KNOWLEDGE

SEMINAR
BIG MAGIC- CREATIVE
LIVING BEYOND FEAR
GROUP NO. 7
Members:
Fathima Hanan V P – 21076
Guru Pranesh – 21077
Jagruti Bhatia - 21079
 ABOUT THE BOOK

• The author wrote it to share

her experience
• When published, it turned
out to be a self-help book.

“Don't judge a book by its cover”

This book is an exception.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
• Born in Connecticut in 1969.
• Graduated from New York
University.
• First book- Pilgrims (1997)
• First Novel – Stern Man (2001)
• American Journalist
• Best known for her Memoir “Eat
Pray Love “
• Big Magic - 2015
COURAGE
Born in Pittsburgh in 1925
Jack
Gilbert Poet- Won Yale Younger Poets Prize and was
nominated for Pulitzer
Went to live in Europe

Wrote next poem; disappeared again

Took a teaching position

Taught his students the value of courage

Susan is author’s friend

Loved skating in childhood

She decided to explore her curiosity

Loved it more than ever

“You need not be a champion to do the

things you love”
 What stop us from
being creative and
living the life we
love?
 ENCHANTMENT

• The Amazon Highway erased by nature.

• How idea arrives.
• What happens when you say a No.
• What happens when you say a Yes.
• “Evelyn of Amazon”.
• Ann Patchet and author’s relationship.

“Nothing is more expensive than a

missed opportunity”
• To Kill a Mockingbird was
published in 1960.
• Go set a watchman was
published in 2015
• Fear of self competition
• “When you’re at the top,
there’s only one way to go.”

“You can’t always wait for the best to come always. Work either way, you
see—assisted or unassisted—because that is what you must do to live a fully creative
life”
Permission
• “You do not need anybody’s permission to live a creative life.”

Authors’ Family Background.

• Grand Fathers – Furnace Salesman (Paternal) & Dairy Farmer (Maternal).
• Grand Mothers – Housewives.
One Half
• Father – Navy & Mother – Working night shifts in Nursing school.
• Post Marriage
✔ Authors’ father - gets a job in chemical factory and works for 30 long
years.
✔ Authors’ mother - active member of local church, served on school board,
volunteered at library.
The Other Half
• Authors’ father – Christmas tree farming, Raising Goats, Beekeeping.
✔ Suggestion Box
• Authors’ Mother – Baked bread, grew and harvested vegetables, Repaired the
piano, At times played the role of doctor.
• Impudent self-assertion – gives her idea that she could become a writer. At
least go out there and try it.
• Golden Rule of her Family.
 Permission Slip
• Our Parents and Family background/ history.
• They don’t want to take risks.
• Too busy to use imagination towards creativity.
• Afraid of Neighbors.
• Sat around watching tv and waiting for stuff to
happen to them.
• Dig your family history. (Great- Grandparents,
Ancestors – Soldiers, Farmers, Slaves, Immigrants).
• The earliest evidence of recognizable human art is
forty thousand years old. The earliest evidence of
human agriculture, by contrast, is only ten thousand
years old.
• You want to write a book? Make a song? Direct a
movie? Decorate pottery? Learn a dance? Explore a
new land?
• Originality v/s Authenticity
✔ Just do it.
 Werner Herzog
• Werner Herzog is a German film director,
screenwriter, author, actor, and opera
director, regarded as a pioneer of New German
Cinema.
• Authors’ friend – Italian Film Maker. Writing a letter
to his role model Werner.
• Content of the letter
• Nobody likes his movies.
• Difficulties in making films.
• Everything is expensive.
• No funding for arts.
• The reply
• Quit complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted
to be an artist.
• It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s
certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams.
• Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you must but
stop whining and get back to work.
 Persistence – Elk Talk
• During her early 20s, she worked as cook on a
ranch, Wyoming.
• Discussion on imitating elk mating calls.
• Hank – one of the cowboys was practicing it
using a tape recorded by Larry D Jones.
• Idea - Trek to Wyoming mountains.
• Encounter with the beast and the escape.
• Author pens a short fictional story based on her
experience with elk and names it “Elk Talk”.
• She wants to publish “Elk Talk” in story
magazine.
• Rejection letter from Editor- in- Chief Lois
Rosenthal
 Twist in the tale
• Author never gave up and kept sending it to multiple
magazines.
• After few years she gets a breakthrough via different
short story in different magazine.
• She now gets a professional literary agent named
Sarah and she breaks open the happy news of “Elk
Talk” getting published in Story Magazine.
• Two sides of a coin.
• “You try and try and try, and nothing works. But you
keep trying, and you keep seeking, and then
sometimes, in the least expected place and time, it
finally happens. You make the connection. Out of
nowhere, it all comes together.”
• Perseverance Paid.
 No Choice but to persevere.
• Mr. Richard Ford gives a talk in bookstore, Washington,
DC.
• Comparison and Advice.
• “Sir, I am sorry for your disappointment. Please believe
me, I would never insult you by simply telling you to
persevere. I’m going to tell you to quit. ”
• “I say this to you only because writing is clearly bringing
you no pleasure. It is only bringing you pain. Our time on
earth is short and should be enjoyed. But don’t write
anymore, because it’s obviously killing you.”
• “However, I will say this. If you happen to discover, after a
few years away from writing, that you have found nothing
that takes its place in your life—nothing that fascinates
you, or moves you, or inspires you to the same degree
that writing once did . . . well, then, sir, I’m afraid you will
have no choice but to persevere.”
• “Frustration is not an interruption of your process;
frustration is the process”
Trust

Trust that creativity loves you back

• Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Do you love nature?
• Does nature love you in return?
• All ideas ask of us, is for our
attention and devotion.
 Walk Proudly

• Little Brother
• He wanted to be an artist, a painter.
• He wanted to be a showstopper of
the masquerade ball.
• What on earth he was at the party?
• “This is how you must do it,
people”.
• You should not be ashamed of
yourself.
 • Katie Arnold Ratliff
The Teaching of • Unless you are emotionally uncomfortable while you
Pain are writing, you will never produce anything of value.
• Whom we should trust: Pain or Love.
• What’s the reason that many great artist suicides?.
• Rilke said: “If my devils are to leave me, I’m afraid my angels will take flight, as
well”.
• The more you trust on yourself, more creative you become.
Unleash you inner Trickster

• The martyr has a dark, solemn

and rigid energy.
• Trickster has an energy that's
light, sly, and endlessly
shape-shifting.
• keep the spark alive, and make
creativity your muse.
Divinity

• A story from Bali.

• Mass tourism came to Bali in
the 1960s.
• Sacred dance of Bali.
• As humans and culture
evolve, so does their creative
expression.
• We can support ourselves and others in
creative efforts and acknowledge that there's
enough space for everyone.
• we can replace our creative martyrdom
mindset with a more magical one.
• If you are going to live a life based on
delusions, then why not at least select a
delusion that's helpful?.
• Now that you know creativity is your birth
right, can you access the courage to bring life
to the creative treasures that reside within?
Our experiences with this book..