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The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (平装)
by Steven Pressfield
| Category:
Creativity, Potential development, Personal improvement, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 148.00
MSL price:
¥ 138.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Short, powerful and life-transforming, this book will jump-start you that you can achieve a lot more if you choose to overcome your inner resistance. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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Jordan Poss (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
Noted novelist Steven Pressfield's The War of Art is a short, fast-moving guide to beating writer's block, or whatever form of "Resistance" that impedes what you were meant to do.
The book is a really quick read. I'm a pretty slow reader, and I managed to read it in just about an hour. Pressfield has packaged a lot of thought and energetic philosophy into a very small book.
The book reads like a free mixture of Ayn Rand, pseudo-Darwinism, Dr. Phil, and a bit of pop-paganism thrown in to boot. It's a smorgasbord of ideas - take what you want. Pressfield draws a lot of interesting dichotomies, illustrating the tensions between polarized attitudes within the human psyche that he indentifies as Ego and Self, the respective sources of Resistance and divine contact with the Muse.
The book is a smorgasbord, like I said, and a good bit of it is of the "take it or leave it" variety. Pressfield freely admits this in the book, emphasizing that the terminology shouldn't stand in the way of what he's trying to say. I found a lot of it good, a fraction of it hokey, but all of it fascinating and helpful.
Since this is, essentially, a "self-help" book, I suppose I should say whether or not it has helped me. I think it has. In a world that emphasizes mass mediocrity and the opinion of our "peers" (the Ayn Rand showing through), Pressfield points out that, in the end, we really only answer to ourselves and to God (or, as Pressfield would say, whatever you're comfortable with believing). |
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Gregory Pompes MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
Mr. Pressfield, in his easy style, presents dozens of short, narrative bursts of creative ideals and ideas. He shares his own experiences as author of The Legend of Bagger Vance and other works, what he's discovered about the power of the muse and the need to sit down each day and write. These ideas are offered up in 50-250 word vignettes and essays, each dedicated to understanding and overcoming the creative blocks that keep us from achieving our daily and lifetime goals and dreams. What Mr. Pressfield does, is share his artistic philosophy.
The book is divided into three sections: Resistance (Defining the Enemy), Combating Resistance (Turning Pro), and Beyond Resistance (Higher Realm). Each section is filled with short descriptions and digestible ideas. This is one of those books that can be read cover to cover, or randomly opened for a quick moment of inspiration.
If you've read other writer self-help or creative inspiration books, you'll notice glimmers of stuff you've read or stuff you already know. But, Mr. Pressfield's invocation of the muses and light connections to Roman myth added a nice layer, as do his selection of inspirational quotes from the likes of the Dali Lama, modern film, and the ancients.
There were some concepts that Mr. Pressfield shared that I'll admit I didn't agree with, but I'm not going to share those with you. After all, we all develop out own life philosophies. What I found interesting is that, while I didn't agree with him on every point, I also kept reading. This gut reaction to keep going and trust the words, even through a filter, is a good indication that his philosophical concepts are pretty solid: one of those agree to disagree moments. |
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Paula (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
If you can't handle looking in the mirror and taking responsibility for the past as well as the future don't buy this book. However, if you are stuck in your career or can't seem to attain a goal and can't figure out why (even though you know), this is a good place to start. This book is very different from other self-help books; no drivel, no poor me exercises, no blame my parents game, nothing like that! Just get yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. You don't get second chances when you are dead. Good news, if you are reading this passage you're alive! Try again. I highly recommend this book.
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M. Pettit (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
If you have a passion in your life - writing, painting, music, sculpting, dancing, acting - and if this passion is the reason you believe you're alive, then check out this book. One of Pressfield's premises is that we're all MEANT for something, we're each here for some reason, to create something in the world (Eternity is in love with the productions of time) and if we don't live for and through this, then we're wasting our time. He blasts away even the most stubborn and alluring resistances - the excuses we tell ourselves for not doing the work. This book can rev you up - it's short (165 pages)and powerful. I breezed through the book in a few hours and felt energized. Pressfield puts art-making in perspective, puts procastination in perspective, and delivers in a direct, conversational tone - as one human who is trying to live a life that means something to another. I've read a lot of "how to" books and most don't live up to their hype. This one deals with how to overcome the obstacles of ambition and how (and why) to discipline yourself. As much as a cliche as it may sound, it will make a difference in how you look at what you do. Give it to anyone else you know who wants to write, paint, act, dance, compose, and wants to follow their dream. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
Are you creative, yet are facing writer's block? Read this book and it'll shake your block loose and help set you free!
In this slim volume Stephen Pressfield discusses the inner naysayer we all have within us, also referred to as an inner critic by most writers.This book helps you identify and defeat the negative self talk any creative person must deal with. It does so in a serious tone, sprinkled with lots of humor. For example, the heading of one of his essays is "How To Be Miserable" - it was an essay that had me chuckling. It also had me nodding my head as I recognized myself in what he wrote.
Written using a variety of short essays, this book is easy to pick up and read at any point. I read it from the first page to the last, in order. You don't necessarily need to do that to benefit from Stephen Pressfield's wisdom about the inner struggle creative people face from day to day. Read from beginning to end does have it's advantages though - the author takes aim at resistance, procrastination, rationalization, and finally at the end winning the war. When we win the war of art we are free to create, free to be truly happy.
This is one of the best books I've read on the subject. It helped me identify my own foibles then smash the blocks holding me back. I saw myself in each page and triumphed along with the author. This is an excellent book for any creative person. I highly recommend it.
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Walter Morton (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-02 00:00>
This book is worth getting just for the discussion in the first half on "resistance." This is Pressfield's term for anything that prevents the artist from doing "the work." Pressfield humorously and elegantly recounts all the stumbling blocks, procrastination, avoidance, neurotic behavior and fear - all summed up as "resistance" - that any human faces in creating anything. I laughed out loud as recognized some of these crazy behaviors and irrational fears as very familiar to me. For anyone who is trying to make the transition from creative amateur to working professional it provides a pathway and a license for personal change. Some might complain that this book is composed of short anecdotes but I think it's a refereshing alternative to long-winded self-help books with arcane and convoluted exerecises, workbooks, recipes and programs. Most of defeating any problem begins in recognizing it, and this book helps you do just that. |
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1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
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