No reading for a week can help you become a more creative person. I highly doubt it, and I am skeptical of this proposition put forth by several “creativity trainers” in my community and across the country. Of course, the whole concept of people building their careers on the fragile dreams and passionate desires of aspiring artists seems unsavory. But even if creativity trainers are legitimate and are not charlatans taking advantage of people’s hopes and aspirations, the proposal to restrict reading is simply cockamamie.
Art inspires art. Artists should devour work by other artists. Visual artists study the works of artists past and present in all different genres. Musicians absorb all types of music. And of course, writers read or at least they should. (Stephen King has admitted to never reading Tolstoy or Austen. Perhaps only a best-selling horror author would have the gumption to boast about his literary ignorance.)
Most creativity classes focus on inspiring and cultivating ingenuity and imaginativeness in everyday life. So when they are looking at influences that could stymie productivity, why just look at just reading? Although this is not an idea that I would ever endorse, why not just eliminate exposure to all types of art for a week? Simply ban books, magazines, newspapers, television shows, movies, theatre productions, museums, galleries, sculpture parks, music, and dance events for a week or month or however long it takes to nurture creativeness out of artistic depravity. I suppose this type of cessation does occur at writing retreats, where all kinds of writers recoil into an Emersonian environment, stripped of all distractions. Participants shed all their baggage and influences to find their own voice. It is not just a random purging of one type of influence.
Not only does the ban on reading seem random but it is absolutely counterproductive. When I am writing regularly, I read habitually. As a librarian, I do not read near the number of books as my colleagues who tend to finish more than one novel a week. In fact, my monthly book completion rates are so low I fear that the American Library Association would take back my Master of Library Science if they knew discovered what a bibliographic slacker I am. But as a writer, my reading habits are voracious with daily consumption of multiple essays as a sampling of poetry, plays, and fiction (more short stories than novels.) Each time I start reading a work of literary fiction, influences start appearing in my writing. Perhaps only I can see Colum McCann and Ian McEwan bleeding onto my page, but I know that their works give me the courage and motivation to push my style and intent. If I shield myself from those influences, I do not grow. Therefore, “creativity specialists” should be encouraging an equal regime of art consumption and art production. It is true that imitation will occur at first but eventually mimicking will transfer into originality and fecundity. Art begets art, and art begets creativity. Save yourself some money. Skip the creativity training and head to your local library and nearby art museum.
