I Have An Idea, by Hervé Tullet

It is sometimes distressing just how contentious and political it can be just to talk about the nature of creativity.  One would think that it would be a straightforward and uncomplicated to celebrate a clumsily but cutely drawn book about a child having an idea, but no that’s not the case.  It is all too obvious in reading books like this that books on creativity have a lot of agendas that are associated with them, and the authors are not shy or discreet about these agendas either.  And even, or especially, books about creativity that are aimed at children like this one is are going to have some serious problems in the way that creativity is framed and promoted.  Indeed, this is a book that cannot really be recommended.  Those who know enough to be able to read it profitably are clearly not the intended audience of the book, who are people the author wants to be filled with the idea that creativity is necessarily rebellious and even filled with madness.  It is all too easy, almost a trivial task, to speak out against a book like this one, but it is a far more interesting matter to ponder it is who has the sort of interest in conveying such a mistaken view of creativity in the first place.

The book itself is colored in a way that a child could imitate, beginning with that moment when you feel a puff of breath that comes with having an idea, a magnificent feeling in the author’s mind.  After that the author seeks to define an idea by looking at somewhat lengthy searching that leads to something colorful and new that is different than anything else.  The author compares an idea to seed that grows and grows into something quite massive.  After that the author talks about what one does with messy and bubbly ideas in getting to work to organize them and record them and refine them into “good” ideas, within which there is always, according to the author, a seed of madness.  The author encourages such ideas to be cultivated everywhere, although one will not be able to see them all the time.  The author also encourages sensual exploration as well as curiosity so that one’s brain becomes changed and affected by one’s experiments and discovery, to the point where one will come up with ideas after a great deal of time and effort.

Why is it that so many people think of creativity simply as novelty without reflecting on what is useful or that which resonates with other people?  Because it is easier to think of creativity as being something that is solely within us rather than as being in imitation of God (which would require honoring God for the creativity we have and how we use it) or in response to the needs and problems of the world, which would involve the shaping of those ideas and creations we have by those who use them.  Why is it that so many people think of creativity as associated with madness?  Because there is a strong vested interest on the part of those who want their own rebelliousness to be celebrated and imitated to paint creativity in a way that is hostile to godly and human authority, and to be free from judgment according to conventional or hostile standards of morality.  As a result, to talk or write about curiosity and creativity means to engage in a conversation about the legitimacy of such efforts and the proper boundaries of them, which are matters that some people would rather not deal with at all, or at least not concede the importance of whatsoever.