On Being Violent and Original

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”  –  Gustav Flaubert

This Flaubert quotation pulls at me. It’s been snarling around the edges of my mind for months now. I struggle with both halves of this equation. I am by nature a creature of habit (disrupt my routine and watch me snarl and lash) while I also resent and resist any formal order. At the same time I have a deep desire to be violent and original, but the path frightens me a little.

So what does he mean by violent and original? Flaubert certainly did not mean physical violence. He was a man dedicated to the meticulous creation of his personal style and writing. He did not live a settled or ordinary life. Thrown out of school in his youth, he traveled, suffered from venereal diseases through his life, and died at 58. His writing is noted for his perfectionism, a devotion to “le mot juste” (the right word) is central to his style. As a consequence, his output is smaller than other writers of the age. Where others wrote a novel a year, a single page could take a week. One novel took seven years to complete.

So where does that leave us with M. Flaubert? Is he saying one thing while doing another? I’m not sure of that. You can be “violent and original” while chipping away an inch at a time every bit as much as whaling away with a sledgehammer. For me, Flaubert is telling us to find a foundation for our creativity. That firm footing gives us a place from which we can stretch our creativity. Without that, the creative flair Flaubert calls us to will throw us off balance and destroy the work.

With that question answered, what then of this “violent” originality of his? When I read it, I hear a call against my natural reticence when I’m creating. I edit myself before I’ve written a word or placed the first line in an image. “What if it doesn’t work?” is a control on a creative engine that keeps us from pushing to our limits. The limits of our ability, imagination and technique are appropriate boundaries (although one needs to push them). I am inclined to try for immediate perfection immediate (it never happens), rather than saying “Let’s see what she can do!” Opening the throttle to blast down the imagination highway is terrifying, but who knows what we may discover?

Discovering the limits of our imagination never happens at cautious speeds. Flaubert seems to advise that we tear away whatever shackles us in our creative work. And then reach as high as we can from our foundation. How will you be violently original today?

Peace

Jay