Bob Ross & Social Creativity

     In Augustin Fuentes' The Creative Spark, an anecdote that has stuck with me was a story of a macaque monkey. While observing a group of macaques, a lone monkey strayed from the group as small family groups of 2-3 formed from a larger group. This lone monkey, named Teardrop due to markings on her face, approached the author and leaned by his leg. Teardrop did this without looking at Fuentes, and remained like this for 10 minutes or so before wandering off. Later, Fuentes learned that Teardrop, unlike the other macaques in this larger social group, could not mate and have young, so she sought a creative way to have her social needs for physical contact met.

    This reminded me of Bob Ross, the TV landscape painter, and his relationship with young wild animals. Known for a carefree attitude and love for nature, Ross would occasionally show young animals he was helping to care for before releasing them back into the wild. Baby squirrels, deer, birds, and other young, usually orphaned baby woodland creatures were featured in The Joy Of Painting episodes. Ross' stewardship of these young animals, who likely wouldn't survive in their condition, but then respectful release of these animals is I think very similar to Teardrop the macaque's creative solution. I've liked Bob Ross since I was young, and I really respect him as a creative person who dedicated their efforts to encouraging creativity in others. Bob Ross' friendly demeanor and approachable technique saw many viewers actually follow along with his painting shows, learning an artistic pursuit that many see as something difficult. As an artistic person, it always makes me sad to see people say they "can't" draw or paint, as it's something everybody does as a child, and that people have been doing since we've been people. Whether it be cave painting or crayon on the wall, it seems to be a natural instinct for humans to create. I think a lot of people stop drawing or making art once they think they're "not good" at it, whether it be the judgement of others or the artist judging themselves that creates this wall of anxiety around artistic expression for many people. Bob Ross' no mistakes, just happy accidents attitude definitely inspired me to continue drawing and making art, even if I disliked it or thought it was bad, just for the sake of making something and learning from it. To anyone reading this, Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting episodes are on youtube, and all you need to draw is a pencil/pen and paper. Even if you're not a person who draws often, I suggest you try it out just for fun some time.

Faith in America

    Doubt, I think, can be an act of devotion. Faith and doubt are both manifestations of a commitment to something. One is a negative commitment, meaning that a person is committed to questioning. One is a positive commitment, meaning that a person is committed to believing. Generally speaking, faith is more revered and respected by society and humanity than doubt. It is somehow viewed as more steadfast, more unbreakable, and more passionate. To exist in a state of doubt, however, one must be whole-heartedly committed to preserving the mysteriousness and uncertainty that is life. One must be devoted to a constant state of feeling insecurity, even if that insecurity is painful and lends itself to a sort of nihilistic view on life. To doubt is devotion to all facets of the human experience.

    In his book, "Faith, Hope, and Carnage," Nick Cave explores this concept through a dissection of his creative process while song writing. Nick Cave is an Australian music artist known for his significant contributions to the post-punk and alternative rock scene. He is well known for his role in the bands The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party. Throughout his lifetime, he has used various musical projects to explore the themes of death, religion, love, and violence. His book, although not his usual medium, explored these themes as well. In the first few chapters of his book, these themes often appear as a testament to his faith or better yet, his lack thereof. He states several times that although he believes in a transcendental power and holds a certain reverence for the Christian idea of god, that doubt is something that has always existed within him. He also states that his doubt often gets in the way of him fully trusting the process of music making, as he believes that the meaning of a song is something that must reveal itself. Overall, Cave seems to view doubt as this sort of limiting power that prevents him from fully trusting and believing in the power of his music and creative process. I would like to offer a different perspective to the concept of doubt as it applies to creativity. 

In his film, "Dinner in America," film director Adam Carter Rehmeir employs his preferred medium as a means of exploring the concept of faith amongst many other themes. The film, a commentary on the monotony and restraint that is characteristic of American life, is about a singer in a punk band who slowly falls in love with a girl from the suburbs who he seemingly has nothing in common with. I will say here that what I write next will include spoilers from the movie, so please proceed with caution. I think that this film is a beautiful testament to doubt being an act of devotion, especially as a facet of the creative process. The two characters first meet when the punk singer is running away from the cops as he is a known and wanted arsonist. His character holds and displays a lot of disdain for the classic image of the American suburban family and spends most of the movie very pessimistic that there is any meaning in life. His character shuns the stability that is advertised as part of the American dream in exchange for a life full of uncertainty, anger, and feeling toward the system that punishes his devotion to what he views as freedom. The other character is a girl who has not been shown that any other life outside the American suburbs that she has grown up in is possible. People often call her slow and say that she is not all there. What we see, however, is that from the moment she meets the punk singer, she has faith in the life that he lives. He is everything she is not. He is completely unrestrained, passionate, and full of doubt. He is sure of himself but not the people and systems around him. She is restrained, self-conscious, and full of faith. She is unsure of herself, but never questions the people and systems around her until she meets him and sees that she can. These two energies converge in a single song called "Watermelon" that is composed of two very simple chords on the guitar. The two characters impulsively write this song together and allow its meaning to reveal itself to them as they create it. The punk singer is seen having faith in the other character while the other character is beginning to doubt everything in her life that she has always taken for granted, including her own preconceptions about herself. Coincidentally, she also displays more passion than ever before as she begins to doubt the narrative she has been given. The movie ends with her starting a punk band and the male character finally getting arrested and going to jail. Both characters are dedicated to the uncertainty and devoted to each other. They accept everything, including each other, as it is. They are okay with being met with disappointment, danger, and hurt because to doubt and question is to feel. Uncertainty is passion. Doubt is devotion to chance and creativity can be devotion to doubt. All parts of the creative process should be revered as they all have unbridled potential. 

Creativity in Spirituality

 

When one thinks of Frida Kahlo, they may recall that she was the star of many of her own portraits. However, many may not know as to why she made the creative decisions which made her paintings filled with such emotion. Considered to be one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoan, Mexico City, Mexico. Kahlo’s childhood was unique from many her age due to her poor health, she contracted Polio at six years old and did not quite recover back to full health. This was not the only tragedy that marred her life. While attending the renowned National Preparatory School in Mexico City in the year of 1922, Kahlo was the victim of a tragic bus accident that left her with serious spine and pelvis injuries that would affect her both physically and physiologically for the rest of her life. While in her full body cast, she painted her first self-portrait. Kahlo explained her reasoning for choosing the medium of a self-portrait was due to the fact that “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best". All of Kahlo's creative decision making process was based on her personal introspection of events that happened in her life and what emotions she had been dealing with at the time.

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932 by Frida Kahlo

In her famous painting titled Henry Ford Hospital, Frida was reflecting upon her experience of having a miscarriage at Henry Ford Hospital. Surrounding her naked body in the hospital bed are six objects. These objects include a male fetus she and her husband Diego prayed to have, a snail to show how long and arduous the medical procedure had been, and even an orchid to represent a woman’s womb. Kahlo created this painting to process her grief and the feeling of helplessness. Giving birth is one of the most natural processes a woman’s body can go through, but Kahlo had felt betrayed and disconnected from her body when she had lost her child. Much like Kahlo, Nick Cave used his creativity to fully process the loss of his son in 2015. Cave explained that he shifted to his music and spirituality to process the fragility of human life after losing his son, and then years later experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic. The need for a creative medium to understand and process our grief is inherently human, and both artists (despite not starting their journeys incredibly religious) relied on spirituality through the process of creativity.

Sources & Images:

https://apnews.com/article/frida-kahlo-art-mexican-artist-spiritual-fd536219e1348b19b50bc5027bc98bda
https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-biography.jsp

https://www.fridakahlo.org/henry-ford-hospital.jsp

René Redzepi: The Hen and The Egg

René Redzepi is considered to be one of the world’s most influential chefs. His three-Michelin star restaurant, Noma, has been voted Best Restaurant in the World five times. He is best known for his unique Scandinavian dishes that challenge conventional tastes, such as “ants on a shrimp”, “steamed oyster” and “the hen and the egg”. Redzepi uses these ingredients to reflect not just his Nordic heritage, but the Nordic region itself. Different kinds of moss, soil, insects, and pine needles are used seasonally to truly capture the unique tastes of Denmark.  

(Steamed Oyster and Ants on Shrimp)

Creative Process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqDaZsgR5zg 

In this video, Redzepi describes the creative process of one of his dishes, “the hen and the egg”. This dish is elegantly constructed and visually decorative, using dry hay and herbs, but the dish also comes with a catch: the guest has to cook it first. They are given a hot plate on the hay so that they can crack open and cook the egg on it. The staff set a timer for the egg once the guest has cracked it, and comes back to add the finishing touches of a sauce and potato crisps. The involvement of the guest is one of the most creative parts of the dish; Redzepi is able to create not just a meal, but a unique experience.

The Creative Spark

As mentioned, Redzepi incorporates traditional Nordic plants and herbs into the flavor profile of his dishes, but he also sources them naturally by foraging for them. In the book The Creative Spark by Agustin Fuentes, one recurring theme is the evolution and advancement of homo sapien, particularly through the context of their means of nourishment. Fuentes states, “Homo would sometimes forage near the lake’s edge and in the swamps for grasses and plant foods,” (Fuentes 53). Early humans primarily foraged wild fruits, nuts, and vegetables as they hunted and travelled, only occasionally eating the meat they could acquire. Many of Redzepi’s dishes are reminiscent of the diets of these early humans, as many of the ingredients he sources and includes are the same species or a distant cousin of the wild foods his early ancestors survived on, and possibly enjoyed.

Additional links:

The Creative Spark by Agustin Fuentes

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Redzepi

Björk, Rubin: Intuition and Experimentation's Role in Creativity

     In the book "The Creative Act: A Way of Being," Rick Rubin, a Grammy-winning music produce describes creativity as not only an act but a way of life. He also discusses many realistic techniques to tap into and embrace one's creativity. He also discusses the importance of intuition and experimentation in relation to creativity.

    An example of a musician who embodies these concepts is Björk. Rubin specifically states that in "exploring new horizons, you may very well lose some fans. New fans may also appear" and that the "decision to limit your work to the familiar is a disservice to both yourself and the audience" (Rubin 211). Björk is the embodiment of this idea, and instead of following trends of the industry, she trusts her gut and intuition to create something new and unique. In 1993 she released her album "Debut" which received widespread critical acclaim from music critics, mixing experimental techno and house sounds with jazz and orchestral strings (qtd. in Sodomsky). In the UK, it reacher No.3 on the pop charts, but in the United States many were not thrilled with the electronic direction, complaining that her music was now filled with "cheap electronic gimmickry" and that she traded "genuine band chemistry" for "Euro art-school schlock" (qtd. in Sodomsky). This is a perfect example of an artist experimenting and intuitively breaking boundaries creatively with no regard for pleasing every listener, something that Rubin emphasizes.

    In spite of the criticism, she still intuitively created experimental electronic music, and eventually moved to London, collaborating with Howie B, Tricky, and 808 State's Graham Massey, all famous UK dance artists (qtd. in Sodomsky). Her background was not in electronic music, and critics disagreed with her transition to this genre, but she followed her gut. She utilized her background as a classical musician to view remixes in a different light, and did not see them as a "marketing gimic" (qtd. in Sodomsky). She saw them as simply another musical iteration, even comparing the production of remixes to Bach's performance of symphonies stating that "his symphonies were not completely written out every time he played them, so they would be different" (qtd. in Sodomsky). This intuitive approach to understanding music, as well as understanding the link between classical and electronic music, two seemingly opposite genres, is a perfect example of intuitively creation and experimentation without caring about the opinions of others.

    Interestingly, she chose to compromise between discipline and freedom in her 1997 album Homogenic, saying the following: “Even though my arrangements are quite experimental, I’m very conservative when it comes to song structure,” she told SPIN. “So it’s this beautiful relationship between complete discipline and complete freedom" (qtd. in Sodomsky). This is a perfect example of how creativity and the creative process, according to Rubin, exists between discipline and freedom (Rubin 135). They are partners in creativity. 

    In conclusion, Björk is a perfect example of how musicians and artists generally can embrace creativity as not only an act but a way of being. Her use of intuition when experimenting with different styles and her instinct when it comes to utilizing a mix of discipline and freedom in the creative process is specifically what Rubin discusses when providing techniques on how to embrace one's creativity. 

Works Cited:

Rubin, Rick. The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Penguin Press, 2023.

Sodomsky, Sam. “Björk: Homogenic Album Review.” Pitchfork, 21 July 2019, https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22835-homogenic/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.

TED KOOSER: POET LAUREATE OF THE MIDWEST

OVERVIEW:

Ted Kooser, named the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2004, is a poet and essayist who caters to a nonliterary audience, showing through his poetry that ordinary life can be interesting if you pay attention. His poetry collections include Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, Delights and Shadows,  Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985, Splitting an Order, Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems, and more. He has also written books to help aspiring poets, one of which is The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

In his book The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets, Ted Kooser talks about how he generates ideas for poems. 

When explaining this process he quotes the following writers: 

Jane Hirschfield - “A work of art defines itself into being, when we awaken into it and by it, when we are moved, altered, stirred. It feels as if we have done nothing, only give it a little time, a little space; some hairline-narrow crack opens in the self, and there it is” (13).

Franz Kafka - “You do not even have to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, remain still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet" (13).

Ted Kooser describes the creative process as something unconscious. A poem starts from something that a person observes like an image or word that they find fascinating. Then as they write, ideas will start to emerge. Though a person can have a fully formed idea and can try to wrap the poem around the idea, it is much easier and more engaging to start with something they find interesting, and then expand and explore as they go (13-16).

This is one example of Ted Kooser’s works that just starts with an image: 

A Rainy Morning

A young woman in a wheelchair,

Wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain,

Is pushing herself through the morning.

You have seen how pianists

Sometimes bend forward to strike the keys,

Then lift their hands, draw back to rest,

Then lean again to strike just as the chord fades.

Such is the way this woman

Strikes at the wheels, then lifts her long white fingers,

Letting them float, then bends again to strike

Just as the chair slows, as if into a silence.

So expertly she plays the chords

Of this difficult music she has mastered,

Her wet face beautiful in its concentration.

While the wind turns the pages of rain. 

IN CONNECTION WITH NICK CAVE’S FAITH, HOPE, AND CARNAGE: 

Famous songwriter and singer Nick Cave talks about a similar process in Faith, Hope, and Carnage when he goes to the studio to improvise with his partner, Warren. To Cave, the improvisation was both intuitive and considered. Though he would bring a huge volume of ideas for his lyrics to the studio, the ideas would be far from being fully formed. Only through improvisation based on the “certain dominant or overarching themes” that have been in his mind leading up to the sessions is he able to come up with stunning music (6). Like Ted Kooser, there is an element of exploration that starts with just images and vague ideas. 

Links: 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ted-kooser

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/139984.Ted_Kooser

Books:

Faith, Hope, and Carnage

The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets

Jeanne Gang: Reflecting Nature in Architecture and Bridging the Gap Between Community and Structure

Jeanne Gang is a Chicago native and architect, who has spent her career tying together communities and environmental sustainability through her architecture, featured all over the world, including in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, among other places. Gang has two towers in Chicago: The St. Regis — previously known as Vista Towers — and the Aqua Tower. Both are located along the Chicago River. The St. Regis began construction in 2016 and was completed in 2020. It is the third tallest tower in Chicago, and is only surpassed by the Trump Tower due to the spire on the top of the structure. It is also the tallest building in the world designed by a female architect. The Aqua Tower — which began construction in 2007 and was finished in 2009 — has one of the largest green roofs in the city and is designed to be environmentally healthy.

The biggest connection so far that I have found between Gang’s architecture and The Creative Spark by Agustin Fuentes is the kind of beauty that humans tend to emulate in their creative works. Gang often uses contemporary design styles in her works and she usually connects it to modern day trends of environmental sustainability, reflecting nature in her designs. Her two Chicago structures are no exception to this. The St. Regis, which is paneled in blue glass that curves in and out as you move up the sides of the building, is designed to look like the waves of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The Aqua Tower, which is characterized by wavy white balconies of varying sizes, is designed to look like the wind that flows around the building. The balconies are actually also designed to help move some of that pressure from the wind away from the building and make it more structurally sound. As is pointed out in The Creative Spark, human beings have long had a tendency to replicate nature and animals in their artwork, whether it be cave paintings or the use of their hide to make clothing and jewelry. Gang follows a similar process in her reflection of nature through her artwork, showing that she truly has love and appreciation through her surroundings.

The St. Regis was originally designed to have mass tuned dampers — essentially large jugs of water placed at the top of the buildings that are used to keep buildings upright even when they are faced with intense winds. However, after they began construction for the building the builders realized that this would not be enough to ensure structural soundness of the building. The group all reconvened, and through further collaboration and technology, they decided to remove two floors of the tallest building, allowing the wind to pass through rather than putting too much pressure on the outside of the building. Without this collaboration, the construction would have been stalled further and we may not have the buildings, which have become such a major piece of our skyline today. Gang also talks about her motivation as being to create real world change in her communities and bring buildings to life that bridge the gap between people and architecture. She refers to this as “actionable idealism.”

The Genius of Erwin Schrodinger

Erwin Schrodinger was an Austrian physicist in the early twentieth century who was part of the group of men who built the modern theory of quantum mechanics. Physics at the beginning of the twentieth century was changing. In the year 1905, Albert Einstein described (and received a nobel prize for) the photoelectric effect, which proposed light to behave as a particle called a photon. Proposing that light, previously only considered to be a wave, could behave as a particle, was a radical, new notion to the physics world. Later, in the year 1924, Louis de Broglie said that not only does light exist as a particle, but all particles can exist as a wave! Going further, he weaved his theory and Einstein’s together, saying that all waves and particles can behave as each other simultaneously. Therefore, according to de Broglie, mass-containing particles like electrons can behave as a wave with a measurable wavelength, and light can behave as a particle with the usual particle observables like momentum and energy. 

Now in the year 1926, Erwin Schrodinger developed an equation called the Schrodinger Equation. The Schrodinger Equation describes the evolution of a quantity called the wave function in space and time. Solving the Schrodinger Equation gives the wave function, and from it one can calculate the position, momentum, energy, and other observables (or rather, the probability of these quantities up to a certain limit). In other words, the Schrodinger Equation, when solved, gives you a mathematical function (the wave function) that, from there, allows you to solve for real, physical properties. All of quantum mechanics stems from the Schrodinger Equation. Schrodinger, using some principles of classical physics, calculus, and linear algebra, came up with this mathematical construct called the wave function. Then, he accurately derived an equation (the Schrodinger Equation) that would allow one to solve for the wave function. Finally, in collaboration with other physicists, there was birthed the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics: that by using the wave function, one can calculate real quantities like positions and momentum of a particle. What is most remarkable about the Schrodinger Equation is that it can be applied to real systems, like atoms. Solutions to the Schrodinger Equation tell scientists the shape of the electron cloud orbiting the nucleus, and it can even tell the exact distance in meters the electrons are from the nucleus. 

The creativity of Schrodinger is seen in his ability to build an equation from abstract, fundamental principles that is able to describe real systems. His genius lies in how he could understand physical and mathematical concepts so fundamentally and thoroughly, that it is almost like he could manipulate reality according to an equation. His curiosity and understanding is what drove him to produce an equation that could explain quantum phenomena. In The Code Breaker, the curiosity-driven exploration of Jennifer Doudna led to the discovery of gene-editing by CRISPR. Originally, she was interested in how bacteria used CRISPR as a defense against viruses, but taking the time to understand the process on a fundamental level led to the idea of using CRISPR for gene-editing. Doudna was able to push the boundaries of discovery, keeping an opened-mind, when discovering gene-editing by CRISPR. Both of these figures allowed their curiosity and understanding of the fundamentals to drive them to discover new possibilities. 

Schrodinger himself was actually very interested in DNA. In his book, “What is Life?”, Schrodinger describes the existence of a molecule that exists inside living organisms that carries the code for genetic expression. James Watson and Francis Crick, both in their respective autobiographies, talk about how they were inspired by Schrodinger to look for such a molecule, which is what led them to discover DNA. Obviously, without Watson and Crick’s discovery, there might not have been anything for Doudna to study, or she might not have ended up where she was. This is another interesting connection between Schrodinger and Doudna, both being driven by curiosity of the natural world. 

Frank Lloyd Wright: Inspired by the Natural World

    Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect who became world-renowned for his revolutionary and unique design style in the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth century. Wright’s work included both his famous private residences and notable public use buildings. His career began in Chicago and spanned over half a century, with buildings designed by him populating major American cities as well as suburban and rural areas. 

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY)

    Wright’s design style falls under what an observer today would classify as mid-century modern. Wright’s version of the style often features smooth surfaces and boxy, angular forms, with emphasis on width rather than height especially for personal residences. Wright was an early pioneer of this style and was a major cause for its popularization during his career.

Wright's personal residence (Scottsdale, AZ) .

Robie House (Chicago, IL). 

Gordon House (Silverton, OR).

    The design philosophy behind Wright’s creative process connects to Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, A Way of Being, due to how the architect incorporated respect and observation of nature into his buildings. Wright dubbed his building’s relationship with nature as organic architecture, where he sought to incorporate the principles of nature into his work in order to blend the structure with its surrounding environment and create a seamless shared space between the seemingly separate spheres. Many of Wright’s constructions represent his school of thinking, where materials for the structures match the surrounding landscape, incorporate large amounts of natural light, and use open interior spaces to mirror open outdoor spaces. 

Marin County Civic Center (San Rafael, CA). Skylights shine sunlight onto a large, open three-floor concourse. 

Fallingwater (Mill Run, PA). A naturally-occurring waterfall runs underneath and 'out of' the house.  

    Like Wright, Rubin advocates for the study of nature to inform creativity. In the chapter Nature as Teacher, Rubin notes that the largest bounty of inspiration for any creator is the natural world. Through observing the rich tapestry of intersecting processes in the natural world, Rubin argues that a person can be inspired to express themselves, as their expressions will invariably reflect the natural world that they are a part of. Wright’s philosophy is intrinsically similar to Rubin’s, as the architect sought to express his designs as a piece of nature, intertwined with the world around each building. '

Links:

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/stunning-examples-of-organic-architecture

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/frank-lloyd-wright/essay-organic-architecture

https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/

https://www.architecture.org/online-resources/architecture-encyclopedia/frank-lloyd-wright

Images:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robie_House

https://franklloydwright.org/seven-hidden-gems-frank-lloyd-wrights-usonian-period/

https://franklloydwright.org/peek-inside-7-iconic-frank-lloyd-wright-buildings/

https://www.guggenheim.org/about-us/architecture/frank-lloyd-wright-and-the-guggenheim

Jean-Christophe Folly: Benoit Blues

 

 

Last week, I attended an author talk with writer, actor, and comedian Jean-Christophe Folly for my French class and was very interested to hear him talk about his creative process. Folly was promoting his debut novel, Benoit Blues, which we read the first few chapters of for my class. Before writing Benoit, Folly had been an actor and comedian for many years and part of what struck me most in the interview was the way he described his experiences in different art forms. Though he has only just published his debut novel, he is not new to writing. Writing fiction has been an act of relaxation and sometimes collaboration with his friends for him since his teen years. While he seems grateful and content with his career on stage and screen, acting ceased to be as much of a creative outlet once it became his full-time job and writing this novel scratched a creative itch for him as acting no longer could.

Both the interview itself and Folly’s varied creative pursuits brought to mind my focus book, Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan. The book is told in interview format as one of Cave’s many and wide-ranging creative projects. I was also struck by the similarity in which both Cave and Folly described their inspiration. Cave writes of his more recent music that “my music began to reflect life as I saw it” and when asked if the experiences of the main character in the book reflected his own life, Folly responded that some aspects of the main, character, Geoffrey’s world were inspired by his own, but that he was also inspired by the people around him and their own experiences. Both Cave and Folly use the creative process of collecting to inform the art that they make, incorporating seemingly unrelated knowledge and experiences into music and fiction.

I have not finished Benoit Blues yet, but after enjoying the excerpts we read in class, I would really like to. My favorite aspect of the book so far is Folly’s characterization and the way his characters and settings feel so real. In fact, what has won me over most about Benoit is a theme shared by Faith, Hope, and Carnage: I resonate with their depictions of grief and it has made me more fully connect with the books. The inciting incident of Benoit Blues is the death of Benoit, the main character’s best friend, while Cave writes that when his son died, “everything changed. That sense of disruption, of a disrupted life, infused everything.” Geoffrey, too, deals with the way grief knocks your world off its axis and, from what I’ve read so far, does it beautifully. I look forward to continuing reading Benoit.