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Title: The Artist's Way : A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron, Mark Bryan ISBN: 0-87477-821-2 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: September, 1995 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.49 (154 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: If you are hopelessly depressed because you can't create...
Comment: this book may help you out of the creative pits. At least, it did for me. This isn't a book just to read: each week has assigned tasks, and there are daily journaling (Morning Pages) and weekly Artist's Dates. Be prepared to spend a few hours a week just working on the book.
Julia Cameron writes this self help book as a 12 step process, which means she spends a great deal of time focussing on the spiritual aspects of ourselves and our creativity. I was an atheist when I first read the book, so some of this was hard to swallow, but at the same time I was so depressed I went ahead and worked through all her suggestions anyway.
And, I was a changed woman afterwards!
If you are already happily creative but wondering which direction to move into, I suggest her next book, The Vein of Gold, which focusses on niche, rather than the Artist's Way, which focusses on overcoming emotional blocks.
Rating: 2
Summary: Two months of Morning Pages later....
Comment: After doing my best to follow through with all the "creative" exercises and dutifully churning out pointless Morning Pages, taking myself on Dates (no surprise, since most creative people spend plenty of time alone, this was less exciting than Ms. Cameron makes it out to be) and forcing myself through silly exercises, not to mention starting to choke on the author's obviously high opinion of herself and all her wonderful, creative friends, I gave up in disgust. For one thing, it was hard to take seriously the creative raptures of a woman who makes a career of telling other people how to be as creative as she is - except that her own forte seems to be self-help books, not brilliant novels, screenplays, or anything worth reading for its own sake. Nor do I think that anyone can write. On the contrary, most people can't, any more than most people can act or compose music or write memorable poetry. A far better book on writer's block, the recently published "Midnight Disease," goes into much more useful information on brain chemistry, the struggles of truly brilliant writers with block, hypergraphia (what Ms. Cameron seems more prone to), and the links between creativity, depression and the search for the divine. Among other things, it points out that the "inner critic" that such books as Ms. Cameron's try to silence is very useful, as it may be that very inner critic that makes the difference between crafting a brilliant novel and churning out Morning Pages. (As the book points out, anyone can get over writer's block merely by lowering one's standards sufficiently!) Of course, block is its own kind of hell, but I suspect that any block that can be cured by silencing one's instincts, never mind taking walks or visiting museums, is not a very deep block to begin with.
Rating: 5
Summary: Out of 1000 Amazon ratings - near 900 is Wow!
Comment: Not that already there are not terrific reviews! But for an old guy whose been writing a long time and read most of Stephen King "On Writing", Ann Lamott's "Bird By Bird", Natalie Goldberg "On Writing the Bones", THIS ONE is TOPS! When one of my daughters showed me hers and we compared it with Ann Lamott and Others...I was totally convinced!
These suggested 12 weeks of "Recovering: Identity, Power, Faith, Strength, Integrity, Compassion, Etc. were enough to twist both arms into a Newness of Beginning! When I saw her list of Basic Principles with, "Creativity is the natural order of Life, just as Life is pure energy; As we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the Creator's Creativity within us..."
All of her listing of 10 Basic Principles were clearly pictured by one to four creators on each page, such as Louis Armstrong, Brahms, Einstein, Duke Ellington, Erik Fromm, Paulding, Picasso, Pasteur, Tolstoy and recently Kristin Stendhal! From Musicians to Artists to Psycho-Scientists to Theologians! Wherever one fits in there is still more room for creativity. Only one superb example:
When we answer this 'call' to creativity, "we set in motion the principle that C. G. Jung dubbed 'synchronicity' as he loosely defined is a fortuitous intermeshing of events!" Great wording, right? When I get over into that great Not-Yet-Life, I'm going to check this all out with the Duke, Jung, Tolstoy, Johannes Brahms, et all!
Retired Chaplain Fred W. Hood
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Title: The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal: A Companion Volume to the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron ISBN: 0874778867 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron ISBN: 1585420093 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 27 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Artist's Way at Work : Riding the Dragon by Mark Bryan, Julia Cameron ISBN: 0688166350 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 02 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart by Julia Cameron ISBN: 0874778794 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Artist's Date Book: A Companion Volume to the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, Elizabeth Cameron Evans ISBN: 0874776538 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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