IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS
Sven Birkerts has a wonderful piece in Lapham's Quarterly on historical and current attitudes toward idleness. Of particular interest to writers, of course, is the recurring claim that immediate lack of productivity, or just lying around, constitutes important internal preparation for a burst of creativity. Birkerts speculates that current emphasis on constant activity may make us more productive, but less creative.
When my grandmother caught me lying on the couch, daydreaming, she would manufacture a task for me, saying, "The devil makes work for idle hands." (I learned not to point out that she was thus casting herself as the devil in this transaction.)
Grandma may well have been right; she often was. But for her, the devil represented a host of evils that included rebellious or subversive thought, sexuality, and "frivolity," including pondering questions with no immediate, practical solution and making up fantastic stories about people who never existed. That was the "work" my young soul tended toward in those vacant moments that are now so problematically rare.
I hope you enjoy the article. Grandma is, to my eternal sorrow, no longer with us, so I'm going to go lie down on the couch now.
Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity (Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog, and she is a regular guest panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.
Comments