THE TORTURED ARTIST MYTH

Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti. image from Atlanticblackstar

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” so said writer Ernest Hemingway. The quote suggests sacrifice, suffering and a sense of self torture. Many artistic people have long claimed that to create awe inspiring and truly original work, one has to suffer. I can’t help but think that it also helps the artist feel more like what they are doing is somewhat noble. History certainly is not short of troubled artists in all walks who walked the path to destruction and also left us with some great work and perhaps without fulfilling the full promise of their talents. We can cite people like writer Sylvia Plath, musician Fela Kuti, actor and filmmaker Orson Welles, composer Beethoven and painter Jean Michel Basquiat; these are some creative people who led troubled lives and indeed did create incredible work. Back in our humble Uganda we also have local greats such as musicians Philly Bongoley Lutaaya, Dede Majoro and Eclias Kawalya, to name but a few whose paths especially near the end of their lives weren’t an easy ride yet their work was exemplary.

Iconic Ugandan musician Philly Bongoley Lutaaya

When one considers the number of artists who are leading or have led very deeply troubled lives, indeed it is easy to come to the conclusion that one has to suffer for one’s art. In some cases it has even been claimed one has to have a tinge of madness. The painter Vincent Van Gogh who infamously chopped off his ear in a moment of hectic internal strife and later took his own life is the most famous example commonly given as argument to exemplify the myth of the suffering artist. His dying words were apparently “The sadness will last forever.”  These are very poetic words indeed; words that can easily be romanticised.

I contend that this idea that an artist must suffer to create is a myth that perpetuates itself. It is arguable that rather than a precondition for great art, it is possibly a result of the life of a dedicated artist. Many times an artist will have worked painstakingly and not seen results for their sweat; or perhaps gotten results whose impact they hadn't truly imagined such as fame. They may have lost certain things because of it too; a divorce from society or peers; an immersion in the imaginary world the artist has created; even a sense of loss once a creation is completed. Meanwhile this is possibly happening under a fantastic pile of debt. It is enough to drive one nuts!

Cover art for Solome's The Song of Love

A dedicated artist undoubtedly has to reveal a lot in their work and it takes a lot of courage. More often than not, this is a necessary thorny rose to pluck. Confessional singer-songwriters such as Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell drew directly from their lives; so do our very own such as Solome Basuuta and new girl on the block Apio Moro. If the artist is honest in their delivery, art that is drawn from one’s direct experiences can have a visceral emotion within it, kind of pre-packaged feeling without force. This could perhaps be because the artist is fully in touch with that emotion having gone through it; or being immersed in it at the time of creating the work.

I can certainly attest to having made some self defining work when I was going through strife or recalling times of turmoil. Some of this work was beautifully sad, if you can comprehend such a conflict existing as one. Such work was also greatly cathartic perhaps I even reveled in it. But I can also remember such times being prohibitive to creativity.

Less troublesome times can also birth good work through a better creative palette, temperament and environment. Sometimes creativity is not from within; inspiration can be external. This is what the legendary Wassanyi Serukenya did when he composed the classic Oluyimba Lwa Wankoko from the classic play Amakula ga Kulabako by Byron Kawadwa. 

Beethoven may have written masterpieces such as his 9^th Symphony in tortuous deafness but also a composer such as Bach who didn’t go through the same gruesome mental strife left a body of work that is clearly great and isn’t short of masterpieces. Closer to home I wonder, is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart any less than what Hemingway wrote simply because he wasn’t a troubled writer? There was no suicidal Van Gogh spirit disturbing him yet Achebe’s book changed the landscape of literature not just in Africa but also defining new indigenous writers' voices across the globe.

Consider a filmmaker such as Steven Spielberg with a history full of classics that are at the zenith of his field including the monumental Jaws that broke records four decades ago and still stands up reasonably well today. Yet he made the film at the age of 27! Although the film had its troubles in the making they weren’t unusual, and he as a man didn’t have much personal suffering or demons to fight at the time.

Cover pg of the Luganda classic Zinunula Omunaku

Right here in Uganda we can consider Edward K. Kawere, the writer of the Luganda classic Zinunula Omunaku. His work is pivotal in Luganda literature but he didn’t have to slit his wrists to get to it. This is not to undermine the pain that tormented artists go through, lord knows I have gone through my own abyss periods so I get it; but clearly it is also possible to create great work without dipping to the extremes of  pain. After all, life is a spectrum of emotions from hard knuckle emotional punches in the gut all the way to a soothing lullaby caressing the soul.

There are some artists that I have seen revel in the idea of suffering; romanticising it; courting it; even artificially designing it through negative life choices in the belief that somehow that makes them more artistic. Some believe that this is the state to be in to have great imagination and to create. So they work hard to emulate tortuous states of the greats. Basically that otherness validates them as an artist. Indeed fallen artists who perished by their own hand are often celebrated at times beyond the true value of their work.

I have no doubt that experiencing hard knocks definitely can mold an artist into a more refined vessel but so does any other experience they have or observe; positive or otherwise. This is the same for any person regardless what they do; life experience, good or bad is not exclusive to artists. Why then claim suffering as an emblem! We are all what we have lived. Only thing is, a true artist will express that honestly; and if they are lucky, the chances of a great moment of imagination/creativity may occur! The result of such a moment is more likely to connect with an audience. Isaac Newton’s great moment of scientific creativity didn’t require him to rip his hair out; it just required him to peacefully contemplate his question under an apple tree and when the apple fell, he defined gravity.

For sure there is nothing to writing, “all you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed” but I had rather look at the “bleed” as a neutral metaphor that can equally apply to positive thoughts as much as tortured ones. An artist creates from their experiences, whatever those may be; internal or external. Suffering doesn’t have a monopoly on great art.

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