The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield for Creatives
Reading this volume is similar fishing through a landfill site for diamonds; they're there, just buried under mountains of crap. The cardinal thesis is that procrastination is ofttimes harmful to our long-term success, and of this point I have no disagreement. However the majority of the book is replete with superstition, thinly veiled proselytizing, bullshit facts, and other miscellaneous woo-woo including: This volume is very absolutist and extremist, and fails to accept into account the occasions an internal resistance to doing something is not true procrastination, only the cornerstone of good judgment and sometimes fifty-fifty self-preservation. The writer fifty-fifty goes then far to say that taking care of your eight calendar month pregnant wife is a grade of procrastination! It's nigh as if the author hasn't debated the ideas in this book with himself or others, but just started uncritically penning all his unfiltered thoughts into this book. This book earned its second star for being unintentionally funny in places and for the occasional nugget of crap-coated wisdom. If you read this book, find the wisdom (there's very lilliputian), clean it up, and make a notation. Discard the residue. It's a short read especially as many of the pages are half, or even two thirds empty; merely keep keep your critical thinking skills switched on. How this volume got so many glowing reviews and recommendations is beyond me.
* Hitler was an artist that started WWII because he was procrastinating, and, every bit a result of this, nobody has seen his paintings. (Seriously, Google his art. He sucked at being a decent human being beingness but was a pretty good creative person!)
* Procrastination is the root of erectile dysfunction!
* Terminal and non-terminal cancer patients get into remission because they accomplish some goal that makes them happy. (This is a particularly egregious exclamation!)
* People that procrastinate develop tumors and mental illness.
* If people overcame procrastination, prisons would magically empty, nobody would become cosmetic surgery or potable alcohol, pharmaceutical companies would collapse, hospitals would close, and all doctors would be out of a task! Dandruff would fifty-fifty end to exist!
* When you do something to better yourselves, other people may get ill. Indeed, yous may allegedly get sick as a fashion to avoid bettering your life.
* The author makes an unsubstantiated claim that diseases such every bit ADHD, seasonal affective disorder, and social feet disorder are not existent and were invented by marketing departments and drug companies to make a quick buck.
* 70-80% of people that get to the doctor aren't ill, but are just being dramatic.
* Professionals should without question ignore any and all criticism because all criticism from others is an deed of green-eyed, rather than a tool to improve. (Oops!)
* Some mystical bullshit was the driving force behind Hamlet, the Parthenon, and Nude Descending a Staircase, not actual people.
I couldn't get into this volume. I've read and reread it several times, only it just doesn't do it for me. I gave it the second star because he does give some good advice about committing to the work, and staying in the seat. Some good bits about discipline and such. I take virtually 13 years of collegiate and graduate fine art schoolhouse nether my chugalug, and I've worked in the fine and commercial arts. Thing is, I hate seeing the claiming of making fine art plough into this romanticized, epic battle between the poor put-upon creative person and Mighty Resistance. Mayhap it'due south simply that I've heard so much dreck well-nigh artists being "prophets" and such over the years that information technology just hits a sore spot. Plus, there's the idea he puts forward that you haven't really turned "pro" until y'all've dismissed all non-fine art related action from your life. He'due south awfully judgmental against those who strive for a counterbalanced, comprehensive life every bit opposed to a ii-dimensional one. A ameliorate book, more honest and less pretentious, is Art and Fear.
I similar to take a writing volume around to dip into when I become stuck or frustrated or merely to go on me going. This ane started out with some interesting ideas, simply it ended up not beingness very supportive. A lilliputian bullying, in fact. Toward the end, information technology'southward a lot of religious pronouncements and philosophy that I didn't agree with or find very helpful. Information technology felt a fleck rigid.
I dig it. There are a lot of negative reviews of it on Goodreads, mostly about it beingness derivative, and/or unnecessarily characterizing the creative procedure equally a struggle. Guys: you picked upward a cocky-help book. You picked up a book called "The War of Art". If you hoped for originality, or a touchy-feely art-is-easy volume, you made a strange determination. I'thou simply saying. Personally, I establish this book pretty useful. Information technology's dense, wise, and low-bullshit. Spiritual, yes. Namby-pamby, no. It treats inspiration as a mystery (considering, um, it is). Information technology does not treat art as a mystery. Information technology says, you tin can't manufacture inspiration, so get your barrel in the chair, every day, and do the work then inspiration has the opportunity to come. I'm intrigued past his thought that the difference betwixt a professional artist and an amateur is that the professional creative person loves the fine art plenty to accommodate her/his life to allow him/her to do it full-time. An amateur, he says, isn't someone who does it only for the love; if the amateur really loved the art due south/he wouldn't be content to be a weekend warrior. An amateur identifies with the work: "I make sandwiches for a living, and I'm an creative person", whereas a professional does the work for its own sake: "I'm a person who writes novels for a living." He also does this Jungian analysis of where fine art comes from and where internal resistance comes from. I'thousand sure it'due south not earthshattering, only I'd never heard it before.
"The most important thing about fine art is to work. Zip else matters except sitting downward every day and trying." Reading this volume was similar a slap in the face to me. I AM a director and a writer. I struggle oft to find my identity in my written words. We all of the states artists ~~ writers, directors, painters, photographers, dancers, musicians ~~ have faced all the serious struggles that comes with existence an creative person. We have to face the inner terror in gild to get to where nosotros want to go in our art. Pressfield shows united states of america nosotros need to confront our fears and not let those fears overtake us ~~ not give into the resistance. Fear infects our creativity and prevents us from extracting the creative forces we demand to create. Most importantly, as artists, we must be open to rejections, judgments and failures. All artists, fifty-fifty those that are all-time known to us, take experienced rejection. Utilize these rejections as motivation to improve your talents and skills and inspire you lot to love and embrace your craft even more than. Pressfield devotes much of The War of Fine art to God, the Universe, Consciousness, Angels and Spirit Guides. I love this arroyo of viewing himself as a channel for the Muse. Pressfield says a prayer to the Muse every forenoon before he begins his writing. You don't have to believe this approach to get something out of his book. But what you will learn is to fight for your art -- to fight for yourself.
Steven Pressfield ~~ The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Artistic Battles 
This book is lightweight, derivative crap, written in the style of a cocky-hating self-assistance guru with arraign the victim issues 18 means from Lord's day. I tore out the ii good pages, ane of which was a quotation from W.H. Murray and the other of which quoted Male monarch Leonidas, and burned the book in the fireplace. That's how angry it fabricated me. Horrible waste of paper and time. Actually, you desire more than details? Okay. The writer personifies Resistance and then writes a tiny little snippet about it, i per page, stretching a teaspoonful of insight out for seventy pages or and then. Sure, we come upward confronting resistance in every expanse of our lives. This isn't news to anyone. Simply the ways he personifies information technology contradict each other, or simply don't make any sense, or come up across as pure folio-filling psychobabble. Worst of all, he manages to blame the reader for everything. You experience resistance because it's easier! If you lot don't feel it, you're going the wrong way! If you lot don't experience it, y'all're making a step down in life. Sexual practice is resistance! Food is resistance! Exercise is resistance! Everything adept is resistance! Unless it isn't! Relieve yourself some pain and brain cells and avert this book. It's condescending incoherent nonsense argued on the level of a Sunday school comic strip. I wish I could give it less than one star.
Holden Caulfield would love this, equally would Ernest Hemingway. HC had information technology in for the phonies, and Pressfield has no use for them, either. Only he's met the enemy and it is himself. And you, gentle reader, demand merely a mirror to observe your enemy. Pressfield calls it "Resistance," and information technology lurks in all of us. What'due south more, information technology's every excuse you can possibly think of to delay doing what the Muse put you on this earth to do: procrastination, rationalizations, physical sicknesses, psychological conditions with funny messages, family, drama, Twitter, Facebook, busywork, booze, drugs, television, your cellphone, fatigue, hopelessness, etc. Hemingway? Oh, yeah. To make it more personal for those who would write, EH called out the faux writers who wanted to be seen "writing" at the cafés of Paris in the 1920'south. It was the Lost Generation'southward version of "I'thousand not a writer, but I play one in cafés." Pressfield, a writer likewise, often alludes to the trade in The War of Art. As well often, writing is something phonies talk of doing and dream of doing but just don't practice, or do sporadically, or make excuses as to why they can't do it, or do and fail once or twice, then quit. "Amateurs," Pressfield calls them. The earth is dissever between the "pros" who sit downwardly, roll up their sleeves, and DO Information technology every day (and he does hateful Of course, the same applies to most anything the Dreamy You dreams (or once dreamed) of doing. Should you be working out now? Dieting? Preparation for a marathon? Swimming? Writing? Painting? Volunteering? Reading classics? Starting your own concern? You name it, you tin can practise it, but you choose not to. That'southward correct. Information technology'southward a option, and we make it easy on ourselves. This little transmission falls in the dictionary nether "quick read." Esquire mag calls it "a kick in the ass," and I tin't fence with that description. Pressfield pulls no punches. He has little choice. The Pretenders are legion and their excuses similar Orc armies -- seemingly countless. The volume is divided in iii. Part 1 is simply called "Resistance: Defining the Enemy" and leads off with a quote from the Dalai Lama: "The enemy is a very skilful instructor." Pressfield identifies resistance in its every form. Trust me when I say you lot'll recognize yourself, perchance multiple times over. As the book was penned in 2002, however, he neglects to mention more prevalent forms of "Resistance" that exist today. "I'll outset my work, sure... but showtime, allow me check my Twitter feed... or permit me check updates on Facebook... or I accept to bank check e-mail and reply to a few folks... or reading can wait because I need to TALK about reading on Goodreads (which, ironically, cuts securely into reading fourth dimension, which is sacrificed on the chantry of social fourth dimension masquerading as reading time)." Hoo, boy. Possibly fifty-fifty reading The War of Art is a form of delaying what I should be doing -- writing. Then again, I'1000 writing this review. Is that writing? One voice (amateur) says yeah, just another (pro) says no, it's slumming -- a shameless ploy for "likes" and comments, not me pursuing art or income as a freelance writer. Hmn. This is worse than I thought. Anyway, Role Two is called "Combating Resistance: Turning Pro" and leads with a Telamon of Arcadia quote: "Information technology is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior's life." Here's where Pressfield delineates the truthful pros who tolerate no excuses from "amateurs" who live by them. Folio after page, he shares how a professional lives every day: "A Professional Is Patient," "A Professional Seeks Gild," "A Professional Demystifies," "A Professional person Acts in the Face of Fright," "A Professional Accepts No Excuses," "A Professional Plays It As It Lays," "A Professional Does Not Take Failure (or Success) Personally," "A Professional Endures Adversity," "A Professional Self-Validates," and on and professionally on. No wonder being a slacker and killing hours online is easier. Function Three? It'south called "Across Resistance: The Higher Realm" and its pb quote comes compliments of Xenophon: "The showtime duty is to sacrifice to the gods and pray them to grant you lot the thoughts, words, and deeds likely to render your control most pleasing to the gods and to bring yourself, your friends, and your metropolis the fullest measure of affection and glory and advantage." It'southward near accomplishment one time yous're disciplined and have mentally accustomed the challenge. Interestingly, Pressfield shares some quirky opinions about Muses, angels, William Blake, William Wordsworth, cocky vs. ego, and hierarchal thinking vs. territorial thinking. Hint: choose self over ego, territory over hierarchy. And so mean what you lot say and spit out your excuses binky. Anyway, if yous've ever wanted to write a book, poem, or screenplay; paint or dance or sing or act; commencement a business or charity; lose weight and exercise regularly until y'all wait like you should wait; run a marathon; backup-the-blank with your in one case-upon-a-time hope for yourself earlier Twitter and Facebook and electronic mail and task and family and social drama and "wellness bug" and excuses dragged yous down, this just might exist your book. It's short, just worthy of rereading. I tin can imagine returning to certain excerpts for an old-fashioned butt-boot, then getting back on that horse abreast Nike ("Simply Exercise It!") and working in "the smithy of my soul" like I ought to. I can also imagine unplugging, or at to the lowest degree creating more than strict guidelines for bad habits that have snuck in to asphyxiate my artistic being like so much hypnotic kudzu. Wait. Did I just say "imagine"? What an amateur pledge that was....
What a pretentious piece of ridiculous crap. It has: I can't believe I wasted money on such a terrible book. It tin go straight to hell, where I'1000 sure creative folk are beingness forced to read it for eternity--which is well-nigh the all-time argument I've always heard for salvation. And yes, that'due south officially the meanest thing I've e'er said about any book, ever, and I don't regret it. This book earned my disdain, and I'd like to salvage the rest of y'all from a terrible reading experience. Typically, I avoid posting one star ratings and reviews, only since this is parading about calling itself nonfiction, I have to interject to say information technology'south nothing more than a bizarre and frequently offensive stance piece, full of some very obvious statements most creativity. Don't read this drivel, unless you just relish judgmental, condescending monologues that go nowhere. If you desire an interesting, thoughtful book on writing and creativity, try Stephen Male monarch'south ON WRITING. UPDATE 5/16/2018: I merely recently read Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, which is besides proficient. Pages: 190
• Harmful, uninformed medical opinions (Why?? It's a book on creativity. Simply NO.)
• Baroque and casuistic assessments of historical figures
• COMPLETELY FAKE STATISTICS (How did those even survive editing? Yous can't make figures up to dorsum your outrageous opinions. You demand real sources. They should exist cited. This is the fastest fashion to enrage a librarian.)
• Constant judgment (every bit if I tin can't get enough of that in small town Missouri)
• And then much repetition I want to poke my eyes out (considering I'm not an idiot and got it the first 50 times you said it)
• And an exhausting, superior, egotistical attitude.
I read this volume over and over once again as necessary. Information technology is the kick in the donkey every artist needs, sometimes daily. Because we all face the same enemy, fight the same battle every day: Resistance. According to Pressman, this is the whole story. Every solar day you either win or lose your battle with resistance. All the rest is talk. Why y'all lost it doesn't matter. Maybe your mother didn't beloved you enough. Maybe you don't believe in yourself plenty. Peradventure you retrieve you're non every bit talented every bit you wish you lot were. Well, so what? No one'southward mother loved them enough, all of us suffer from self-doubt (If you don't, you're a sociopath and I don't want to know you), and even Shakespeare wrote about "Desiring this human'southward art, and that man'due south scope." If Shakespeare sometimes thought he wasn't good enough, I think that lets the remainder of u.s.a. off the hook. The only answer is to become upward every 24-hour interval and practise your work to the best of your ability. That's all anyone does. I only watched a snippet of a video interview with the painter Chuck Shut who said you don't need most of what yous learn in grad school ever again. You need only three things: to know where to find the data you demand, to develop good work habits, and to acquire the thickest pare possible and be able to listen to and ignore the virtually painful criticism imaginable. Y'all have to exist able to defend your own position and criticize others as harshly as they criticize y'all. And and then just go ahead and do your own work. Great book. I recommend this more than any other book I've ever read.
An early chapter just grabbed me with this opening line, "Most of the states have 2 lives. The life we live, and the unlived life inside usa. Between the 2 stands Resistance." Those sentences grabbed me and take stayed with me. How much do I resist? How practise I resist? Why exercise I resist? The reflection that chapter inspired was well worth reading the rest of the book though nil else was as revolutionary for me-- I got what I needed early in the pages. In that location'south likewise a fabulous quote from WH Murray later, "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too." It reminded me of why I similar to operate from passion. That the things that I am doing because I experience I must or out of obligation are never easy. The things that I exercise from passion e'er spin out with dizzying strength. When you act from passion, providence indeed moves. A timely reminder.
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