“I’m just here to create.”
A few weeks ago I posted about how I was going to make 2024 a creative year, and I was starting out by reading Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being. The opening line above is an excerpt from the book. It’s one of the many lines that I wrote down while I was reading. Not because it was memorable. Mostly because I felt there were so many of these lines peppered throughout the pages and I wanted to keep track of the platitudes.
I won’t claim that Rubin’s book is groundbreaking or incredibly insightful. It’s a book for the layperson, someone who is just starting their creative journey. It feels like the target audience is supposed to be young adults or people who have decided they want to write their first book or paint their first canvas. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m a proponent of creativity and I think everyone should explore their creative side.
I say all this because, while I enjoyed the book, I also didn’t come away with much more than a few nice quotes. Which is better than nothing, I suppose. For someone like me, who has been writing and exploring different creative avenues for many years, it felt more like this was reiterating my beliefs and ideas. In a way, I found that encouraging. Maybe I’m not so crazy.
Admittedly, The Creative Act is an easy read and I wonder if that’s intentional. What I mean is, the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters are all short and concise. Easily digestible. I’m not sure if that’s Rubin’s writing style or if his editor pushed for text that would be accessible to a wide audience.
There’s also a certain religious affectation to the way it’s all presented. Reading this book felt like I was reading a Western take on Eastern philosophy. It’s encouraging, motivational, and spiritual. Here’s an example:
“Art is a reflection of the artist’s inner and outer world during the period of creation.”
While it’s not untrue, it reads more like something a Buddhist monk would write in a treatise on creativity. This book is filled with lines like this. Simple ideas, no solid facts, just a lot of parables and quotable lines. There are quite a few times Rubin alludes to some unnamed artist he worked with and how they tried some unorthodox method to get the desired result in the studio. Each one was vague enough to leave me wondering if it actually happened, or if it was just Rubin riffing.
Overall, the book isn’t bad. As I mention above, it’s an easy read, something the average reader will probably blow through in a weekend. Is it required reading for a creative audience? Not especially. I found it interesting, but I can’t say that I learned anything from it. Your mileage may vary.
If anything, get a copy in paperback and take it to the beach or poolside with you this summer.
RB
Dear Brother,
I have read this book and disagree with several references in your review.
To infer the target audience is young adults or those just starting their creative journey implies it is less significant for those midway or later into their creative journey. I would argue that regardless of where you are in your journey, be it beginning, middle or returning to a creative life, this book is an invitation to further or deepen your relationship with your creative selves and no matter where you are in your journey, young or not so young; it is “as much a guide to life as it is a guide to art” said one reviewer.
Platitudes
I know you support a creative life as a way of being; in turn, you’ve peppered your review with a few choice words clearly from a cynical point of view.
You took the time to write down a few lines to track the platitudes. The example you share is “I’m just here to create.” This line supports your point, but there are many more genuine, albeit simple, but graceful lines. There is nothing wrong with simplicity. Before you read this book, be aware that Rick Rubin is a practicing Buddhist. His writing is unmistakably based on Buddhist disciplines.
“Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going.”
“The person who makes something today isn’t the same person who returns to work tomorrow.”
“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.
It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.
It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.”
You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.
The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.”
Religious
“There’s also a certain religious affectation to how it’s all presented.” In this paragraph, I disagree with the use of religious affectation, which connotes something very different than being presented in a “spiritual” way, as you mention at the end. “It’s encouraging, motivational, and spiritual.”
Simple
The ideas you are saying are simple, implying that a simple idea is less worthy than a complex idea. Unless you define simple as “trivial,” I disagree that simple cannot be as enjoyable and inspiring as the complex.
Facts
On the very first page of the book, he writes:
“Nothing in this book is known to be true. It’s a reflection of what I’ve noticed. Not facts, so much as thoughts. Some ideas may resonate, others may not. A few may awaken an inner knowing you forgot you had. Use what’s helpful. Let go of the rest…”
It is clear that this book was not attempting to express solid facts. To imply because there are no solid facts and just a lot of parables disparages the experiences and wisdom he chooses to bestow to other creative evolving human beings cannot be defined as fact, but connections to the soul.
Although paradoxically, the unnamed artist he alludes to is most certainly true. A YouTube search, a Rick Rubin documentary, and several podcasts will convince you of this.
In Closing
I am not a book reviewer by any means, so I would like to post this excerpt from another book review which summarizes the book nicely:
“It’s a ballad to universal creativity, what it requires of us, and the challenges we may face on the creative path. Its lessons apply to every manifestation of creativity— whether music, writing, painting, or, as Rubin says, even more, pragmatic situations, such as starting a business or solving a relationship problem. The book is as much a guide to life as it is a guide to art. It’s also a book that inspires— it certainly inspired this Medium post, my first ever.
Rubin comes across as an earnest and dedicated park ranger or a mystic resident of humanity’s wondrous park of art. He is eager to provide a tour of the artist’s life, implications, and many tests.”
For all your followers who are not young adults and are not just beginning their creative journey like myself, when you read this book, let go of your preconceived notions of what a book should be. Be open to the possibilities for a new way of being.
Note: I also suggest that if the book is for younger adults, you recommend an audiobook. It’s yet to be available in paperback.
A very thoughtful response! Many thanks!
It’s okay to disagree. I think the book – and Rubin – are appealing to a specific audience and that audience isn’t me.
But I’m glad that his words spoke to you and gave you what you needed.