Guide to Julia Cameron's Artist's Way Week 10: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection Topics Covered and Books Listed: Dangers of the trail "Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction" How food, sex, and drugs alleviate the fear but keep you stuck. We give our neck to addictions (Dracula) Addicts refuse to live in harmonious opposition and rather pick to live on one side. The objectification ourselves for judgment The child is innocent and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred “yes” - For the game of creation… a sacred “yes’ is needed” “Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra Workaholism Fun leads to creativity and rebellion Easy to become a workaholic in a world of distractions How to beat a creative drought Creative competition is a spiritual drug Comparing yourself with others - If you’re going to compare yourself do it to the dead or unaccessible greats. You don’t need to be first or the best because that’s subjective. Does your favorite author think they’re the best? Bad art has a purpose. Even for the beginners ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9RkfD5CRAU

David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" is structured as a fractal. In this video, I will discuss how Wallace used a Sierpiński triangle (or gasket) as the structural formation of "Infinite Jest." We will first hear from Wallace talking about the novel as a fractal, and then I will break down what Wallace said to make it more accessible. If you guys want more Infinite Jest content, make sure to subscribe, as more will be released every day! ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VucWqoADZqo

Cormac McCarthy made a massive transformation in his writing when he moved to El Paso. At one level, McCarthy was peaking as a writer while he worked on Blood Meridian. However, on another level, McCarthy sought a different path with his writing career, pushing toward Hollywood with his The Gardener's Son (1976) and Cities of the Plain (1978) screenplays. The lack of success in both endeavors (Blood Meridian sold 1,800 copies in seven years) drove McCarthy to combine both approaches by writing less layered works that were more accessible. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNlywBmD7M8

How would you react if all your artistic dreams came true? Would you DM all your hot followers on Instagram? Would you buy a new car? Would you do more readings, workshops, and events or less? Growth, revelation, and oneness occur on the journey, but imagining your end goal is a common tactic in personal development literature. What did Cormac imagine when he was writing his first three crazy novels? When you can’t afford toothpaste and your first two books sold 2,000 copies, is writing about a necrophiliac a great idea? ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ktRSc2X1o