Transcendentalism and creativity.

While most eras and genres of American literature never held much or any of my interest, I always found American Transcendentalism in interesting time period.  Beginning the philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Frederic Henry Hedge, and Theodore Parker were skeptical of how society and the religion of the time conformed to old ideas and thoughts.  They “were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity, and urged that each individual find, in Emerson’s words, ‘an original relation to the universe’” (SEP intro).

Many transcendentalists believed not that God was of this earth and his son Jesus human with authoritative powers, but that God transcended this plane of existence and that humans should strive to be more like Him.  Even though I don’t believe in “God” the way they and many Christians do, I do believe that humans can always strive to transcend to a higher level of consciousness than the physical shell we currently inhabit.

Widely common values among transcendentalists involved getting more in touch with nature and the environment around them, supporting the abolition of slavery, and lobbying for women’s rights.  The movement toward becoming in touch with nature didn’t die when transcendentalism gave way to other forms of thought and society, but survived through nature parks, conservation organizations, and other periods that looked at freeing the spirit through more natural means than conventional society would allow (e.g. hippie movement, new age movement, etc.).  Emerson and Thoreau explored human’s role in nature in their books Nature and Walden, respectively.  Both found that special spiritualism mainly through changing the surrounding environment, the wilderness, and this complies to what M.C. says: “Most of us deep down believe that a person who is creative will prevail regardless of the environment… But the reality appears to be different.  Favorable convergences in time and place open up a brief window of opportunity for the person who, having the proper qualifications, happens to be at the right place at the right time.” (M.C. 330).  As much as they might have written about the human connection to nature had they not experienced it firsthand, they would not have gotten the insights that have profoundly affected society today without being in those “right” places.

Though they weren’t the only supporters of the abolition of slavery and weren’t the main cause of this idea, the widely growing interest and support of the transcendentalist movement influenced many people to support that cause.  Though the end of slavery is not considered a creative breakthrough, the ideas that came out of the black culture as a result of being free (jazz, rap, and other artistic endeavors) were creative.

Women’s rights also didn’t become a main concern in the United States until the 19-teens and weren’t supported by the government until the early 1920′s.  Still, transcendentalism was one of the seed planters for women to step up and fight against all the oppression they had gone through in a patriarchal society until that point.  Most of the transcendentalists believed in the equal rights of both men and women, with Margaret Fuller being the strongest advocate.  Many of her publications emphasized that the traditional roles and assumptions about each gender were not always true; men and women shared masculine and feminine traits and roles throughout much of history.

Much of the influence Transcendentalism has had on us today is subtle, but recognizable if one looks for it.  The love of nature: conservation parks everywhere, expensive homes being mostly where the “views” of nature are most beautiful, outdoor recreational sports, and living in rural areas with wilderness surroundings.  A lot of the philosophies taught more about individualism and peoples’ connection to each other and the world.

Most of the views of the transcendentalists had back then coincide with many of my views today, which is why I found this period of history interesting.  I think that, if I had a life in America at that time, I would most certainly have either tried to follow in their footsteps or at least strongly supported that movement.

Sources:

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=2598

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/

http://www.enotes.com/american-history-literature/transcendentalism

When I was ten.

I was ten years old in the year 1996.  The president at the time was William Jefferson Clinton (aka Bill Clinton).  The economy was in a relatively good state of high growth, low inflation, and historically low unemployment.

Popular stars included Mel Gibson, who starred in the Academy Award-winning movie Braveheart, Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting, and Janet Jackson, who was the highest paid musician in history.  Some of the popular movies of the time included Fargo, The English Patient, Jerry Maguire, and The People vs Larry Flynt.

That year was one of much change for my family.  My sister was born in early November of 1995, so having a new baby in the house certainly mixed things up.  My father had just gotten a new job in late 1995, so we also had to gear up to move.  In late April, we finally made the long haul to Jefferson City, Missouri where I spent six weeks of the remainder of my fourth grade getting used to the new school.  Later in the year I took my first music lessons on the violin with about six other people.  I didn’t stay with it for a long time, as my practice time at home was eventually taken up by video games.  However, it was my first foray into playing music and I came back to playing an instrument several years later.  Also, unbeknownst to my siblings and I, there were signs that we couldn’t catch of our parent’s divorce, which happened the following year.

I paid little attention to most of the pop culture world when I was ten, so most of what affected me then was more familial.  While I played a few video games when I was really little, it wasn’t until 1996 that I really got into them when we first got the Nintendo 64.  It didn’t occur to me that I would probably enjoy making them for a future career, but loving to play them and seeing all of the different worlds, stories and characters that could be created through them started at that time.  I also liked the characters in one of my favorite comic series, Sonic the Hedgehog(which I found out later actually originated in video game form), and loved to draw the characters from various panels in the books.  Though my drawing skills then also later took a back seat to playing video games, they never died.  I took some art classes in high school, but didn’t get back into the drawing and art mindset until college.

At first, I tried graphic design for a few years because I thought “Graphic. Design.  Art on the computer”.  Little did I know it was more about commercial art and designing logos, packaging, etc. than what I really wanted to do.  As I mentioned above, I really loved the worlds, characters, and stories often expressed through video games.  I saw that I wanted to work in that field because I wanted to create that type of art.  Concept art or 3D art in games was the most appealing to me.  That’s one of the things that brought my family and me out to Washington.

I always thought it interesting how varied my co-workers and teammates backgrounds were depending on the generation that they were born.  Even though I get some personal insight of past fashions, music, culture, etc. from my mom, I always find something new from others from that generation or older or newer generations.  These differences help diversify a creative team because of the different ways problems can be solved or ideas can be realized.

Creative director of the WORLD?!? You’re kidding, right?  Wow, what a challenging job.  So be it, I will come up with a good solution to help nurture creativity in children (and adults too!).

Using a team, I will garner opinions from everyone involved to create different environments in schools and the home that will help encourage creativity.  Creativity often involves mistakes through experimentation, so everyone would be encouraged to make them as long as they learn from them.  There would be many more successes if people, starting from childhood, have no fear of being in error.

I would also increase the importance of creativity, art, and music in schools and abolish the letter grading system in favor of judging each student by their own merits.  This would mean more teachers in schools and less students per teacher, thus giving each student more personal time to grow themselves in whichever area they choose with plenty of support.

This would also apply in the home, where parents who, according to MC, “are responsible for stimulating and directing the child’s interest” (pg. 161).  Parents should not try to do what they and society think “is best for the kids”, but should leave it to the children to decide and then support them.  They should work in tandem with teachers to help children grow.