I think the book’s theme is that for some, human relationship is not all and everything to psychological completeness, that spending time by oneself is often needed for self-inspection, and that the solitude, in fact, seems to have played key parts for some creative people over the years.

The book quotes and elaborates many examples of many creative people, mostly writers. Actually, I was thinking too many for my style of reading because I got lost in them. I think this was more of an academic writing than for general audience. Oh, well.

This book is linked with The Dynamics of Creation by gradually focusing on creativity through creative people’s solitudes.

An interesting essay and study in solitude and creativity, I thought, but it’s definitely not a light reading. I think it’s enough of Mr. Storr for me for now. :p

I saw some quotes from and references to Storr’s books while reading A Beautiful Mind. I was intrigued by them, so I ordered a couple of his books.

Storr’s analysis does not give a clear answer or mechanism on the process of creativity (is it possible?). He starts by debunking the simplistic Freudian view that the creativity comes from unsatisfied sexual drives. He goes on to show various examples of psycho-pathological characteristics (e.g., schizoid, bipolar, etc.) that can be found in some historical creative people (both artistic and scientific). He also shows the existence and the amount of these neurotic tendencies seem to vary between different people.

I think it was his point when he comes, toward the end, to the existence of the discrepancies between the inner world and the outer “reality” that get formed within (almost) everyone. He seems to (as far as I can understand) close the book by saying that the creative processes come from trying to resolve these inner conflicts held within (it was interesting that I had a related thought).

Anyway, what he presented in this book is not a formulated description of one of the most hard-to-grasp (but fundamental) aspects of humanity, nor does he try to. It was more of an exploratory analysis on the most fascinating part of being a human. His writing isn’t the best I’ve seen nor his arguments earth-shattering (but then I have been already influenced by this 1976 book), but still it was an interesting reading.

Yeah, what’s so surprising about it, you might say. I feel like I’ve been on this shifted daily schedule (going to bed at 2 in the morning and waking up at 9 or later) forever (well, about 8 years in reality) that my high school days of 6 hours of sleep and waking up at 6:30 a.m. seem like a figment of my imagination, an urban legend.

But my new home is a bit further away from work, so I decided I should wake up a bit early (well, I still like to get to work by 10 :p). But the surprising thing was I was constantly waking up before 8 even without the alarm, before I tried to fall back to sleep trying to squeeze out an hour or so more. It didn’t matter that I went to bed around 2 (although I felt a bit drowsy after lunch).

What I realized was that my biological clock was at work. The windows are facing south and with bright colored curtains, the early sunlights were brightening up the room and waking me up naturally.

In my old apartment, I had blinds closed on the north-ward windows that kept the room pretty dark even during the day (and I don’t even have to mention my sleep schedule in the Seattle area). I think this was the main reason why it was so difficult to wake up early in the morning.

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I’ve decided to put this newly found resource into a good use. I’ve been thinking about getting into shape (I’ve intentionally omitted the word “back” since I don’t think I’ve ever been in one :p), so I joined the YMCA fitness center and have been exercising regularly for two weeks so far. Well, it remains to be seen how really dedicated I am since there have been other “two-week” efforts before failing miserably, but this time I am a bit more confident because the exercise before work feels definitely more comfortable than the after-work attempts I’ve tried before. I think I used to skip a workout a lot because I was so tired after work. And all this with only 6 hours of sleep that even I myself is somewhat surprised.

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I know nobody cares that much about football (or soccer, as is known in the States) in the U.S., but I’ve been following the World Cup 2002 quite closely because it was co-hosted by Korea and also the Korean team was extremely successful so far. Since I grew up watching the Korean team miserably fail against the European and South American teams in the past, I couldn’t believe that we’ve actually made it to the quarter finals (I’ve been watching the Korean matches). I don’t know if we will get further (our next opponent is Spain and I’ve emailed David in Spain and wished him luck :p), but I am quite happy at what the Korean team has achieved so far (this doesn’t mean that I don’t want them to win the Cup :p).

I don’t know much about football technically, but I think the biggest contribution came from the following two factors: Guus Hiddink, the Netherlands-born coach for the Korean team, and the “Red Devils,” the (very well organized) support crowd. Hiddink truly turned a group of players with potentials into a world-class team within a year and a half. I mean, people joke about “Hiddink for President” (Korea has a presidential election coming this year) in Korea and talk about giving him an honorary citizenship, but I think he deserves all the credits. Also, the Red Devils (there has been a small controversy from a Christian group within Korea complaining about the name and suggesting “White Angels” as an alternative) were an amazing sight to watch each game. I just can’t believe we had such a well-organized support crowd. To some, it might look too overzealous, but we are a passionate people.

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While on a trip to Sanjeev’s wedding (BTW, it was a very beautiful and interesting ceremony), I started reading The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr. I’ve seen a reference to the author and the book while reading A Beautiful Mind and felt intrigued by it.

I haven’t gone through much yet, but according to some of the psychopathological descriptions, I seem to have quite a strong schizoid tendency, (hopefully) within the boundary of sanity. Its characteristics, according to Storr if I remember correctly, are the avoidance of crowd and preference for solitude, the co-manifestation (I couldn’t think of what Storr called it) of superiority and powerlessness, and the immaturity and inept control of one’s own emotions, to name a few.

What I find interesting about this is not the realization that I have such traits but the recognition that a lot of my friends and contemporaries have them. It makes me wonder whether the busy and ever more complex modern societies with the instability of families are affect many more people these days. Just thought interesting (I should come back after finishing the book).