RE: muses

[permetaform]

th_nightengale mentioned muse-independant v. muse-dependant creation of artwork, and wondered about the possible demographics of creators who might or might not work with a muse.

[Poll #480760]
Personally, I work independant of a muse but keep on hearing about them occasionally in that other people use them. musesfool helped me clarify the idea of a muse in that the way I'm addressing them here is specifically as a separate individual entity.

If you do work with a muse, what form do they take and/or look like? Do you know what they look like? Do they change depending on your project?

Also, could this be at all culturally motivated? ie. more of an emphasis from western cultures who have a tradition (from the Greeks) of muses? OR could it be more prominent from cultures who do not like to accept the idea that inspiration/creativitiy/intelligence comes from oneself? (versus a higher being? or an alternate being?)

[edit] This also brings up interesting issues around sources of inspiration, and faith; can/should/could inspiration be attributed to outside sources? Common western psychological thought is that outside voices are simply hallucinations. But other lines of argument argue that creativity is simply a perception of more levels of possibility than those that occur in our current realm of existence...

[interesting threads]
- here (started by karose)
- here (started by sorchafyre)
- here (started by karotsamused)
- here (started by ranalore)
- here (started by aliaswestgate)
- here (started by billradish)
- here (started by th_nightengale)

[interesting followup post]
Muses and Friends - a poll and some discussion about a possible link between muses and the use of imaginary friends

[NOTE] The purpose of this post is to present a friendly forum for discussion. Please keep the discussion friendly and open? Concern is valid, so is criticism; but please keep an open mind. ::hugs flist:: Cool beans?

Comments

[linzeestyle.livejournal.com]

What would you define "muse" as? If you mean in the sense of my having little sprites physically flitting above my head, then no. But if you mean in the more abstract term - a source of inspiration that seems to come from elsewhere - then yes.

I'm very much at the mercy of a "muse," or outside source of inspiration, when it comes to fancreatives - hell, any creatives. There are times when I'm constantly turning out things, sometimes at a rate of multiple collages or such a day, and there are times - days, weeks, months sometimes - where I cannot do anything. These streaks are very often motivated by some outside thing - i.e., I'm in one right now (though not fannishly; my SV muse is quite gone) that was very much brought on by Rob Thomas' new CD, so in that case I suppose my muse looks a lot like Rob - but it's a mental thing; I don't *actually* get little people dancing around my head. If anything I'm rather fascinated by this; are there people who refer to muses and genuinely mean they're "visited" by something? I'll admit it'd never occured to me that anyone referencing a "muse" was thinking in that manner.

Linzee

[permetaform]

are there people who refer to muses and genuinely mean they're "visited" by something?

yup.

and yeah, discussion here to help figure it out =)

[nightengale.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. ::waves:: I'm one of the ones with Visitors, and I'll be explaining my stand more in detail below. My question to you is:

You implied that your muses are all of different mediums--CDs or other random things outside of you that spark you. For the moment, I'll assume a painting, or a quote, or something similarly diverse could serve as a muse to you.

To me, muses lend inspiration. They point out lyrics or pictures, or suggest scenes to me, that help me write. But they're the aides, the...interpreters, if you will, of the world around me. Through my eyes it's cool; with my muses' eyes helping me things are writing-worthy. Without the muses for me, I still see the interesting things and the potential, but I don't know how to translate it into writing. No spark.

If you draw inspiration from what you label as your muses, then what's the difference between the two, in your eyes?