For William Blake, living is creating, conforming is death, and 鈥渢he imagination . . . is the Human Existence itself.鈥 But why are imagination and creation鈥攕o vital for Blake鈥攅ssential for becoming human? And what is imagination? What is creation? How do we create? Blake had answers for these questions, both in word and in deed, answers that serve as potent teachings for aspiring writers and accomplished ones alike. Eric G. Wilson鈥檚 My Business Is to Create emulates Blake, presenting the great figure鈥檚 theory of creativity as well as the practices it implies.
In both his life and his art, Blake provided a powerful example of creativity at any cost鈥攊n the face of misunderstanding, neglect, loneliness, poverty, even accusations of insanity. Just as Los cries out in Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, 鈥淚 must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's; / I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create,鈥 generations of writers and artists as diverse as John Ruskin, William Butler Yeats, Allen Ginsberg, Philip K. Dick, songwriter Patti Smith, the avant-garde filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and the underground comic-book artist R. Crumb have taken Blake鈥檚 creed as inspiration.
Unwilling to cede his vision, Blake did more than simply produce iconoclastic poems and paintings; he also cleared a path toward spiritual and ethical enlightenment. To fashion powerful art is to realize the God within and thus to feel connected with enduring vitality and abundant generosity. This is Blake鈥檚 everlasting gospel, distilled here in an artist鈥檚 handbook of interest to scholars, writing teachers, and those who have made writing their way of life. My Business Is to Create is indispensable for all serious artists who want to transform their lives into art and make their art more alive.
鈥淎 risky and exhilarating adventure in reading Blake as a spiritual guide. Writers and artists and maybe ecologists will find treasures here.鈥濃擴rsula K. Le Guin
鈥淭his is, to put it simply, a gorgeous book, a how-to manual for the aspiring or the already accomplished writer alike. Moving lightly from the most basic principles of Blake's visionary practice to the poet's mysticism to what keeps the creative visionary going鈥攈ope鈥擡ric Wilson, in a sense, becomes Blake: as he writes, 鈥業f you're going to get the spirit of Blake, you have to be, in your own way, Blake.鈥 My Business Is to Create is a marvelous, beautiful, profound little book from an astonishing intellect and writer.鈥濃擩effrey Kripal, author, Kali鈥檚 Child and Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
鈥淏lake was the comet announcing modern romantic creativity. 鈥楨nergy,鈥 he said, 鈥榠s the only life and is from the body.鈥 Eric Wilson鈥檚 splendid little book is as visionary in its way as Blake鈥檚 own work. Not just another handbook for the workaday wordsmith, this book, like others in this series, is for those who want to wrestle with angels, who intend to come into port greatly or go down trying.鈥濃擱obert D. Richardson
