http://hydragenic.com/2008/01/14/that-corrosive-hunger/ Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:41:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://hydragenic.com/2008/01/14/that-corrosive-hunger/comment-page-1/#comment-3416 beth Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:31:04 +0000 http://wokkil.pair.com/hydragen/hydragenic.new/2008/01/14/that-corrosive-hunger/#comment-3416 Good post, Hg. corrosive hunger is a compelling and romantic notion (perhaps a little on the perpetually-adolescent side?) but I just don't think it's true that all the people who have chosen passionate creativity have "lost" something else that they wanted more. I've known plenty of artists who have lost their marriages, lost their health, whatever...but they chose to do the art to the exclusion of other things, other responsibilities, other loves. Their families often suffered. But I don't think the art was coming out of that pain, necessarily. In fact many of these artists seemed pretty oblivious to the pain of others, and if they were suffering themselves, it was often for other reasons. Or they learn to "wear" the suffering because it makes them feel special, and the whole dynamic becomes a vicious circle they feed off. I think we all want to feel passion, and creative passion is a wonderful thing that I certainly go for in my own life, and that I hope will help fuel me well into my old age. It took me quite a long time to separate out the path of *doing* from the goals (the *arrival*) I had been attached to, though, nearly all of which had to do with other people's reactions. I agree with Alistair's conclusions. Good post, Hg. corrosive hunger is a compelling and romantic notion (perhaps a little on the perpetually-adolescent side?) but I just don’t think it’s true that all the people who have chosen passionate creativity have “lost” something else that they wanted more. I’ve known plenty of artists who have lost their marriages, lost their health, whatever…but they chose to do the art to the exclusion of other things, other responsibilities, other loves. Their families often suffered. But I don’t think the art was coming out of that pain, necessarily. In fact many of these artists seemed pretty oblivious to the pain of others, and if they were suffering themselves, it was often for other reasons. Or they learn to “wear” the suffering because it makes them feel special, and the whole dynamic becomes a vicious circle they feed off.
I think we all want to feel passion, and creative passion is a wonderful thing that I certainly go for in my own life, and that I hope will help fuel me well into my old age. It took me quite a long time to separate out the path of *doing* from the goals (the *arrival*) I had been attached to, though, nearly all of which had to do with other people’s reactions. I agree with Alistair’s conclusions.

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