The Creative Act

January 16 2013
The phrase The Will To Death refers to the underlying, predominantly unintention
al, organization in works by artists who love and are devoted to the creative fo
rce, but hate what they see of the life force and its ways. It is a set of abstr
act principles which may be applied in the creative act. In artistic symbolism,
one comes close to death, and not only does he not die, but he lives more fully
for having had the experience. It may be conceived as a set of musical/mathemati
cal formulae which the musician utilizes without knowing it.
The creative force is produce of the life force, but our judgement of the life f
orce is based on our perception of its effects, its surface, everything that hap
pens in the external world we know. The closest we come to seeing the essence of
the life force is in our perception of the creative force. In works of art, the
creative force provides addition and multiplication.The creative force is assis
ted by human intelligence through our devotion to division and negation, and so,
symbolically, from the standpoint of human intelligence, the act of creativity
is a striving towards death. The reason creative action can be a fulfilling life
enriching thing, is because our creative thinking is negation only on the thoug
hts surface, the thoughts essence being identical with the wishes of the essence
of the life force.
So in The Will To Death one strives towards death, but is indirectly supported b
y the life force, and so the artists will is always aiming at something it never
reaches, for the creative force upholds the aspects of the life force which the
human is blind to. And so due to feelings and inner visions, the mental divisio
ns and subtractions an artist must be fluent in carry him down a path that is on
ly subtractive in his relationship to his tools, while the creative force carrie
s the additive substance of the life force which is ultimately perceived.
Subtraction and negation are always a matter of degrees, beyond which is the pos
itive unknown, the essence of the life force. The primary perceptive apparatus o
f the artist is appropriately blind to the positives behind negation, yet he sen
ses them, and he is often inwardly shown them. But just like people and their at
tachment to image and appearance, he cannot grasp the positive unseen and unknow
n, so he clings to his negations, subconsciously knowing they are attached to th
e life force, but consciously only knowing the life force by the world and its w
ays, that being his only working image of it. Were it not for the seemingly inex
plicable meaning inherent in his work, he would not strive down a path of negati
on and division. It is the subconscious knowledge that this is actually an upwar
d path which fuels him to continue to strive towards a greater comprehension of
the negatives which to most people appear to symbolize the feared unknown, point
less to dissect. In other words, the artist strives toward death, because to him
it feels like life. And when he presents his work to others, it looks like life
to them, while it is actually negation and death which are beneath the surface.
And, of course, beyond the surface of that, as Ive just explained, is the life f
orce, once again.
If an artist is applying The Will To Death, he has the following three positions
in balance. He is in between, occupied with negation and separation. In front i
s the expression of life, visible and audible to him and to others, and behind i
s the creative force, visible and audible only to him. Behind which is the life
force, which he can not see anymore than his spectators can see his mental negat
ions, or the personification of the creative force which is perhaps known to him
.
Three conditions need to be in balance for the artist to apply The Will To Death
:
1) Trust in and devotion to the part of the creative act he can not control. He
must possess a conception of the difference between the creative force and himse
lf, to a great degree in order to be controlled by it. This means a kind of lett
ing go of the very parts of himself that share something in common with the crea
tive force, namely, the desire to maintain a solid forward motion. This motion c
omes if one trusts the creative force. None of us can cause it any more than we
can cause the forward motion of time. To take part in it is all that is in our p
ower, and to do so is a great privilege. If ones love for art is great enough, t
heir appreciation for their chance to participate in the creative act great enou
gh, then to trust in the energy which guides them comes naturally, If the artist
has an internal personification of this aspect of the force, then it is this th
at he loves and trusts, but he still must love and trust when there is no image,
but only a feeling and a non-specific, non-defined, sensible, talking force of
energy. And this trust in what amounts to his own feelings, must be greater than
his trust in the things people generally trust, such as general consensus, popu
larly accepted points of view, commonly adhered to limitations or restrictions,
and present day conventions.
2) The ability to mentally lose himself in a fascination with negations and divi
sions. Essential to the creative process are contradictions, taking things apart
, carving away at things, and disconnecting this from that. Most important is co
ntradiction of the force that guides him, his love for this force being so great
that the contradiction can not help but lead to a new agreement. He must be goi
ng in one direction, and then switch to a new direction, without losing his way.
If condition 1 is in place he need not fear going astray. The artists role is t
o always look for new ways to go, despite that he is not the one driving.
3) Third is his creation of the appearance of conditions 1 and 2 as being a sing
ular motion, not a multitude of contrary directions. This implies that condition
s 1 and 2 are so balanced that there is a perfection of form in every countermov
ement contained within. Every counteraction soon finds its coordinate. Every end
ing feels like a new beginning. Every repetition feels like a continued flow. Ev
ery negation appears as positivity and every loss appears as a gain. There can b
e no difference between feeling and appearance to the artist, they must be one i
n the same. It is this point that is stressed by the undercurrent of the life fo
rce. The life force is far away, pertaining to arts essence, and it is also near
, pertaining to the perception of the sum of all the things that comprise a work
s appearance. These are the sides. The artist sees three parts, what the creativ
e force brings and perpetuates, what the artist himself twists, turns and counte
racts, and the sum the artist perceives. And it is there that the artists involv
ement in their work must end, if The Will To Death is to be applied. Otherwise t
he artist is compromising condition number one, and to whatever degree he does s
o, the balance required for the application of The Will To Death is thrown off.
The artist stands in the middle of two sides. What is beyond these is of no conc
ern to him. He will never directly perceive the life force, and doesnt want to. A
nd he cant hear with other peoples ears, or see with their eyes, and he sacrifice
s the benefit of his own senses to whatever degree he attempts to do so. The cre
ative force is driving the artist in a car. The artist who attempts to take over
the wheel will find The Will To Death unavailable to him, as he has made himsel
f unavailable to it. Humans being located at a single point in the moment is the
reason we hear and see as we do, and it is this which makes art and its percept
ion possible in the first place. Our limited scope of vision is a gift, allowing
us to see left from right, up from down, positive from negative and so on. Beca
use each of us possesses a singular perspective, we can trust what we see and fe
el. We can contradict ourselves and be right both times.
So to summarize, one must allow themselves to be controlled by, yet counter, tha
t which controls them, in such a way that the momentum and basic design provided
by the controller remains, while the will and individuality of the artist persi
sts. The creative force is half the essence of the life force and half a correla
tive of the artist and all his essential negativities. In The Will To Death, the
creative act is a friendly argument between the creative force and the artist.
This is the same as two close friends arguing about boxing. Just as both friends
have a certain knowledge in common which provides the basis for the argument, t
he artists ability to navigate through negations and divisions aligns him with t
he creative force and its additions and multiplications, to the point that the a
rgument is actually an affirmation of that which connects them.
The life force is primarily concerned with the effects of communicative energy,
and the creative force is primarily concerned with the increase of the quality o
f art, and they have a perpetual friendly argument along these lines, and the li
ves and work of entertainers and artists, and the various combinations of the tw
o, are the subjects. On the surface, it would seem that the life force always wi
ns the argument with the creative force, and the creative force always wins the
argument with artists. But while the life force created the creative force, the
creative force in turn created the human perception of the life force. And the c
reative force creates artists, but humans mere existence creates a space for the
creative force to live within. This means the apparent loser is always also the
winner, as life force, creative force, artist and audience are all essentially
one thing, just as a boxing argument results in the affirmation that each friend
is his own man while the sport itself connects their differences. This was all
set in motion so the true wishes of the life force would be vivified, of necessi
ty, by negative units of itself, which gradually results in the hidden intention
s of the life force becoming visible. The creative forces purpose involves the l
ife forces higher aspects emerging victorious over its lower aspects, and the ar
tists purpose involves the creative forces higher aspects emerging victorious ov
er its lower aspects. What we see of the life force and its ways may often appea
r detestable, but the creative force we love represents the hidden parts of the
life force, which we have been given the power to cultivate. This has been put i
n our hands in order to bring a flower out of the dirt