What'd you say Cleese?
So in
the beginning of John's 30 min (roughly) speech, there was a lot of information
that he said is all as important as the last chunk of knowledge. All of John's
ideas seemed to fall under this idea of a shell that everyone is in and to get
out of it you must break free. This idea to me made no sense at all. So you are
going to tell me that you have to stop being you to be creative? I'm sorry but I
believe that I am creative in my own ways and this so called "shell" doesn’t
exist. In retrospect, it is the inability to keep doing what you have always
been doing. That in no way is a shell. It is only the shackles that are put on
us as we are young and begin to spread our wings in the realm of writing… our
teachers begin to make writing project that are so precise that there is no
room to fly.
So here
is my professional, freshman at college, advice: BE YOURSELF and USE YOUR
IMAGINATION. It seems that many people in school always try to be what your
teacher/professor wants you to be. It confines you to be something that you're
not, which is what your teacher wants. I am a firm believer that if you do what
your teacher asks of you and to the best of your ability, you'll get the 'A'.
Instead if you be yourself and strive to also do your best you will get the 'A'
and you will open your teachers eyes to
what you may be able to achieve. Whoever you may be reading this article, I hate
to be cliché but just 'do what you do' and you will open eyes. I guarantee that
it will turn out for the best.
And a
little side note as well, this may or may not be a part of this essay, be able
to take criticism. If you can't… you
better do whatever you can to because that is key when you are trying to become
'creative' or even just life in general.
Next she says she and other writers write a “child’s draft, ” and this helps
her to see what should be written next. In addition, she talks about how she
wrote food revises for California Magazine before it folded, and she describes
the bad first drafts she wrote. She says she would write without stopping until
she knew what she wanted to write about. After that she talked about editing
what she wrote, and then even later she would finally know what she wanted to
say.
"Today you are you, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is youer than you."
Dr. Suess.
-Lucas Dies
So questions for you sir:
ReplyDelete1: How do you have imagination?
2: What does taking criticism do with creativity? What you say was to take judgement from people was a good way to improve yourself. However, I just wonder what it does to gain creativity? I know you said it has nothing to do with the essay but I think it does. Please explain it!
3: What particularly and practically do you need to do that you don't have to ONLY listen to the teachers but you still achieve what you want?
Annie,
ReplyDeleteI have an imagination because of how I was raised and the environment i grew up in. It is shaped due to what steps I have taken as a student, brother, friend and son to my mother and father. I believe it is all about what your surrounded by!
To answer your other questions critisism is important because if can not accept a outside source's counter-point, then you will never be able to open you mind to new things and ideas.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying--school can definitely seem like a shackle to creativity. I felt very oppressed by school all way through high school. I hated being told what to do, that my work wasn't good enough, etc. I always considered myself to be highly creative--it was the one thing I was praised for. But my work showed that I wasn't working very hard to refine my work, particularly in certain subjects, like math.
It was only when I got to college and realized I was there by choice and could shape my own experience that I started to understand your second point, that criticism can actually help a person to make their creative efforts shine more brightly. Ultimately, my college experience helped me learn to accept that being able to take criticism, even really mean-sounding criticism, was the only way to get better.
You don't always have to apply someone else's criticism to your work, but it's important to understand where it is coming from. What I mean is, it's important to be able to distinguish when something you've made or written really isn't very good or when it just doesn't meet with someone's approval. It's like the difference between spoiled milk, and milk that is flavored with something you happen not to like. The first is always bad, but the second might be very good in certain situations and to certain people's tastes. Hearing criticism and not just reacting to it helps you to learn the difference.