Introduction
Christmas makes the Phlox get all romantic and sentimental. Need The Snottor say more?
About these Nonfiction Works
While The Snottor (and, the Phlox adds, the Phlox) works mostly in literary fiction, he does not turn his nose up at the illustrious genre that is Nonfiction (The Snottor tries generally not to turn up his nose at anything).
The world, The Snottor has observed, is currently all abuzz on the subject of Creativity. Chasing Creativity, Inspiration, fostering Creativity, etc. The Snottor, in his acidic opinion, finds the vast majority of this mumbo-jumbo to be garbage.
(excuse The Snottor for a moment, the Phlox is speaking to him on the topic of manners)
The Snottor remains unapologetic. He remains firm in his beliefs that creativity will not be found on Pinterest boards, it will not be found in this slippery thing called “Inspiration”—the Phlox has deleted the remainder of this rant. The Snottor digresses.
His point is that these books are the only useful helps on the subject of Creativity he knows of.
Book #1:
The Call to Create, Celebrating Acts of Imagination by Linda Schierse Leonard.
This book, grounded in Jungian psychology, is a comprehensive study of the inner demons of the artist and how these have affected many such people, and the roads to fighting them. She illustrates these things via archetypes, fairy and folktales, and some of her writing within it is truly revelatory. This book can be life-saving for the artist, especially the artist experiencing the downward mental and emotional spirals associated with that career.
Book #2:
The War of Art, Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.
This book is not for artists, but for everyone; it is about the creativity that is the vitality of life, that helps you achieve your goals, that is behind art, yes, but also behind exercise and entrepreneurship, among many other things. This book is also steeped in the waters of psychology, and The Snottor particularly appreciated the discussion of the Ego vs. the Self that occurred within its pages. This is a book for humans, about being human. It is brief and always to the point; opening it at a random page and reading one of the short chapters would leave you with enough material to contemplate for months afterward (true story, this was the Phlox’s first experience with the book). Here is the link to the author’s website, specifically his page on this book: https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-war-of-art/
It’s a great website, and the rest of the material is definitely worthy of being checked out.
What are your favorite works of Nonfiction? Or treatises on Creativity? Or works on psychology? Comment below and tell us!