by Carolee Sherwood
If you Google “temperamental artist stereotype,” you find heavy representation of articles from the world of psychiatry. It’s not difficult to argue mental illness in many famous artists and writers: Van Gogh cut off his ear and Sylvia Plath put her head in the oven, for example.
There are dozens of these tragic stories about well-known creative people tormented by varying degrees of “insanity” (although I hate the word); many have died prematurely as a result of drug and alcohol abuse or suicide. (One of the best resources to start with, if you’re interested in this aspect of creative “madness,” is Kay Redfield Jamison’s well-known book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.)
The high-profile nature of sensational stories like those may have contributed to assumptions about creative people as “mad scientist”-types or recluses permanently afflicted with sadness. The public “curiosity factor” is high (especially if you include actors), and stereotypes are numerous. But how close is the stereotype to reality?
The current Read Write Poll investigates which characteristics writers themselves (us!) attribute to the fact that they are creative.
Read Writer “Poem-ers” consider ourselves intelligent above all else. We believe our creativity makes us more introverted than extroverted, messy instead of organized. We also see a connection between our creativity and being “sensitive (in a good way)” and hard-working. I love those qualities as I’ve seen them appear in the RWP community, and I recognize them among the artists and writers I know in “real life,” as well. I’m proud to identify with those traits.
I’m also interested, however, maybe even more so, in those who confessed to those qualities that ended up on the bottom of our list. I’m very curious about unpredictability and elitism, and selfishly, I want to know who’s hanging out with me in the “emotionally raw” category. And I wonder what other quirks we all harbor!
So don’t keep me waiting. Join me on the stage for the “poll dance.” Use the comments section to talk about your own personality and the traits for which you credit – or blame – the creativity within you.
Here’s how the poll dance works: We post a poll and let it ride for a week and a half, and then I’ll talk a little bit about the topic and the results. The poll will stand for a few days after that to allow additional participation. The rotation gives each poll two weeks in the white-hot spotlight.
Can I just start this thread with a somewhat shallow observation? It seems possibly a bit ironic that while 83% of respondents were willing to describe themselves as intelligent, only 10% were willing to admit to elitism. (And who knows if any in the second category were also in the first.) Regardless of whether it makes any sense from a scientific perspective to try and measure all mental abilities on a single scale, doesn’t this cultural construct we call intelligence imply a hierarchy of brain power or book-learning? What does it mean to describe oneself as intelligent? Would we use the same word to describe, for example, an inarticulate, possibly illiterate mechanic who can seemingly repair any machine merely by laying his hands on it?
I guess that sounds like a really loaded question. But I really am curious about this.
O.K., off to attempt a poem about sacrifice.
that is a loaded question, dave.
i grew up thinking that smart was smart. so intelligent, scholarly, logical, skilled — all smart. for me, yes, the mechanic could be described as intelligent, but i do see what you mean about intelligent implying a level of literacy. maybe in my world he composes poetry in his head, memorizes it and delights his wife.
and then there’s “intelligence,” and i think of extra terrestrial intelligence (because i’m a strange sort of girl). in that case, i consider “intelligence” to mean a certain level of awareness and understanding that has nothing to do with literacy.
too bad our language weren’t more precise. or maybe it is and we’re just lazy in our usage.
what i think you’re asking is “does being intelligent imply a certain level of elitism?” i don’t know. in some cases, definitely, but not all.
but i like thinking about your mechanic because our poll asks us to describe ourselves, not guess how others define us or share how we label others … so the question is, would the mechanic call himself intelligent and find a connection between how his brain was wired and what skills he developed? that’s what we’re trying to figure out for ourselves. does creativity pre-dispose us to certain traits?
Wow, this has really gotten me thinking. My dad was an auto mechanic, the best one in town, actually. Was he intelligent? I never thought about it, really. I just accepted that he was. Did he think of himself as intelligent? He was always explaining mechanical things to me so, yeah, I think he did.
My mom quit school at 16. I know she never thought of herself as intelligent but she reads one book after another and does the crossword puzzle in the paper every day. She braided rugs and sewed and refinished furniture and raised her four kids with so much integrity and instilled values in us so I, certainly, think of her as intelligent.
And here I am, a poet, from these two. I am my mom’s poem. That’s how she created. And my dad’s poetry was putting parts of cars together to make them hum.
So, I don’t know if I’ve answered the question, but it clarified things for me, anyway.
First, great poll and discussion.
I think I may have looked at this a little differently. I thought about causality rather than correlation, and for me, my intelligence (or lack thereof) and my elitism (or lack thereof) don’t cause/are not caused by my creativity. I think we frequently let some of these correlating attributes work themselves into the identity we claim for ourselves as poets/artists–which is in no way more or less correct, but I like focusing on the “essentials.”
Does that make any sense?
And Carolee, at other times in my life (like, two months ago), I probably would have checked overly sensitive/emotionally raw, because when I am emotionally raw, it definitely plays into my creative process. But it’s not a constant for me… so I went with sensitive instead.
your distinction is important between causality and correlation and i suspect for most of us it’s impossible to know which came first the creativity or the intelligence? the creativity or the sensitivity? the chicken or the egg? (this is very off topic, but does anyone think about that one too much like i do? anyway …)
i very much appreciate your “almost” being in the emotionally raw category and admitting that it’s true sometimes for you. where’s the rest of my brood? i know you’re out there!
i think my husband thinks of me as emotionally raw. he calls it sensitive, with a sneer, i might add. although i’ve pretty well erased the sneer from his face!
i’m surprised more of us aren’t unpredictable. i think i am. at least, i can never precict my own behavior. although, my husband, again, says i am totally predicatable. i have always used the “artist” label to explain being late, forgetful, unpredictable, bad with money, etc… i know those are cliches, but they are me, and i am an artist…
I think it is funny that so many of us said, yeah, I’m intelligent, no matter the metric of that measure. (Good discussion, though.)
I was suprised by how many are introverted. Is that a measure of the internet community or is it poetics? I was also suprised by how many chose “gifted”. Is that a balance to how few said elitist? There were more votes (one!) for gifted than hard-working. (Though both ranked pretty high.)
Since we could vote for as many as we liked, it’s conceivable that some voted for both. I like that idea.
(Full disclosure: I’m extoverted & hardworking, not gifted.
Oh, and yes, I do think I am intelligent. I think I would qualify that, if I could, as being a curious reader.)
I can’t remember all the traits I checked on the poll, but I know intelligent wasn’t first. Dave brings out a good point, though.
It takes intelligence to realize that anything workwhile involves a lot of effort, desire, perseverence. Mechanics and poets are people who apply their intelligence toward producing palpable evidence of their intelligence. Maybe poets care more about who acknowledges their results, although I’m not sure.
For me, I know I’m sensitive. Thin boundaries, some people call it. At times I’m emotionally raw, but I didn’t check that one on the day I took the poll. Guess I was on top of my game that day!
i like your mention, christine, that we may check different boxes on different days. today, for example, i might check the “on a rampage” box. emotionally raw doesn’t even begin to describe it.