I went to Barnes and Noble on Saturday to pick up my copy of “Letters to a Young Artist” I figured – hey, Julia Cameron meets Rainer Rilke, its got to be good.
I visited Amazon later that day to see if any reviews had been written yet, and at that point there was only a review from Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly, neither of which appreciated this new title from one of my most beloved writers.
The closest reference I can make to her tone is that of Simon on “American Idol.” Julia Cameron is almost painfully honest and abrupt in her tone – though what she says is quite valuable I can see what they mean about her delivery.
It is a long road from my beloved Rilke, who uttered phrases in his book, “Letters to a Young Poet” that make my heart swell with pure ecstacy… stuff like,
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
And
“You ask whether your verses are an y good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your while life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.”
Are you swooning yet?
I adore Julia Cameron – my life is where it is, in great part, because of her writing. And just like her tone in “The Artist’s Way” bothered me with her whiny-ness, this tone is so far from “The Sound of Paper”, last year’s offering.
I think I will buy another copy of Rilke’s work and read the two side-by-side.
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