Insightful and inspiring once again. Thank you.

When I have an idea that only seems to resonate with me, I follow my internal compass and thrash it out. The worst thing that can happen is I scrap it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

‘Destroy your dreams’ – I couldn’t agree more. It is in the embers of burnt dreams that I have found the spark for new ones. I often find the same effect when scrapping a poem or a song. If I can even retrieve one line with which to start a new piece, it was worth the toil.

Conor

@ Fred – Don’t worry, it’s probably just my warped sense of humour.

Steerpike is a vicious psychopath, but Titus Groan and Gormenghast would be a pale shadow of themselves without the demented energy and ingenuity he brings to the story. Like many actors, Peake evidently took a mischievous glee in playing the villain.

I’ve just come back from a ten-day meditation retreat and it has made stark for me a dilemma I have been struggling with for years. That is, creativity seems to me egocentric and even negative. The message I was getting on this retreat (or part of the message) was not to express negativity in any way. Obviously, if one takes this idea on board, then Peake’s kind of creativity (and the kind that I am interested in) is right out. We are, apparently, only perpetuating misery in the world by indulging in it.

This is an idea I find difficult to accept, but difficult, also, to deny completely. I feel I should give up creativity (give up on my dream), but I am almost certain that I can’t give up.

Anyway, it’s interesting to me, in a timely sort of way, to read your recommendation here to be evil. Something that I do often, anyway, but something about which I have qualms.