![]() The Romans had the same idea but they called that sort of disembodied spirit a ‘Genius’, which was great because the Romans did not actually think that a genius was a particularly clever individual, they believed that a genius was this sort of magical divine entity who was believed to literally live in the walls of an artist’s studio … and who would come out and invisibly assist the artist with their work and who would shape the outcome of that work. Socrates famously believed that he had a Daemon who spoke to him from afar. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity ‘Daemons’. People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source for distant and unknowable reasons. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then. So how does she cope with the fear of failure and the pressures of success? After some soul-searching, she’s come up with an unfashionable solution. Gilbert is honest enough to admit that, like most creators, she is afraid of failure, even in the face of overwhelming success. The result of which means that everywhere I go now people treat me like I’m doomed … they come up to me now all worried and they say “aren’t you afraid you never going to be able to top that? I’m sure afraid you’re going to keep writing for your whole life and you’re never going to again be able to create a book for anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?”.Īnd, of course, the answer to all those questions is ‘Yes’. But what makes this really compelling is the fact that she’s speaking from a place of conflict and struggle in her own creative career.Īfter years of working at her craft and enjoying steady but unspectacular success, Gilbert’s last book, Eat, Pray, Love became, in her words ‘this big mega-sensation international bestseller thing’: ( Watch the video here if you’re reading the feed/e-mail version of this article.) Gilbert is a terrific presenter and the ideas she discusses are more than enough for an entertaining and thought-provoking talk. This is one of the most inspiring and practical talks I’ve seen about creativity for a long time. So when writer Elizabeth Gilbert takes the stage at TED and starts spouting a version of creativity based on supernatural genius and divine inspiration, you can expect squawks of protest from Lateral Action. We’ve looked at creators such as Michelangelo, Kurt Cobain, Charles Darwin, David Bowie, Shakespeare and Stanley Kubrick, and shown how their apparently effortless genius can be traced to hard work, craft skills, effective business models and eccentric habits. ![]() You’ve probably noticed we preach a gospel of creativity-as-hard-work rather than the proverbial flash of inspiration. Regular readers of Lateral Action will know we’re pretty sceptical about the idea of creative genius.
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