Steven Pressfield - The War of Art Book Review

"You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas." - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Ok, so Pressfield is being a little melodramatic, but he's not making light of the war - people have often mused upon how the course of history might have looked had Hitler made it as an artist. Before you read the review, I'd better own up - I'm a bit of a Steven Pressfield fan. I loved The Virtues of War - images from that book stay with me still - so much so, that when I saw 'Tides of War' in the bookstore, I bought it without even glancing at the cover blurb. I'd coveted 'The War of Art' for some time, and it was well worth the wait. Some readers might not enjoy Pressfield's opinionated style, but I liked his directness. I don't agree with all of his views (such as that the origin of creativity is external to self) but that's the beauty of a book. You can take the ideas that are useful to you and leave those that aren't.

There are some surprises here too. Take 'support'. Support is fundamental, right? We're all in this together. But Pressfield looks at the flipside, and it makes sense. 'Support' so often manifests as endless group meetings, rehashing the ‘same-old same-old’ and making excuses. In ' Resistance and Fundamentalism', Steven Pressfield comments that human beings are not wired to be alone: we are wired for community. Hence the extreme discomfort we feel when we decide to be free, to live according to conscience rather than prescribed rules. For a small book, he covers a lot of ground, referencing western culture from Socrates to Tiger Woods.

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