Fire in the Crucible: Understanding the Process of Creative Genius

by John Briggs

Overview

What makes geniuses different from the rest of us? What is the difference between a prodigy and a genius? Are geniuses born or made? What is creative vision and where does it come from? What are the secrets of talent? And why do great creators seem to have so many oppositions in their personalities? 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781890482770
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	01/01/2002
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Briggs is a professor of English of Western Connecticut State University, has taught at the New School for Social Research in New York, and holds a doctorate in aesthetics and psychology. He is the author of Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos, and coauthor, with physicist F. David Peat, of Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness, and Seven Life Lessons of Chaos.

Table of Contents

	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