Criticism At Its Best

After finishing the Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, I’m happy to say that I’ve actually learned a lot. The book itself to me doesn’t really delve into creativity or maybe I just don’t see creativity the way Tharp does. On the other hand, I see endless life lessons that are addressed in the book which are extremely important when trying to accomplish things in life. I have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan of some parts of the book more towards the beginning. I didn’t like the idea of Tharp blathering on about a “box” which I really couldn’t relate to.

             As the book went on though she talked about things like having skill in your field. Tharp says, “What all these people have in common is that they have mastered the underlying skills of their creative domain, and built their creativity on the solid foundation of those skills” (162). I thought this idea of skill which seems trivial at first glance is actually essential to even getting and idea of the ground.  You need resources that stem from some type of prior knowledge you have in your field of interest.

            I also liked how Tharp talked about the “Spine” of an idea. She defines it as the roots of the idea or the foundation from which creativity begins. The spine of the idea is what keeps you on track and able to ultimately accomplish whatever endeavor you may have. I also liked the fact of how Tharp includes ideas from earlier chapters related to how they affect the “Spine” of your idea. I thought that was important because at times I was having trouble figuring out how some of her ideas from earlier on in the book related to idea introduced later in the book.

            The final part of the book that spoke most to me was troubles you have along the way. Tharp makes it very clear that not every idea you have is going to be ‘fool proof’. There are going to be times when you fail. I think this is the hardest part of the book to address because most people in the world see failure as a negative extremity of creativity or as I would call it being goal driven. Tharp does a very good job of pretty much saying that just because something doesn’t go off the way you expected it that you were a failure. There are always going to be positive aspects with the negative aspects, it is on you to separate the two and analyze each.

            Even though I think Tharp’s and I idea of creativity differs, I feel we have a similar view in the way we approach each of our definitions. What she calls creativity, I see as book to help people with accomplishing goals they have in life. She delves into life lessons and where to start with becoming a more goal oriented person in life. This whole process is essential to people because without goals, we really have nothing to push us to greatness.