In response to my previous post, Roger Waters Presents: The Beatles, samantha von x said...
first of all: nice post.
second of all: are you saying that this generation is lacking in creativity? i doubt it, drugs or not. there are a few arguments i could make as to why you may feel things are 'watered down' now, if that is what you're saying.
and also, i have this thing where i get really annoyed with the assertion that drugs are the root of creativity. they're not. so if that's what you're saying, i soooo disagree.
it's not giving people enough credit!
now bipolar disorder and creativity? that's a whole 'nother thing... that you can google if you get a chance!
This response got me thinking more about this drugs & music issue.
I posted this response already in the comments section of the previous
post, but I thought this was worth offering to everyone.
Now
don't get me wrong... I am not suggesting that our generation is
lacking in creativity. I would actually argue that there has been no
GENETIC change in creative potential in recent history. I am CERTAINLY
not suggesting that creativity requires drugs.
However, I would suggest that raw creativity is only so potent.
Obviously
every person has a different capacity for creativity, but maybe the
experiences people have under the influences of drugs offer an
ENHANCEMENT to whatever creativity individuals are born with.
In
regards to your proposition that psychiatric illness and creative
genius are linked, while I agree that this is quite plausible, I would
disagree that that is a "whole 'nother thing." In fact, I think they
are *very* closely linked.
I think that in both cases,
individuals are responding to experiences that *challenge their
understanding of reality*. I wouldn't suggest that someone with a
psychiatric disorder is experiencing the SAME thing as someone on LSD,
but both conditions pose challenges to what is comfortable and
understood about reality.
I don't think it is a coincidence that so many artistically brilliant people in history were considered "crazy." See here...
I
am suggesting that people who have experiences that are not common to
the population at large gain something more to offer creatively to
people who have never been there.