Sunday, January 23, 2011

Orthodox Judaism And Creativity- AISH LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS

Aish.com has an article about creativity that reeks of the 1984 line war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

The title of the Aish piece is, "Do standardized tests and structure thwart creativity and talent?" and the article says no.

"Standardized" creativity is an oxymoron.

If you want to be creative, you need to do 2 things.

1) Quit Orthodox Judaism

2) pick up a pen and start writing, or pick up a paintbrush and start painting, or pick up a pencil and start drawing.

If you do step two without step one, noone in the orthodox community will respect it. They only respect learning endless runon sentences from GEMAAAAAAARAAHHHHH.

The Aish article continues with this:

"True creativity and talent can’t flourish without discipline, structure and an understanding on the fundamentals, whatever field you are in. There is a reason that the famous question “How do you get to Carnegie Hall” is answered with the words, “Practice, practice, practice.” You need to spend hours learning to read music well. You need to practice scales and other musical exercises. Then you need to master the basics of the piece of music. Only after laying that foundation can you let your imagination and emotions soar."
Yes you need to learn fundamentals of what you do, but what is sorely lacking in this article about creativity is there's no mention of the word fun! Yes, fun! When you do art, it has to be fun. Not everything haaaaaaaaas to be an intellectual exercise. Orthodox Judaism does understand endless studying, but Orthodox Judaism has a minimal to no understanding of fun.
Step 3 after quitting Orthodox Judaism and picking up an artistic tool is, ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean look at this crap, in the Aish article, the writer mentions mathematics, torah study, discipline, hours and hours of practice, kaballah even, etc. etc. etc. I of course do not diminish any of these things, but ..... is the writer of the Aish article even capable of separating in her mind being serious with having a good time?

Indeed, you have to practice and be good at your art for it to make sense, but the Aish article does not glorify creativity, rather the article turns creativity into a bland area of intellectual study.

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