Elizabeth Gilbert is a popular writer, and is especially known for her book, Eat Love Pray. Her TED talk was about how after her "freakishly popular success of a book" had been published, what was she supposed to do with her life now? How was she supposed to follow such a great success? This idea of failure, and never being able to top your greatest work has been enough to drive many creative people insane to the point where they even would take their own lives. And it is true. Typically you see that most creative people have some sort of mental unstableness to them, while compared to other professions like a doctor or engineer, they don't.
She then began a search to try and resolve why this happens by looking at other cultures. This quest lead her to looking at the cultures of ancient greece and rome. They believed that in thier time, creative people had a "demon" called a genius that lived in the walls of their studios that helped them along with their work. This takes the pressure off of the creative person because they now share their failures and successes with another being. As society evolved and the artist became the genius himself, is when mental instability, or inability to deal with the pressure of creating failure or success is when mental instability began with creative people. Although, the idea of a "genius" living inside your studio wall seems a little crazy to begin with...
Lastly, I really enjoyed how she talked about the spark of a creative idea that really seems to come from nowhere at the most random of times. This creative "thing" whether wanted or not has been experienced by all creative people. Its that random idea you think of in the middle of the night when you are trying to fall asleep, when your driving in your car, or when simply in the wrong place to actually record it. Its in those instances, when chasing this creative "thing" or when it suddenly hits you, that you have to be mentally prepared. Its really a question and a wonder where these creative ideas or "things" come from.
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