Creative Genius: Henry Darger

          I have only one thing to say about Henry Darger: creative genius. His level of creativity was off the charts, to live the life that he did and manage to write a book over 15,000 pages long. Now I do not feel that  he was mentally ill. I feel that he just had a very different way of looking at the world and he took events that happened in real life, and changed it into a fictional story and put it into his book. He may have had aspergers though but he was obviously still well enough to live on his own. I also feel that the life he lived and how others treated him affected his writing. Early on in his life I do not feel that he was treated very well because most people thought he had something mentally wrong with him. Though later on in his life most of his neighbors treated him exceptionally well and had nothing bad to say about him. They said he always kept to himself and was always very nice and considerate to everyone.
          Though I have already mentioned this, but I feel that Henry had a very different view of the world. By different, I mean he created his own world while living in the real world. He'd use events that have actually happened and would just make an entire life story in a fictional setting out of it. He even made weather forecasting for 10 years in his fictional universe. The time and effort that he put into this is unbelievable. Years of his life spent working on this creative masterpiece. I wish that I could have just a glimpse into his mind and see what was going through Henry's head. To see how he viewed things and how he would change things into a new story, or chapter, or world. I know it may seem weird, learning about somebody who lived a very unusual life and spent his whole life writing a 15,000 page story that will go back as one of the most creative and innovative stories ever written.

Creativity: Cleese v Myself

This week in class I was asked to watch John Cleese's speech on creativity and reflect on what he felt creativity was and also give my own little input on my view of creativity. Being a rather decently length-ed video/speech (around 30 minutes), I got to listen to Cleese give his ideas on what creativity is and how someone can be creative. I will admit that I did agree with some of what Cleese said but he did not sell me on everything.

John Cleese's view of creativity, is that everyone is in their own little shell and that they have to get out and become free in order to be creative. John Cleese also said that creativity is “not a talent, it’s a way of operating” Cleese also says that “creativity is not an ability you have or don’t have. Creativity is not related to IQ.”He feels that it doesn't matter how smart you are compared to somebody else, he feels we are all equally the same when it comes to creativity and that it is solely up to us to figure out how creative we truly are. He had two examples of creativity operating like machinery: closed and open.  To Cleese, creativity is not accessible in the closed mode. Closed mode is used when people are at work and when creativity is not needed. His view of open is when people are creative and having an “open” mode to what he/she is thinking about. Mr. Cleese also told us 5 conditions that will more likely get us into the open mode. Space, time, time, confidence and humor are Mr. Cleese’s 5 conditions for getting us into the open mode. He feels that if you are thinking of a creative idea then you need to use these 5 conditions to assure that you have a well thought of idea.

I will admit, I agree when Cleese says that creativity is like operating a machine, but I do not agree with him when he says that creativity is "not a talent." Even though I feel it is a way of operating, I do feel that it is a talent in some way. Some people may just be more creative than others and this is because they may have a more vivid imagination. The more vivid your imagination is, the more creative you will be, and I feel that Mr. Cleese fails to realize this. Mr. Cleese's 5 conditions of creativity actually made a lot of sense to me and I felt that was actually rather clever of him. Each "condition" that he talks about is something that I have found myself to use when I try and think of something creative. The time it takes to think of something creative is very time consuming, and we then take even more time to think if our idea makes sense and if we even feel if it is good enough or not. My biggest complaint with Mr. Cleese's speech is that creativity is not a talent which I feel is incorrect. Throughout time people have been known to be more creative than others and have thought of things that not many others would have had the thought of.

Well that concludes this weeks blog for First Year Seminar. I hope you all got a little input on my view of creativity a little more and what I felt about Mr. Cleese's view of creativity. I would love to hear about how you feel about my blog and how you feel about Mr. Cleese's views.

My View of Creativity

Creativity

          My own personal definition of creativity is when somebody opens there mind and thinks of anything that others may not find normal or is considered status quo.  I also feel people who are open minded to be very creative because they are so open to new ideas and look at the world differently.  I feel no person lacks creativity; I just feel that they do not open their mind to new things.  What some people find not creative, others may find extraordinary in ways that nobody else can understand.  In my opinion, art is the most expressed form of creativity.  Artists let their imagination go wild on the canvas and then they share their artwork with everyone to see and show off their creativity.  Creativity is most likely frequently used when an entrepreneur is trying to think of a new product to sell and ways to sell it, or when an engineer is trying to invent new ways of something when they are working on a project of theirs.  An appropriate time to use creativity is when you are asked to think of something that is unordinary. This makes you think of something that most wouldn’t think of or would not look to as a solution to something. Creativity is not appropriate when it is a straight forward answer. I think that when there is a definite answer then creativity is not necessary to be used. The thing I find most fascinating about creativity is that it always astounds people when they are able to come up with things that are so unordinary.  For what it is worth, I feel that many kids in my people have lost their use of creativity.  I feel that they are so dependent on technology that it has created a lack of creative minds. 

Meet the Author

Hey everyone!! My name is Will Hubert and I am currently a freshman at the University of Mount Union. The purpose of me creating this blog is for my First Year Seminar class. This blog is going to mainly be about creativity because that is what my class is about. I have already written a small one page response about creativity that I will be posting to my blog shortly. I hope that you guys agree with my view on creativity and if you want you can share your insight own personal view of creativity with me!:)