The Global Castration of Creativity – Part 2: What Kills Creativity:

My Original Sketch

What kills creativity? In two words; everyday life. That is my answer. The things we encounter every day, from the moment we are born to the day we die, interact with our creativity. From day one we are told what to like and what not to like. We are educated about what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable. We are bombarded with ads about good things, bad things and all things in between. And while some of the things we are taught are good teachings, such as “Murder is bad”, many of the teaching, especially around creativity are horrible teachings based on personal biases of the teacher and strictly matters of personal opinion. Coloring outside the lines is bad. Making macaroni patterns in our dinner plate is bad. One of the first lessons a child is taught is that not following the rules is bad and following the rules is not bad, therefore good.


Parents have the ability to nurture creativity in their children, but so many parents do the exact opposite of that. Parents generally want their kids to live fulfilling and successful lives. But based on the programming they received, to do that you have to get good grades, go to college, get married, have kids, have a demanding career and blah, blah, blah, blah. There is such a stigma associated with creative people’s lives; they are poor, unfulfilled, starving artist that become alcoholic, drug-using-mentally unstable individuals. This is not always the case, but it seems that this is the perception.



Childhood

 Parents are preprogramming their kids with the notion that they only way to have a good life is to following those rules, their rules. Parents believe this because those rules worked for them. And they learned those rules from their parents, who learned from their parents and so on and so forth. For the few parents that do guide or sometimes even push their child for creative success, it ends more times than not with the parents pushing the creative talent to a competitive level. The sad part of the creative competitiveness is that it takes only one competitive failure to start building the fear that encompasses so many lives.

Why do you think there are so few “successful” writers? Sure, there is Stephen King, Sue Grafton, and the lady who wrote the Harry Potter series. But for each and every “successful” writer there are dozens of unpublished writers who have talent and have a story worth telling, but live in fear and therefore never get published. Fear of the rejection letter, fear of being told they suck, fear of being publically humiliated; fear.

Fear is a powerful and real emotion. But it is our reaction to fear that separates the men from the boys. It is our reaction to fear that sends us down a one of two paths; Fight or Flight or as I like to phrase it, Try or Fail.



“Well, I guess we can see that creative writing and drawing is
not for you.” - My Fourth Grade Teacher

 I hate labels and avoid them like the plague generally. “Successful”, “unsuccessful”, “failure”… these are labels that do not fit in a successful creative person’s vocabulary. There are only two ways to fail as a creative person; don’t try and don’t learn. If you don’t try, you aren’t going to learn from the attempt. If you try, but don’t learn from the experience, what was the point of trying?

But my definition of creative success and failure isn’t what we are taught. The education system is all about grading all forms of work; they are the judge, jury and most times the executioner. Yup, I just said it; Educators, not all, but for the most part are creative executioners. While their type of grading mentality may work on a fact based subjects like a social studies, mathematics and Spanish subjects, when judging a creative result, there should be no grading outside of try and learn or didn’t try; pass or fail. Creativity is strictly objective, based not on facts, but on style, taste and preference. But the education system feels that testing is the only solution for the entire system. Can the student draw a straight line? Pass or Fail? Is the subject of the student’s photograph interesting and well composed? Pass or fail? Is the student’s story compelling? Pass or fail? Was the student’s music beautiful? Pass or fail? These are all subjective. Composition that works well for one person, doesn’t suit another. A written story no matter how compelling isn’t guaranteed to satisfy anyone, let alone everyone. A classical pianist is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. So who are we to judge what is good and what is bad.



Handpainted Mural for my niece by me and my wife

 This judgmental-educational method/mentality is programmed early on. Penmanship is one of the first school related learning situations that is based on creativity and interpretation. No two people write in print or in cursive the same way, but the school system teaches kids that there is a right way and wrong way to make each and every letter in the alphabet. So when a child experiments with writing the letter S in their homework, their creativity is judged, graded and a letter is assigned to the final result. A, B, C, D or it is an F? How do they judge someone’s creative expression, whether it is their penmanship or their finger paintings or their poetry or their portfolio? Who are they, other than the pompous arrogance produced by the educational system, to say pass or fail? If anything, the system is the failure.

Another tactic used by schools is the red pen for grading. Students are required to use blue or black ink or gray pencil (good ole reliable #2) on their assignments. When the graded paper is returned it comes back with red marks and scribbles all over it indicating where the failures happened. The red ink stands out, no, the red ink jumps off the page screaming “Failure!” Public schools, for the most part, and their teaching staff, again for most part, are the guillotine of creativity.

Finding "Sex" in Junior Mints - It's there

This continues through college for most kids. Professors place rules around school work. I once had a math teacher that started his class out with this phrase; “50% of your grade will be based on the punctuation, spelling and grammar of the papers you turn in.” I was utterly baffled. A math class where half of my grade was based on an aspect of school not even math related. I deduced rather quickly that if I were to get only 30% of the math problems right and get 100% on spelling and grammar then I could still pull a C. That means I don’t have to focus as hard on learning the math and focus more on grammar aspect of my math homework. That is too bad because I am going to need as much math as I can get to prepare for my Engineering Degree.

Entertainment is a great killer of creativity as well. Television shows, movies, music, the internet and even literature are true killers of creativity in not only adults, but our young as well. In the era of the www.this and www.that, people are becoming complacent with instant gratification. Look at the housing market collapse. People were buying house they couldn’t afford simply because they wanted it and wanted it now. If you want a song, you can download it. If you want learn something, you can browse for it. Your phone, most likely, allows you to get directions without asking directions.

Entertainment today is about technology and technology is reducing human connections to 140 characters or less. Creativity is based on human connections. Every word written in a book, every drop of paint added to canvas, every pixel captured in a photograph is there to connect to a person. But these days, it is not unusual for someone to send a lunch invite via email to someone sitting two feet away rather than actually turning and talking to them. People are not connecting with people any more. People are connecting with 0s and 1s. This is why I hate text messaging. While I have a texting plan on my phone, it is only because people in my life refuse to not text me. It drives me crazy, but what can I do… not respond? Hmm… I think I may have a new strategy.

The Joy of Fall

Now, I know that stating something like technology is killing creativity is a bold statement, but I am here to make that statement. Technology is killing creativity. Technology is deepening our need for instant gratification. Technology is deepening our dependence on it for entertainment. Creativity is not as important as the fun-factor is. How many video games been made in the last twenty years? Most of the video games are based on common themes and story arcs, yet they continue selling new version of the same crap year after year. In the last twenty years, how many new video games released have been sequels or even sequels of sequels? In an essence kids are being taught through entertainment that you don’t have to be original, you just have to be fun.

So why would a kid want to write short story for the simple purpose of being creative and expressing themselves when they can sit in front of the television and kill zombies all day. Why take the four hours to read the book when the movie only takes 90 minutes to watch. The kid wouldn’t write a short story because writing takes a long time to see results and killing zombies can happen in minutes. The kid wouldn’t read the book because they aren’t getting the visceral visuals and audio blasting at their senses. The movies and games don’t require the use of any imagination. And the downside to that is imagination is like a muscle. Exercise a muscle and it becomes strong, dependable and enables you to do more, but if you stop using the muscle it becomes flaccid, weak and eventually becomes useless. Please don’t’ get me wrong. I love entertainment and movies, video games and other forms of digital entertainment have their place in the world and definitely in my life, but considering the current consumption rates of these technologies, they are making people creatively impotent.

Parents are to blame for this. Parents are responsibly for teaching an important lesson in balance. But the lesson in balance usually falls behind in priority to convenience. Today, parents now have the simple task of keeping their kids entertained; by keeping the computer, console game or internet connections up lazy parents have a live-in babysitter. Never mind what that babysitter might be teaching their child, parents are free, thanks to the technology babysitter, to pursue anything that doesn’t involve being a parent.



Don't Kill Your T.V.

 In the end, the loss of creativity is the road to complacency, laziness and unfulfilled non-creative lives. It isn’t just kids either. Many adults these days don’t know how to be creative. They don’t know how to create. Why would they need to? If they want something, they can go buy it, and probably don’t even need to leave their house to do that.

I am not one of those bumper sticker types, but if I had one bumper sticker, it would say, “Unplug three days a week”. I am not a fanatic, like those “Kill Your Television” types, but I believe that there is a benefit to disconnecting several days a week. If you are unsure of what to do with the time unplug time try reading, hiking, talking with your family, meditating or volunteering. Better yet, take a pair of scissors and a folded piece of paper and make a snowflake and then share your snowflake with the world!

Read Part 1 Here
Coming soon... Part 3: The Birth of Courage

Photogeddon - Day 2

So here is day two of photogedden. I have made it two days in a row and I am actually feeling really good about today, which is odd, because I got 2 hours of sleep last night and that usually doesn't bode well for me. But I am focusing on the god I am feeling right now.

Just in case anyone is doubting, I am serious about the that change that I need and my twelve steps I listed yesterday. I was up all night finishing Part 1 of The Global Castration of Creativity post that I posted early this morning. Tonight I will be working on the first draft of part two to get it ready for final review and publishing be the end of the day tomorrow.

My five shots for the day are:


Photogeddon - Downstream



Photogeddon - Upstream



Photogeddon - Partial Crossing

Reflections



Little Creek

 So that brings us to a close for Photogeddon Day 2. I am going to do some reading now, of course I am reading about cameras and photography and related stuff. What else would you expect?

The Global Castration of Creativity – Part One: The Death of Creativity

The Global Castration of Creativity – Part One: The Death of Creativity

As the title indicates, I am here to talk about how creativity in the world is dying and its death is rapidly accelerating. I know what you might be thinking; “With new mediums of expression and new art forms and literary pieces being pushed to the market daily, how can you think that creativity is dead?” Well, it is easy if you keep one simple statement in mind; to create is not to copy.

When was the last time you saw a movie that was ground breaking and truly original in the story that was told? How many authors have been published for the first time in the last year that haven’t been compared to another author with quotes like; “In the style of Stephen King” or “is like Edgar Allen Poe meet Mark Twain”. This happens because the author writes like those authors mentioned and doesn’t have his/her own voice.

Now, many people I know like to call on the movie The Matrix as a reference to a recent groundbreaking and original story? I would argue that the Matrix was a new way to tell many of the stories of the bible; they even used biblical names and themes such as;

• The name of Morpheus’ ship was Nebuchadnezzar - In the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian king who searched for the meaning of his dreams.  
• The Greek name Morpheus was the name of the god of dreams. In the movie he is the leader of a group of rebel forces that tries to wake others from their dreams (in the Matrix). And Morpheus seeks out an Oracle to interpret reality--which is really a dream. 
• Neo’s Matrix name was Thomas Anderson. Anderson means Son of Man or Man’s Son, a direct reference to the messiah in the bible, by the end of the third film, is lifted into a Jesus Christ pose sans the cross. 
• Neo is killed by agents in the first film only to return to life confirming to everyone that he is the one, much like Jesus Christ did in the bible.

I could go on, but alas, this isn’t about how many references I can make between the Matrix and the bible. I just wanted to prove that the Matrix was not an original story. If you still don’t believe me, try reading the book Neuromancer by William Gibson and then try to argue about the originality of the Matrix.

The Matrix isn’t the only movie out there that is a new way to tell the same story. Look at all of the remakes of movies from the past. Today, it feels like more movies are being released, in all genres that are remakes of movies shot before. Don’t believe me, take a look at the list of movies that are or have been remade.

• List of Film Remakes A-M
• List of Film Remakes N-Z

Even music has failed to be inventive for years. Lyrics may change, but the message is always the same. The rhythm make get mixed up a little, but sampling has been around for years. Rock, Country, Punk all suffer from lack of creativity. Do you think that rap was an original art form that was invented back in the 80s with the advent of hip-hop and break-dancing? Try again. Johnny Cash sang a type of rap with songs like Boy Named Sue and Cocaine Blues. The actual origin of Rap is found in African Music. But it was musical comedy acts like Rudy Ray and Blowfly that are thought to be the forefathers of modern day R&B and Rap music.

My point is that we are in the midst of a generation where creativity is dying and it isn’t by accident.  It is tough to try to be original. Originality tends to be a “succeed or fail” path, with no gray area to dwell in. So many people tend take an easy path, copy something that has proven successful before and replicate it for their own success. Photography, drawing, music, just about every creative form of expression is failing to be creative; failing to be original. And the reason why it is failing is because of fear.

Death of Creativity:

I have spent forty-one years on this planet and it wasn’t until I met my wife six years ago that my creativity was truly nurtured. I spent my whole adult life in fear of doing something original. I used that fear to make statements affirming my inabilities to create like; “I can’t…”, “I lack…”, “I need…” and “I don’t…”. There are so many other negative statements as well and all of them drove me away from my natural desire to create.

My first memory of the source of this fear is an experience I had in the fourth grade. The assignment was to write a story based on a movie we had seen. I wrote my story, six pages with illustrations. I was proud of my work and I was excited about sharing what I had created.

We had to read the stories to the class. I sat in my chair listening to several others read their books, sort of. As a child of A.D.D. for which there was no term or diagnosis for at that time, I faded in and out between listening and fantasizing about the glory I would receive for my story. I applauded other students when they finished reading right along with the rest of the class, even if the story was about the girly things in life that did little to capture my attention. I will say, some of the stories were pretty good or at least I remember them being so.

When my time came, I read my story with pride. I read the book like I was the teacher. Showing the class the illustrations I had drawn as I read the story aloud. And when I finished, there was no grandiose applause like I had thought there would be. As a matter of fact there was no applause at all. But it wasn’t until my classmates actually ridiculed me that I felt some shame for my otherwise creative story.

But the real nail in coffin was when my teacher actually told me, “Well, I guess we can see that creative writing and drawing is not for you.” I was near tears when she said that. I was humiliated, ashamed and felt completely A-Bombed. I had just been creatively castrated and it hurt as bad as it sounded.

From that point forward I kept my creativity to myself whenever I could. Sure I continued to be creative, but I refused to share it except when I had to and there were times when I had to.

In the seventh grade, I had to take two classes; shop and art. Shop was not my thing. The funny thing about these classes was that students are actually graded for their creativity with an A-F scale. Imagine if you will that your art was given a pass or fail. Now image, if you will, that project after project getting the grade “Epic-Fail”. I made acrylic dice that had the holes drilled too deep so the clear acrylic cubes had these white lines all the way through them at all sorts of angles. Epic fail! Image a flipbook cartoon in which the stickman is running to the edge of a cliff and falls, but I ran out of flipbook paper before the stickman splats on the ground, and therefore it ends with him falling for eternity. According to my teacher; “Epic Fail”.

Epic fail after epic fail, after epic fail… Soon fear of these public failures and the humiliation that came with them forced me to not finish school projects and even other homework causing me to fail not only my art classes, but most of my classes. It wasn’t that I was dumb or lazy or even unable to learn. I was unmotivated and fearful of turning anything in. I feared the negativity. I feared the ridicule. I feared that I truly sucked and by not completing the assignments, I wouldn’t fail, which is known as failure by not trying.

As a result of my poor performance in school I was grounded for most of the summer, 7 of the twelve weeks. My mom had a rule with grades; every D was a week of being grounded and every F was two weeks. Seven weeks was the result of me receiving two Fs and three Ds. Yes… I actually passed two classes, gym and choir. The amazing thing about my groundings is that it was like solitary confinement. I was grounded to my room, door closed and no radio. Other than that I could do what I wanted to.

So I spent seven summer weeks in solitary. I could hear the kids outside playing and having fun. I could hear what my parents were listening to on the television. I was allowed out of the room to use the restroom and eat meals, but immediately afterwards, it was back in my room. I was also allowed to go to family events, like visiting relatives and the occasional grocery store visit; but I wasn’t allowed to play with my cousins outside and come on, how much fun is grocery shopping? Well actually after about week two, grocery shopping was like a trip to Disneyland. The bright-side of this tale of dungeon adventures was that I learned to be creative on my own and I didn’t have to share. Also as a plus, I am also much less likely to develop skin cancer than all of the other kids in my neighborhood, because with summer over half way over, by the time I was allowed outside, I was still a pasty white kid while all the other kids had their summer tans well on their way to the aged leather looks.

So this is what happens. At an early age if a child is not extremely gifted out the gate, they fail at creative activities, first ridiculed and judged and they are punished for their creative failures. Most are probably not grounded to solitary confinement-like conditions for seven weeks like I was, but still no parent is excited to see Ds and Fs and facing that music from a kids perspective is not a moment to anticipate. So not only is the child being ridiculed and judged for failing, but they are being punished for it as well. Talk about setting in motion a sense of worthlessness in child.

Coming soon... Part Two: What Kills Creativity. Then in part three I will discuss how I recovered from a lifetime of creativity killing in: Part 3: The Birth of Courage:
 
Stay tuned!