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

[scarletseraph.livejournal.com]

When I first started role-playing - which is where a very great deal of my creative energy goes - I was under the assumption that any character I created would thereby have to be a part of self rather than its own individual being, since I created it.

What I found out was that even if I came up with an original concept, quite often, I would...lack control over how it took shape. There have been many times I've wanted to make a new character, either for playing or writing, and had them go in such a radically different direction that I couldn't do anything with them at all. A few of them, I was able to adjust to working with in the 'new' form. I've also had characters whose desires would run more-or-less parallel to my own for ages, only to end up at odds with them over a sudden single decision. (In one case, it did immense damage - she took her leave of me, and most of my creativity and caring - about anything - with it. No matter what I did or how I tried to make it up to her, she wouldn't come back, and it was months, maybe even years, before I was really able to fill the void and start over again - and the 'replacement' was never actually expected or intended to be that. At least not to the extent she ended up being.)

There have been a few times I've said, "Okay, I'd like to fill a particular niche; universe, what have you got for me?" and had someone or something show up, tell me its name, and get to work. There have been times - too many to count - that I'll be thinking of someone who ought rightly to live in my head, and felt a physical presence - usually behind me, standing or lying against my back. Looking over my shoulder. I get 'feelings' more often than I get words - senses of "Yes, that's right," or, "No, that's wrong," and when there are words, they're...internal but seperate. I hear them inside my head, but they don't come from me.

It's more-or-less the same with fanworks as it is original creations. I'll get a sudden spark of understanding for a character, and have to go somewhere with it. If I don't, it won't leave me alone, and once I do - it's usually gone, at least for a while. Some of them drop in and out. Some of them only visit once.