"Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Most would agree with Rabinow's words: "Inventors have a low threshold of pain. Things bother them." A badly designed machine causes pain to an inventive engineer, just as the creative writer is hurt when reading bad prose."
From Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, published by HarperCollins, 1996 Psychology Today, Jul/Aug 96Last Reviewed 14 Oct 2008Article ID: 109
Growing up I had the hardest time finishing books. I'd get half way though and give up. I thought there was something wrong with me? Except, I could easily finish a book if I loved the style of the writing. In fact, if it was written beautifully I could read a manual for astrophysics or heart surgery. Finally, it hit me, there isn't anything wrong with me--I'm just picky about the caliber of the written word. Personally, I'm not a very good musician, but I do love music. For me, the computer keyboard becomes my piano and the paper my score. A piece of prose should sound as good to the ear as it does to the soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment