Category Archives: Philosophy

BOOKS: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

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The Creative Act: A Way of BeingThe Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This book offers Rick Rubin’s philosophy of creativity and art. For those unfamiliar with Rubin, he’s a ZZ Top-looking music producer who contributed to a lot of successful albums, ranging from hip hop to the rock-n-roll of Tom Petty. He was a major player behind the Run DMC cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” that blew peoples’ minds in the 80’s. Interestingly, Rubin is neither a musician nor a technologist, and I heard him say in an interview that his great value-added was having an extremely high level of confidence in knowing what he liked. Rubin has a persona that is as much guru as music producer, and this book reflects this broad insight and wisdom.

In the book, Rubin lays out his view of the creative process and the mistakes people make with it, but along the way he offers insight into such interesting questions as why some artists only seem to have one major work in them. While Rubin’s experience is mostly with music (though he also worked with comedian Andrew Dice Clay on Clay’s albums,) his book is broadly targeted towards all artists, and he seems to use as many examples from literature and graphic arts as he does from music.

Rubin does sound a bit woo woo here and there, but I found that many statements — e.g. those that spoke of the universe’s role in artistry — could be interpreted in a way that wasn’t necessarily superstitious. While woo woo sounding statements often get on my nerves, I felt Rubin’s use was poetic and spoke to a broader truth.

I’d highly recommend this book for artists and creative types, regardless of field.

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Buds & Blossoms [Haiku]

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buds & blossoms,
 in vibrant red, gussy up
  a dreary cityscape.

Five Wise Lines from Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore

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In the drowsy dark caves of the mind / dreams build their nest with fragments / dropped from day’s caravan.

From the solemn gloom of the temple / children run out to sit in the dust, / God watches them play / and forgets the priest.

The wind tries to take the flame by storm / only to blow it out.

The same sun is newly born in new lands / in a ring of endless dawns.

When death comes and whispers to me, / “Thy days are ended.” / let me say to him, “I have lived in love / and not in mere time.” / He will ask, “Will thy songs remain?” / I shall say, “I know not, but this I know / that often when I sang I found my eternity.

Fireflies by Rabindranath Tagore is in the public domain and can be read at sites such as:

Fireflies is available at PoetryVerse

PROMPT: Peace

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What brings you peace?

Being in the now, and feeling – but not feeding – emotional sensations.

PROMPT: Curiosity

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What are you curious about?

Everything. But I have learned to be less obsessed with the grand metaphysical questions for which no one has any defensible answers – just rank speculation. Socrates convinced me it’s not worth worrying about abstractions while one is still struggling with fundamental questions of how to be human.

Flat Fog [Free Verse]

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Stationed in East Anglia,
   I remember layered fog,
     fog so thick one couldn't
     see past the hood's end,

but, given a slight rise, 
   one could see all the way
   down the runway -- as if
   it was a cloudless full moon eve.

As one might expect of an airbase,
   (having been built around a flat runway)
   there wasn't much topography.

But sometimes life is like that:
   a tiny rise in perspective 
   allows one to see the world clearly,
 
but a minor dip puts one in a
   soup of unfathomability.

PROMPT: Certainty

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Daily writing prompt
List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
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Every source of information is flawed and / or of limited value as a source of truth.

There is beauty everywhere (but to see it one has to let go of one’s compulsion to attach value judgements to everything.)

People who know more things for certain are wrong about more things.

A better life comes of being content with less than of having more.

There is a force, we’ll call it gravity, that keeps my feet to the floor (or insists that I either fall or expend energy to break the surly bonds.)

With respect to that which one can’t know for certain, it’s closer to truth to remain ignorant than to be deluded.

The world that I perceive isn’t the world, itself.

All else being equal, a diverse group of people is stronger, smarter, better looking, and more effective than a homogenous one.

If the same level of effort were put into fostering emotional intelligence as is put into mental intelligence… what a wonderful world it would be.

One who hands you knowledge but tells you to drop it like a hot rock if it doesn’t stand up to your own experience and rationality is more trustworthy than one who hands you knowledge and insists you hold onto it with white-knuckled intensity.

PROMPT: Security or Adventure?

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Daily writing prompt
Are you seeking security or adventure?
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Uh, we are all seeking both. That is the fundamental strain of being human — the struggle between a need for novelty and a need for familiarity. We are all both tribesman and traveler — though in varied proportion. I love the traveler more in my own particular self.

PROMPT: Comfort

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What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

I don’t, but I have a lot of strategies for being more content in the face of various situations and environments — including uncomfortable ones. These include the yogic practice of dispassionate witnessing, minimalism, travel (and specifically minimalist travel to places – the less familiar the better,) and intense physical activity.

I think comfort as a major objective in life is overrated, and virtually insures a discontented life. A life in which one can be content, whatever may come along, is a happy life.

Solid Ground [Free Verse]

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sole to cold earth:

it's the only way i know
 the limits of this world.

feet pressing into this globe
 are my tether to reality.

any other way, and the world
  could stretch forever.

the feel of my weight,
 popping to heel or ball:
  pronating & supinating,
  rolling & reaching,
   in dance or destruction --

 feet leaving the cold earth
  always reorient to the planet.