I have a theory about creativity in regards to writing, or a belief rather. Pure unaltered writing is often the best kind of writing, now of course I don’t mean unedited writing. I simply mean that a piece of work that is written and goes uncensored, a raw thought if you will, is oftentimes the most genuine piece of literary work. However, we live in a world where things must be written and edited slightly so that they do not disrupt the common order. I might not be explaining this the best, the gist of it is that I don’t think writers or anyone that writes for a living really gets to output their raw train of thought. It’s against the company, it hurts the publisher, and such other things. Now of course take my words with a grain of salt, because I have no idea whether or not this is the case for all people in the wonderful world of writing. But it might be for a majority as that is the observation I have and what I am writing about. It’s like how you can’t say just about anything online anymore, honestly somewhat a good thing but it’s spread to the rest of the world as well. Context is disregarded, differing opinions are ostracized, and people get kicked off websites for saying controversial things. Again not always the worst, I don’t think everyone should have an internet presence. Not the point, I can talk about that some other time. Where was I going with this again? Ah yes! Brain inhibitors! I think that some of the best pieces of literary works have occurred because people wrote without regard for others feelings or thoughts because they used and abused substances. You know how people often say that “If you did it while drunk, you wanted to do it sober!’ and of course the classic response of “I don’t think I wanted to sleep in a wheelbarrow while sober but ok.” However I have a theory about the creative process for certain personality archetypes. As we know, some of the most prolific writers and creatives in history were completely blasted off their asses on whatever they could find. Case and point, Ernest Hemmingway. (Side note real quick, not everyone who was creative was a good person but this is an analysis of creative processes with creative types. I will discuss somewhere else my opinions on the subject, but here we will be looking purely at the creative process.) Ernest Hemmingway reportedly was intoxicated in some form or another during the majority of his writing career, he wrote a lot of books during his lifetime and it’s rather impressive seeing as how he was trashed for most of it. There are rumors that he hung out with Picasso and that they did a lot of drugs together and that a lot of the books Hemmingway wrote where while he was under the influence of substances he got from Picasso. Now not in the writing sphere, but still in the creative discussion is Picasso. You can’t tell me those paintings he did weren’t while he was tripping on something. Speaking of painters, Jackson Pollock reportedly was plastered at all times while painting which explains the way his paintings look. Genius inhibited, or rather “uninhibited” as alcohol and most drugs suppress parts of your brain, can do amazing things without realizing it. I noted Jackson Pollock a moment ago, you think it’s mindless splatters but in reality it has built in fractals. I can’t remember where I heard about that, but I remember that if you zoom into part of his paintings at a specific aspect ratio it looks almost exactly like the bigger painting. Incredible right? Let’s get back to some writers, painters are nice and all but I should be speaking of writers. Now I am going to stretch the word writer for a moment for this next example, follow along and you shall understand why. Winston Churchill was known for some of the best speeches during his Prime Ministership, very impressive stuff he came up with. Of course we need to give credit to his private secretary Elizebeth Nel for actually dictating the words the man said as she was the one who wrote his thoughts down. Honestly, kudos to her. When you think about it, she had to deal with the weird stuff Churchill did along with writing down his drunken ramblings in a coherent manner. And well, since she did that I assume she probably needed a drink after working all day in that environment which no one would blame her for. Anyways, the speeches he gave are a form of writing. His crafting of such was backed by a very alcoholic background. Someone apparently wrote down his daily drinking regime which is by far a thing that makes you wonder how he was alive at all at the end of the day. His intoxication allowed him to relay thoughts most dared not to at the time, and it’s quite impressive. His writing was presented in spoken word form, much like poetry but more like a read aloud well crafted essay. Speaking of poetry, let’s talk about the king of poetry himself; Edgar Allen Poe. The twisted world of Edgar Allen Poe poetry is in itself a genre of poetry he pioneered and defined. He was a living legend at the time, and also an alcoholic. Of course his alcoholism was because of the death of his wife, but it wasn’t something he was secretive about. A woman he loved after his first wife basically said “You can either have me or you can have your drinks” (paraphrased of course). He chose the latter. The man often wrote while under the influence, which I guess explains some things. His death is shrouded in mystery of course because why wouldn’t it be? He died shortly after being found stumbling around the streets of Baltimore, wearing someone else’s clothes and drunk, ending with the banger line “Lord help my poor soul”. Poetic till the very end. Another author to look at for a good example of substances leading to creative purity is Hunter S. Thompson, well known for his book/movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is a prolific writer who used all the drugs. He once said “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” Robert Louis Stevenson was on cocaine and wrote 60,000 words in 6 days; the guy that wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stephen King was on cocaine, xanax, valium, beer, NyQuil, tobacco, and weed for a long time! His family did have an intervention luckily and he is still with us. Charles Dickens did a shit ton of opium. I think you get the point. Creative people use substances to produce great works. Some people use it to cope with existence, some people use it to see something weird and write about it. One of the ways creatives have been able to express their unaltered thoughts is via substance use. Now, I think we should take the advice of Socrates of “Everything in moderation” because otherwise you have a sad and tragic end. I think creatives should have fun so that they can get that creativity on, but I think safety first should be something kept in mind by those sort of individuals. Despite me recounting in a glorified manner famous alcoholics and drug abusers I think restraint and moderation should be used. There will always be creatives unsober, but if we want to keep them around in our society long term we should educate the masses they are part of about substances, moderation, restraint, and addiction rather than suppress useful information about these harsh topics. To have a cultural boom that’ll last and stick around we need to do the leg work educating people about things not everyone is comfortable talking about, rather than remaining silent and letting them OD because they knew not the bad things that could happen with substance abuse. BOOM! SUBSTANCE ABUSE AWARENESS MESSAGING! Not where you thought the end of this was going now was it?

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it and think about some of the things I said!

-Ben