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Dan Sumption's avatar

Fab recommendations! I just wish I could afford them (think being a writer's bad, right? Just try being a publisher! Then try being a publisher that can't get listed on Amazon... 😅) I've already spent this year's book budget a dozen times over, so in the meantime, I take inspiration from the points which you've drawn out of them (and I love the anecdote about the vandalised statue!)

Bit of a tangent here, but on believing in magic fairies... until 3 years ago, my own scientific background would have had me adding the same disclaimer as yours. Then I read The Matter With Things, by Iain McGilchrist (a fantastic, if flawed, book, which uses more-science-than-I-ever-want-to-read-again in an attempt to dispel scientism. McGilchrist comes off every bit as cranky and opinionated as Richard Dawkins, but his thesis has altered my universe. Sadly the book costs the best part of £100... so that's where my book budget for 2022 went!)

"Fairies" is just a word, a metaphor (somewhat like "atoms" and "cells" are metaphors for things which, although they don't exist as distinct entities, divisible from the rest of reality, we can learn much by pretending that they do). And, while science is still dominated by hardcore materialism, the thesis that consciousness provides the universal substrate (as espoused by the likes of Bernardo Kastrup and Rupert Sheldrake) is beginning to catch on in the mainstream. My own experiences in recent years seem to suggest that there are, indeed, conscious currents in the noosphere and, hey, why not call them fairies!

It seems anyway that the "as if" plays a huge role in creativity, and so acting _as if_ fairies exist, honouring and paying homage to their fairy splendiferousness, may prove to be all that's really needed. I _do_ believe in fairies, I do I do I do!

(Although, personally, I love the ancient Greek idea of the Muse, a consciousness that does not gift her idea to writers, instead she sings _through_ them. Or, as you say, "slide through you as if you are merely a conduit").

One other book that I _have_ read, which is great for creativity, is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Of course, at the time I balked at its description as a "spiritual path" and references to "God" (although she is pretty loose in her definition of what God could be - the Muse definitely fits). But it contains a great toolkit for nurturing creativity. In particular, "morning pages" are boss.

Now then, if only I could make my life is clutter-free, so that mind will become clear, hmmm...

PS, "see my article on ways to thrive in life ADD LINK" - looks like you forgot to add the link 🤭

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