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Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Pragmatic, demystification, just slightly marred,
By "thecompostlady" (Okanagan, B.C.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creating: A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything - a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life. (Paperback)
This book sets out to demystify creating, to pragmatically assist the reader in learning ideas and processes that can be applied to creating works of art, craft, business, et cetera. It's well worth reading for that pragmatic purpose. The first chapter sample, available on "look inside" on this web site, gives a good sample of Fritz' approach, uncluttered by the flaws noted in later sections of the book. He emphasized some steps and aspects of process that I wasn't so starkly aware of. I've created effective cartoons, articles, essays, songs, clothing designs, gardens, et cetera, but this book could help in becoming much more productive.Some sections of the book launch into an attack on cultural assumptions. Bravo. Most of it was valid in supporting his approach to creating. However, I was uncomfortable with some of his extreme statements about certain disciplines and cultural traditions. He seemed to dismiss all of psychotherapy, and take some cheap shots, for instance, rather than limiting his comments to self-indulgent and deluded approaches. He overgeneralized and thus misrepresented other cultural traditions, ideas, and disciplines. For example: "While meditation and psychotherapy may have replaced tranquilizing and recreational drugs, all of them presume you are entitled to feel good, even if you need to dull your senses and color reality to find happiness, self-love and fulfillment." p122 Fawcett edition, 1991 On the contrary, I would argue, going through a course of therapy based on Alice Miller's (sample title: Thou Shalt Not be Aware) views might allow and traumatized individual to function in life without enduring constant shaming, flashbacks, and emotional paralysis. It can be important to examine emotions, and feel good at times. Also the meditation I have personal experience of, mindfulness and insight meditation, as described by Chogyam Trungpa (sample title: Meditation in Action) and others are not about brainwashing oneself or dulling the senses. In fact, mindfulness meditation is likely to lead to some of the same insights and awareness Fritz describes in his discussion of the mind, separation, and so on. Fritz would do better if he didn't dismiss everyone else's work. Yes, it's true that people can get too focused on transient emotions and fixing the self. However, meditation and psychotherapy do still have something to offer, keeping in mind the 80/20 rule -- most of everything is crap, so buyer beware. Ironically, right after Fritz' section on the lack of necessity to choose a right worldview, he launches into what is obviously his worldview. Oh, he has a disclaimer, and he's not dogmatic at that particular moment, but still, throughout the book, he does argue for his views of how things work, what will be if you follow his process. My suggestion: just ignore his adamant, paternalistic ranting, see through it, and go for his basic ideas, which are useful even though he has an obnoxious personality and a bit of a ham-fisted way of throwing around generalizations. If you want to create something, this book can challenge you in a useful way.
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm more lost than when I started,
By Christopher Joseph Serra (Parsippany, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creating: A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything - a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life. (Paperback)
I have to admit, I was pretty excited to read this. However, after finishing it, I am fairly neutral to the application of Fritz' theories. I was expecting a book on methods of relieving creative block and getting into the creative mindset. While the book does accomplish this to some extent, most of it takes you through many of Fritz' anti-philosophical/self-help theories. This is fine for a book about that sort of thing, and I agree with what he says (for the most part) but I fail to make the connections he is trying so hard to show the reader. Maybe I just need time to absorb, and test his theories in real life. Oh, and if he plugged his "Technologies for Creating" workshops (registered trademark) one more time, I was going to throw the book out of my car window. Anyway, I will re-review this book after I have some time to put into practice some of his theories. Who knows, maybe there is a connection between painting a picture and the Holocaust. (see section on identity)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great ideas, though not a totally reader-friendly book!,
By K.G. Cuzzin "K.G.Cuzzin" (Norwich, CT USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creating: A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything - a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life. (Paperback)
I had to give it five stars because it did such a job stimulating me with its new ideas about creating. At times it's slow to pore over. You're excited at the stuff you're learning, but the prose feels a bit tedious, so it's like being chin-deep in water and wanting to race ashore for something great. But this book's concepts, about the structure of creating, are so mind-blowing to us "creatives" that it's a must to sit and take it a swallow at a time. Fritz's challenging ideas allowed me to expand my thinking about myself, to see myself not as a writer but as a creating person (one of whose creating modes is writing). My promotion of my written materials is an act of creating. So is the plan I'm putting together for my life. Wow!
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