Maria Langer | 📝🛥️💎19h ago
Well, I struggled through Week 2 of The Artist's Way yesterday and found a growing anger inside me. I started Week 3 today and I had to stop. No matter how many times the author claims she's not talking about God as the "creative force" we need to tap into, she's definitely talking about God. She's telling readers to trust God to help them with the things that I believe they should be able to do on their own. (1/2)
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎19h ago

I am an #atheist. I don't think that I should trust anything to a supernatural being that I don't believe exists. Yet this is the foundation that The Artist's Way is built upon. If you don't believe in a higher being, this book will just make you as angry as it makes me.

This book is obviously not for me. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect this. My open-mindedness only goes so far. I'm done. #reading #writing (2/2)

Show threadDJ Southworth19h ago
@mlanger basically the same decision I came to. I didn’t want to have a date with myself. And yes, whatever higher creative power it is, she means God. I liked the morning pages as an exercise, but you found also sit down and write about the day before as it is also an exercise in routine.
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎19h ago

@djsouthworth The morning pages are something I really enjoy. I will continue to do those. As for the artist date, my entire life is an artist date. I live alone and do pretty much whatever I want to whenever I want to do it. I try to do a formal version on Thursday and found myself at a loss For how it might be different than a regular day when I went for a hike in the woods. It wasn't.

But my blood boils when she tells readers to pray and to trust God to make their creative work better.🤬

Show threadDJ Southworth19h ago

@mlanger agreed. And on top of that Creativity is hard and is supposed to be challenging. Outsourcing it seems cheap and disrespectful to the process.

(See also GenAI)

Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎
@djsouthworth Her argument in Week 3, which caused me to shut it all down, is that if you don't believe in God there's no reason to do anything because there's no divine retribution or consolation. WTF? She's basically saying what so many religious folks believe: without a God to judge people, people would do all kinds of evil things. She's equating God with morality, which I have a serious problem with. You don't have to believe in God to have high moral standards. #atheism
Jun 13 at 4:54pmWeb
Show threadDJ Southworth18h ago
@mlanger exactly! And why on earth is that in a book about finding your creativity?
Show threadMaria Langer | 📝🛥️💎18h ago
@djsouthworth That's exactly what I was asking myself. Those few paragraphs seemed to be targeted at atheists to berate us for our lack of belief. It was preaching! In every sense of the word.