Charles Bukowski on the Ideal Conditions and Myths of Creativity, Illustrated
brainpickings.org
brainpickings.org
Consider:
- Bukowski spent many years trying to get published, failed, developed a severe drinking problem, and took up a progression of itinerant jobs. But he gave writing another shot while lying in a hospital bed, having nearly drunk himself to death. At the time, he was working in a post office.
- Albert Einstein failed to land a prestigious academic position and took up a day job as an assistant patent examiner. He and his friends pursued scientific projects on nights and weekends.
- Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling created her famous series as a single, working mother on welfare. She worked out of train stations and coffee shops, often on the verge of homelessness.
- Actor Jack Nicholson went on over 300 auditions before landing his first significant role.
- Johnny Depp spent his days as a telemarketer, selling office supplies. He carved out nights and weekends to practice his craft and look for opportunities.
- Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, worked at an advertising agency by day. Three hours a night, for eight years straight, he worked on his book before submitting it to a publisher.
Only the very fortunate have the ability to drop everything and pursue their creative dreams. Everyone else has to pay the bills somehow, and carve out the "right time" when and where they can.
I hear so many people saying once they get enough money they'll finally have the time for the things they really want to do. Just do it now, you only live once.
Yes, you can do other things, but maybe those other things won't be as fulfilling, as profound, or as meaningful.
Consider that if Newton, Galileo, Michelangelo, or Da Vinci were born into poverty we might never have heard of them.
Certainly many people use the excuse of not having the time or the money to follow their passions, but that doesn't mean it's never a factor.
Sure you can, just not it in a single step. Even Elon Musk had to use PayPal as a stepping stone to bankroll his real ambitions.
He was immature to an extreme degree. One of his popular quotes begins:
> "If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind..."
That's not a recipe for happiness, and certainly not sanity. Or anything good at all. I'm not sure it's best to take advice from someone who woke up every morning by vomiting to get over last night's drinking.
How can we be sure everyone is "pure" before we consider their creations? Unless we all start living in a magic reality tv show, that is...
But in Bukowski's case, his life was his art. His personal issues were his art.
It's not like he had a few minor issues while he was writing beautiful sonnets about birds, where the issues have no bearing. His writing is about how he cheats on women, how he beat them, how he drank himself sick, basically about how he was just an a * * hole to people. He glorified it (your interpretation may vary as to this, but it is certainly read that way by many people).
Plenty of people appreciate Bukowski's honesty in his writing, but the idea that one should take advice from him... on anything... boggles the mind. Before anyone goes defending him, make sure you've read some of his stuff first.
One of the truly awe-inspiring things about the early hackers is that many of them worked without benefit of a real humming computer in front of them; they programmed with pencil and paper until the opportunity to buy or bargain for a bit of time on The Computer with which to test what they've written came along. It didn't matter, and nothing could stop them. Hackers gonna hack.
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8509517-16-bit-Intel-8088-chip-by-...
http://realitystudio.org/bibliographic-bunker/charles-bukows...