Business of creativity

Since there's nothing to write about, and the pressure is building for me to write something, I'll write about writing.

Actually it's not just about writing but generally about creativity. I've just put down Michael Crichton's State of Fear in the middle. There's a pun in the term 'put down' because paperbacks are supposed to be 'unputdownable'. Michael Crichton usually comes to his main theme in less than five pages. In 'State of Fear', I couldn't figure out where he was heading even after 75 pages except knowing that the book is somewhat about global warming.

Another Michael Crichton fan told me that perhaps he was under pressure to write something. It's been quite a while since he did 'Prey' so the agent and the publisher must be putting on a lot of pressure.

I can compare it to the pressure that's on Jayakanthan. For non-Tamils reading this, Jayakanthan is a celebrated Tamil writer who recently won Gyanapeeth Award, the highest literary award in India. Jayakanthan stopped writing some years ago but there was a lot of pressure on him to write. So he wrote -after some eight years- a novel. Now critics are tearing it apart saying 'Not in the vintage Jayakanthan mould'!

I see the same thing happening the world over. If not for the pressure, I feel Jackson would not have done the Invincible that turned invisible. Bacchan wouldn't have done Mruthyudada that killed his career before he turned a phoenix.

Everywhere, the urge to be creative is being overridden by the commercial need to meet the expectations of agents, fans, publishers and the sellers. I read recently that when he made Kanchanjunga, Satyajit Ray heard comments that its very 'un-Rayish'.

Who's to define these things and why shouldn't the creators breach them? I find these pressures on creators very unfair and sad. We have become so used to project management in our workplace that we consider even composing a symphony as 'a project'. Alternatively, we see lesser creators churning out assembly line products (such as Varma and Kamal) and we expect the same from others.

I felt very sad that Crichton succumbed (if he did) to pressure from the publishers. But I'm surprised to see it being touted as the bestseller and now won't be surprised if Warner Bros films it, encouring him to write another.

And is this what we call the vicious cycle that these creators fall into when they become famous?