BOOK REVIEW - BIG MAGIC BY ELIZABETH GILBERT
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Elizabeth Gilbert talks about creativity with such refreshing joy. Big Magic is a wonderful departure from the tortured artist narrative and overarching culture of believing you need to suffer for your art that we seem to be settled in. This book made me realise that it’s an awful way to approach something – anything – particularly if you want to dedicate your life to it.
Gilbert talks of creativity not as something we are but something that is, an unknown deity that has an ability to come and go as it sees fit. And we shouldn’t necessarily try to control it. It might sound too spiritual on the surface but actually she talks in a great sense that’s very applicable to modern and practical sensibilities.
There’s talk of mindfulness, passion, happiness and empathy that’s so often missing from discussion about creativity.
Even if you don’t buy into the spirituality of it all, there’s no denying that there’s some welcome words of encouragement and practical guidance in this book on how to live a life of creativity. You’re encouraged to connect with yourself, your art and others in your pursuit of living a creatively fulfilling life, and who could argue with that?
Big Magic is a lighthearted wander through Gilbert’s own process of living creatively, but there’s talk of mindfulness, passion, happiness and empathy that’s so often missing from discussion about creativity. If nothing else, check out the audiobook that’s narrated by Gilbert and get lost in her remarkably soothing voice. Something you didn’t know you needed to hear might well just sink in.
