe in B even though A and B are mutually exclusive. I hate to say this, but I cannot give you an example of this, and neither did John Keats, but I feel it all the time.
3) Chris Ernst: ART IS REGRESSION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EGO. We regress to immature and disturbed patterns of thought and this, ironically, produces art. For example, a) artists and b) disturbed people often use a primitive form of logic called paleologic, or old logic. It is the logic of infants. In paleologic, identification is based on possession of a common attribute. In the disturbed: The queen has a tiara on her head. The nurse has a cap on her head. They both have something on their head. Ergo, the nurrse is queen elizabeth. IN THE POETIC METAPHOR: "Clouds are Icebergs in the Sky." The poet is relying on palelogic as he says that clouds are icebergs because they share common attributes of shape and color. HOW DO YOU USE THIS IDEA TO BECOME MORE ARTISTIC ? Smoke some good weed and the metaphors will start tumbling out of your mnd like cognitive petit fours.
4) Freud: Art is sublimated sexuality. But I am sure youi are all familiar with this and this needs no discussion.
What can I say? I have a weird habit of remembering everything that I studied when I was young, and I wonder why people feel the need to constantly reinvent the wheel when the old masters really said it all.
My immediately precceding post is truncated and deletes the latter half of what I wrote. I will now include point 3 to the end:
3) Chris Ernst: ART IS REGRESSION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EGO. We regress to immature and disturbed patterns of thought and this, ironically, produces art.
For example, a) artists and b) disturbed people often use a primitive form of logic called paleologic, or old logic. It is the logic of infants. In paleologic, identification is based on possession of a common attribute. In the disturbed: The queen has a tiara on her head. The nurse has a cap on her head. They both have something on their head. Ergo, the nurrse is queen elizabeth. IN THE POETIC METAPHOR: "Clouds are Icebergs in the Sky." The poet is relying on palelogic as he says that clouds are icebergs because they share common attributes of shape and color. HOW DO YOU USE THIS IDEA TO BECOME MORE ARTISTIC ? Smoke some good weed and the metaphors will start tumbling out of your mnd like cognitive petit fours.
4) Freud: Art is sublimated sexuality. But I am sure youi are all familiar with this and this needs no discussion.
What can I say? I have a weird habit of remembering everything that I studied when I was young, and I wonder why people feel the need to constantly reinvent the wheel when the old masters had so much to say.
Paul thanks for sharing this! I've been meaning to pick up Rubin's book and haven't got to it so this will propel me forward.
Stepping out of the story of our life is a very powerful tool. One thing I've been doing recently (I think I learned this from Martha Beck) is to picture the space between my eyes, go into the space between the atoms in that space, all there is is space. She explains it much better than me but I have found this simple exercise to be so powerful because from there I can see my whole self as space between the atoms. This helps me detach from the story of my life in a much healthier way than staying locked in.
One of those books that you can pick up, flip open any random page📄 ....and get bonked over the head with jaw-dropping wisdom, inspiration, and instruction.
Thank you for sharing Rubin's book. In my long history of reading about creativity, I find Rubin to be one of the freshest and most useful voices. This chapter is not only brilliant ... it is exactly the chapter I needed to read this morning ... powerful on so many levels.
Thank you Joyce! Sometimes we find what we are looking for, when we are not looking. Here is another passage from the book, you may find interesting too:
"A helpful exercise might be opening a book to a random page and reading the first line your eyes find. See how what's written there somehow applies to your situation. Any relevance it bears might be by chance, but you might allow for the possibility that chance is not all that's at play. When my appendix burst, the doctor who diagnosed it insisted that I go to the hospital immediately to have it removed. I was told there were no other options. I found myself in a nearby book-store. Standing out on a table in the front was a new book by Dr. Andrew Weil. I picked it up and let it fall open. The first passage my eyes went to said: if a doctor wants to remove a part of your body, and they tell you it has no function, don't believe this. The information I needed was made available to me in that moment. And I still have my appendix.
When clues present themselves, it can sometimes feel like the delicate mechanism of a clock at work. As if the universe is nudging you with little reminders that it's on your side and wants to provide everything you need to complete your mission." Love serendipity!
I do this all the time. I recently wrote about it when I pulled a card for my readers and also mentioned the possibility of randomly opening a book. The messages are so powerful.
Thanks, Paul ... and what a story! I love serendipity also but to allow it to speak louder than a medical pronouncement takes a kind of courage and faith that is pretty remarkable. Have you written this story? I would like to know more.
This passage is in Rick's book in a chapter called "Look for Clues". The book is full of these little nuggets of thought. There are 78 chapters in this 404 page book. He calls the chapters "Areas of Thought." Such an easy book to read, and very markupable.
Thanks ... I had missed the quotation marks and thought that was *your* story. I read Rubin's book some time ago and think it's time to re-read it.
With all due respect, Rick Rubin is getting on my nerves:
a) You say "his name is synonymous with innovation and excellence in the music industry." Excellence in today's music industry means excellence in producing shit. Once, there were musicians like the Beat;les, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen. Now we have Beyonce and Justin Bieber. The music industry is an agent of mediocrity, decreptitude, decay.
Nowadays, when they want to make movies or make songs, corporations hire committess. They reason: If ten percent of the population likes action sequences, 10 percent of the movie will consist of action sequences. The artist is degraded. We are inundated by a sea of shlock culture.
b) Who drew that over the top, histrionic illustration that is the lead in for your post. When something has to strive hysterically for emphasis, like that image, it is a real turn off. People of discernment reason: The man has nothing to say so he is dressing up his dreck and his vacuity of thought with a flashy, maniacal image. I dislike the image for the same reason that I think women who wear boas, and thousands of Jewels and tons of make up look like washed up whores from hell.
c)There is a current theme in all your stuff: You love people who are successes. Being a success more often than not entails being a CON ARTIST. For example, the Sachler family made BILLIONS with oxycontin and they submitted false reports to the FDA which lied and said that they had an opiod which was less addictive. They made a fortune killing thousands of young Americans. DOW CHEMICAL MADE a fortune in the 60's selling NAPALM to the pentagon. The napalm killed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VIETNAMESE PEASANTS. Should we adore Dow Chemical for making a fortune. No, WE SHOULD SHOOT TO KILL THEM. The people who made facebook were very successful, and facebook, and febrile social media, elected Donald Trump. Most of the misery on this planet was made by rich people who sold products which engendered DOOM.
D) In 1968, the Harvard Dept. of psychology published a study which showed that the VARIABLE MOST HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH THE ABILITY TO MAKE MONEY was the ability to LOOK SOMEONE IN THE EYE AND LIE
E) Tell me: Is Rick Rubin paying your for writing posts adulating, and practically cumming for, Rich Rubin.
OK, you found me out. Rick Rubin paid me to write this short little piece about his new book. Can't disclose how much he gave me, but in some countries it would be a years full time job money.
You didn't read the book, did you David?
Sorry for being a rude fuck.
Of course, I did not read Rubin's book.
I am busy contemplating what real philosophers and psychologists have said regarding creativity and the factors which engender the artistic process. So many people are so busy with POP PSYCHOLOGY that they are oblivious to what real thinkers have said re creativity. CONSIDER THESE FOUR THEORIES OF CREATIVITY (and how we can apply them to be more artistic):
1) Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy" 1878: He said, "IN ART WE CREATE THAT WHICH ELUDES US IN REAL LIFE." I have articles on substack in which I apply this theory to music: EG. John Lennon, in his personal life, was often a rude, womanizing SOB. Ergo, in his art he was another person, exceptionally sweet and loving. Another example: Elton John is rather gay, and his best art is found in songs like "Saturday Night's alright for Fighting," where he expresses that which eludes him in real life, i.e., the straight side of his psyche.
HOW DO YOU USE THIS TO MAKE BETTER ART: ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOUR REAL LIFE EXCLUDES AND PUT IT IN YOUR ART.
2) JOHN KEATS AND his theory of "negative capability." He says that in art we hold in our heads two thoughts which are logically inconsitent or contradictory. We believe in A and we believe in B even though A and B are mutually exclusive. I hate to say this, but I cannot give you an example of this, and neither did John Keats, but I feel it all the time.
3) Chris Ernst: ART IS REGRESSION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EGO. We regress to immature and disturbed patterns of thought and this, ironically, produces art. For example, a) artists and b) disturbed people often use a primitive form of logic called paleologic, or old logic. It is the logic of infants. In paleologic, identification is based on possession of a common attribute. In the disturbed: The queen has a tiara on her head. The nurse has a cap on her head. They both have something on their head. Ergo, the nurrse is queen elizabeth. IN THE POETIC METAPHOR: "Clouds are Icebergs in the Sky." The poet is relying on palelogic as he says that clouds are icebergs because they share common attributes of shape and color. HOW DO YOU USE THIS IDEA TO BECOME MORE ARTISTIC ? Smoke some good weed and the metaphors will start tumbling out of your mnd like cognitive petit fours.
4) Freud: Art is sublimated sexuality. But I am sure youi are all familiar with this and this needs no discussion.
What can I say? I have a weird habit of remembering everything that I studied when I was young, and I wonder why people feel the need to constantly reinvent the wheel when the old masters really said it all.
My immediately precceding post is truncated and deletes the latter half of what I wrote. I will now include point 3 to the end:
3) Chris Ernst: ART IS REGRESSION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EGO. We regress to immature and disturbed patterns of thought and this, ironically, produces art.
For example, a) artists and b) disturbed people often use a primitive form of logic called paleologic, or old logic. It is the logic of infants. In paleologic, identification is based on possession of a common attribute. In the disturbed: The queen has a tiara on her head. The nurse has a cap on her head. They both have something on their head. Ergo, the nurrse is queen elizabeth. IN THE POETIC METAPHOR: "Clouds are Icebergs in the Sky." The poet is relying on palelogic as he says that clouds are icebergs because they share common attributes of shape and color. HOW DO YOU USE THIS IDEA TO BECOME MORE ARTISTIC ? Smoke some good weed and the metaphors will start tumbling out of your mnd like cognitive petit fours.
4) Freud: Art is sublimated sexuality. But I am sure youi are all familiar with this and this needs no discussion.
What can I say? I have a weird habit of remembering everything that I studied when I was young, and I wonder why people feel the need to constantly reinvent the wheel when the old masters had so much to say.
Paul thanks for sharing this! I've been meaning to pick up Rubin's book and haven't got to it so this will propel me forward.
Stepping out of the story of our life is a very powerful tool. One thing I've been doing recently (I think I learned this from Martha Beck) is to picture the space between my eyes, go into the space between the atoms in that space, all there is is space. She explains it much better than me but I have found this simple exercise to be so powerful because from there I can see my whole self as space between the atoms. This helps me detach from the story of my life in a much healthier way than staying locked in.
That’s a cool practice, Donna! I’m going to try it.
"Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. You get to choose."
What a refreshing way to look at life. I wasn't familiar with Rick Rubin. His perspective is brilliant.
Thanks for sharing, Paul.
👍
The Creative Act is a fantastic book.
One of those books that you can pick up, flip open any random page📄 ....and get bonked over the head with jaw-dropping wisdom, inspiration, and instruction.
Great book 📖
Really is, so wise. Thanks for the comment!