Its interesting to note how sometimes some things which should ‘flow’ are forced out of you… This post is inspired by the very many hours of ‘creative torture’, and more immediately, by this caricature drawn by one of my friends…

Creative obstructions

So this here refers to one of our uniquely crafted magnum opus classes aimed at expanding our creativity in the writing spectrum. The professor handling this particular class is particularly particular about the various particularities in your writing, and dressing. She happens to be a strict disciplinarian when it comes to the matters of expanding your creative horizons, and wearing informals to college.

What she insists on is that creativity should flow during a couple of predefined hours, from every single student in the class. The variables involved in this so called ‘creativity flow’ are -

1. The student should be present in class (the student will have to be atleast 75% of the time, since attendance counts)
2. Student should be awake

But an adolescent student isn’t that simple! Nor is creativity! The actual variables involved are -

3. The student should be present
4. The student should be awake
5. The student should not be sleepy
6. The student should have had lunch/snacks atleast for the past 1 and a half hours
7. The student should have the least minimum common sense (judged by the ability to distinguish a tree from a cell phone)
8. The student should *know* to write
9. The student should have a pen and paper / laptop

So as you can see, a lot more variables are involved than initially hypothesized. This means that Ms Creativity’s assumption that creativity can flow at will (that too external will) is slightly over-calculated.

I agree that with a deadline, and persistent effort, creative people can come up with creative ideas. You do not have to be all laid back to do something creative. However, trying to extract this level of creativity from overly dumb people, as in people who use trees to type text messages, and cell phones to create a fire, can be described as a futile, if not insane, venture.

Even with her strict disciplinarian codes and aggressive outlooks, some people just cannot be creative on her command (“Be creative NOW!”) because : 1, they’re dumb; and 2, they just don’t want to.

So how right is she in trying to force creativity out of half sleeping, dumb students attending the especially mundane classes of hers. I would describe it as creative torture. Torture in the name of creativity! Oh woe is this world! How its ethics and morals are being destroyed, and used in disgraceful manners! Torture, my dear, Torture, in the name of creativity!