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In this mind-expanding investigation of creativity, John Briggs reveals that there is no special trait of genius. Geniuses are not necessarily smarter or more talented than other people, but they give their attention to subtle nuances, contradictory feelings, and perceptions that others experience and ignore. By focusing on sensory nuances, geniuses create themselves.
Fire in the Crucible offers a compelling exploration of the roots of creativity and genius. Drawing on the lives and work of extraordinary scientists, artists, writers, composers, and inventors, Briggs shows how creative individuals exploit doubt and uncertainty, and the mental strategies and tactics they employ when they work. "In asking about creativity," he writes, "we are really asking about what is best, what is deepest in life." Fire in the Crucible draws the reader into an eyeopening journey through the inner workings of some of the greatest creative minds of all times -- and allows us to more deeply understand the nature of the creativity in our own lives and work.
| Acknowledgments | xi | |
| Prologue | xiii | |
| Introduction: Smoke from the Fire | ||
| A Parable | ||
| Some Prejudices and Premises | ||
| Sources | ||
| Genius Preliminarily Defined | ||
| Part 1 | Vision and the Prima Materia | 15 |
| Overview | 17 | |
| Chapter 1 | Qualities of Mind | |
| Einstein's Compass | ||
| Hidden Themes | ||
| Where the Needle Pointed | ||
| Chapter 2 | Subtle Vibrations | |
| The Light Through the Window | ||
| Other Cases of Nuance | ||
| Chapter 3 | The Open Brain | |
| Nuance Cycles | ||
| The Possibility Cloud | ||
| A Caveat: Edison's Game | ||
| Chapter 4 | As Above, So Below | |
| Part Prologue to the Whole | ||
| The Whole Truth | ||
| At the Center of Things | ||
| The Work as a Whole: the Individual-Universal Equation | ||
| Chapter 5 | Contraries | |
| Some Polar Chemistry | ||
| Ambivalence | ||
| Negative Capability | ||
| Chapter 6 | Omnivalence | |
| The Hunger of 'More' | ||
| Creators and Mystics | ||
| A Myth of Creativity | ||
| Part 2 | The Distilling Agents | 131 |
| Overview | 133 | |
| Chapter 7 | Quicksilver | |
| What Measure of Genius: the Search for the Brainpower Secret | ||
| In the Prodigy Lab | ||
| Lab Lessons | ||
| Chapter 8 | Mercurial Maps | |
| The Many-Intelligences Approach | ||
| Of Talents and Feedback | ||
| Three Funny Things About Talent | ||
| What Goes Around Comes Around | ||
| Chapter 9 | Insight Architecture | |
| Buttresses of Light | ||
| Thinking Like a Mirror | ||
| The Creative Mind's Sorting Processes | ||
| Panoramic Images | ||
| Chapter 10 | The Absorbing Flame | |
| On the Hot Side of Mercury | ||
| Two Apparent Paradoxes of Absorption | ||
| Absorption: Its Nature and Nurture | ||
| Child's Play, Courage and Other Conundrums | ||
| Chapter 11 | To Burn with One's Time | |
| Fires of Heaven; No, Earth | ||
| Some Trips Around the Sulphuric Mobius Strip | ||
| Co-incidence Twists | ||
| History and the Individual: Which Distills Which? | ||
| Chapter 12 | Madness and the Mirror-Maker's Nightmare | |
| How Dangerous Is It? | ||
| On the Edge of Reality | ||
| Part 3 | The Great Work | 249 |
| Overview | 251 | |
| Chapter 13 | Constructing the Egg | |
| Crystallizing | ||
| The Unfolding Context | ||
| The Daily Obsessions | ||
| Chapter 14 | Germinations from Salt | |
| The Final Reagent | ||
| The Whole of the Virus | ||
| Different Germ Experiences | ||
| Two Examples | ||
| Chapter 15 | More Salt Grains to Stone | |
| Turning Over a Few Germs | ||
| The Birth of a Painting | ||
| Tales of Two Composers | ||
| Where Was the Germ for Relativity? | ||
| Chapter 16 | Companions in Quest | |
| The Myth of the Lone Creator | ||
| Indirect and Domestic Collaborations | ||
| Direct Collaborations | ||
| Dance to the Grail | ||
| Epilogue | 331 | |
| Notes | 334 | |
| Index | 375 |
Overview
In this mind-expanding investigation of creativity, John Briggs reveals that there is no special trait of genius. Geniuses are not necessarily smarter or more talented than other ...