War and Peace and Art [jana]

I’m currently 793 pages into Tolstoy’s War and Peace. That’s right, just a little over half-way through the 9th longest novel in the world. What has struck me about reading the book is less the fact that I have been able to maintain the attention span for it, and more the way that it provokes a desire to write again in me. For the past few months, I have written very little, though perhaps there has been more drama during this time than at any other in my life. During a time of upheaval one would think that someone who journals for processing, release, and understanding on a regular basis would have burned through quite a few journals, but in fact the opposite has happened. From where I stand now, 793 pages into Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I can see that what happened to me is something like what befell Peter, Jesus’ friend, when he took his first step onto the stormy surface of the water. Jesus had told him to come, and so I can picture him, climbing over the edge of the boat, aiming one fierce look full of all the bravado he could muster back into the boat at his companions, and then letting go the boat. For a moment, I imagine, he might have heard nothing but the stillness of a calm sea…a second later, he blinked, and saw and heard the thundering “reality” of his actual circumstances. He became overwhelmed, throwing every bit of attention into his immediate circumstances. I’m sure you’ve heard the sermons with the punch-point about how Peter’s taking his eyes off Jesus caused him to stumble.Anyway, what happened when I threw my attention into my circumstances is that I found I had lost the ability to observe. Suddenly, I was no longer able to observe the face of Jesus in people around me, in creation, or in my own heart. Almost immediately, according to the dates (or lack thereof) in my journals, I stopped writing or participating in any creative acts which were a large part of my normal life. I surmise that this may have been related to a refusal to accept the changes which were taking place.

In any case, it was deciding to read War and Peace that broke through this pattern. After a period of generally purposeless reading and tv-watching after I had quit my job and moved back home to my parents’ house to look for work, that for some aimless reason I decided to delve into the paperback copy I’d purchased to adorn my bookshelves. After all, I had dragged this brick-sized manuscript 1200 miles in a rented minivan. I was immediately caught up by the language and descriptions. The characters are often interesting, a lot of the dialogue and cultural references are unfortunately lost on me, but it was the bell-like quality of some of the actual text that really caught my attention. It made me want to begin writing. I’ve heard this idea before, most recently from writer and publisher J. Mark Bertrand, who said on his blog,

In a sense, the things I want to publish viscerally are the ones that awe and intimidate me, the ones that inspire me. The ones, as I said, that I wish I'd written.

Not that I wish I’d written War and Peace. However, it is one of those books that inspires me to write more, to write better, to continue growing in creative activity.

I would like to tell you that I am now ¾ of the way through the process of publishing a fabulously written little novel or volume of poetry, but I can’t. My intent here is simply to observe that truly creative work, work that mirrors truth and beauty, work that embodies some reflection of God’s character, work that is art, must draw an active response from us, spurring on our gifts in the service of Christ. The “other kind” of books--the kind written for general entertainment--may be interesting, may be a good distraction from reality, but they don’t generally provoke us to thought or action.

In closing (which is exactly how I used to teach my 9th grade students never to begin their final paragraphs), I wanted to include the list below of a very few contemporary books that have encouraged me in creative action at times. These books are more in the line of creative non-fiction, but I am including them for their purpose in encouraging artists to action. I would love to hear more suggestions for books that discuss the gift of creativity in your comments.

Art and Fear - David Bayles and Ted Orland-
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art -Madeleine L’Engle-
Bird by Bird -Anne Lamott-
The Crime of Being Cautious -Luci Shaw-