resistance

RESISTANCE AND TROUBLE

We get ourselves into trouble because it’s a cheap way to get attention. Trouble is a faux form of fame. It’s easier to get busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman’s wife than it is to finish that dissertation on the metaphysics of motley in the novellas of Joseph Conrad.

Ill health is a form of trouble, as are alcoholism and drug addiction, proneness to accidents, all neuroses including compulsive screwing-up, and such seemingly benign foibles as jealousy, chronic lateness, and the blasting of rap music at 110 dB from your smoked-glass ‘95 Supra. Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.

Cruelty to others is a form of Resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.

Also of interest

• Book Review: “The War of Art” (4)

I’ve been a fan of Steven Pressfield’s novels for some time. I first read his Gates of Fire, a novelization of the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. The topic was recently popularized in the movie “300,” which I liked well enough. The movie makes no attempt to present an accurate version of historical events, while Pressfield’s magnificent novel—now required reading at West Point—is a gritty account based closely on what is known of actual events.

While Gates of Fire is (in my opinion) his best novel, I can strongly recommend this other accounts of people and events in the ancient Greek world, including Tides of War and The Last of the Amazons.

The War of Art is a nonfiction book about the inner struggle to realize a dream. It’s a condensation of what Pressfield learned about how to make art. In his case, that art is writing, but it’s equally applicable to making visual art. (CONTINUED) ⇒

Also of interest

• More from “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield (1)