The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Chapters 35-43 expand on the theme of Creativity as a Way of Life by identifying different types of artists. Experimenters and finishers produce differently for the same purposes. Within this thematic expansion, Rubin continues to define the purpose of the artistic life. Notions of success, greatness, power, and wealth that are rooted in commercial or material interests are falsehoods. The artist devoted to the creative lifestyle spends their time collecting ideas, experimenting, crafting, and completing works that express a version of the self to the world. Moreover, Rubin insists that material wealth and fame fail to bring solace to artists with pre-existing pain. Moreover, Rubin expands on his creative philosophy while building a psychological framework for the artist. Artists can mentally practice techniques like detachment, awareness, and tuning out other voices to enhance their creativity. With regard to form, Chapter 37, “The Experimenter and the Finisher,” barely runs over one page, again emphasizing Rubin’s minimalistic approach. The concise, digestible language allows readers to return to chapters and key ideas easily. This approach captures Rubin’s artistic style, as he is known to reduce instrumentation, reverb, backup vocals, and other elements after recording, stripping down the music to its bare essentials (Jones, Lucy. "12 Reasons Why Rick Rubin’s an Almighty Badass.” NME, 2013).

Chapters that blend the psychology and philosophy of artists express the generic requirements of the self-help category. Like most self-help books, the author educates the audience on how to improve an aspect (or the entirety) of a reader’s life. Accordingly, Rubin teaches readers how to live and experience the world as an artist. However, the book’s approachable, inclusive tone suggests that his readership also includes people unfamiliar with the creative life. As such, the book is a much a self-help book as it is a layman’s primer on living creatively to enhance everyday experiences. This is most evident when Rubin broaches Zen Buddhist Philosophy. In Chapter 42, “The Ecstatic,” Rubin describes the overwhelming experience of pure creative expression during an artist’s working session. The experience transfigures the artist and their work from quotidian to transcendental. In Zen Buddhist philosophy, the experience of kenshō, meaning “seeing the self’s true nature,” happens in a similar way to Rubin’s ecstatic experience. In kenshō, the meditator, after intense study of koans (questions and problems meant to test a student’s progress in Zen practice), achieves a profound experience of enlightenment. This process mirrors Rubin’s experience of honing his craft and reaching the ecstatic moment of creation. Moreover, Rubin advances Zen ideas when he recommends that artists detach from their egos. Specifically, artists are supposed to view their own lives as stories where the protagonist faces loss, conflict, and triumph. This practice of dissociation can be both an artistic exercise and a psychological technique. In this dual function, Rubin follows the conventions of the self-help genre by offering specialized advice that can be applied to a general audience. As in other sections, Zen Buddhist philosophy serves as a concept that unifies the work.

Rubin presents opposing ideas when he defines art as the individual’s pure expression of the self while championing for the artist’s detachment from the self. Likewise, in previous chapters, Rubin advised readers to break the rules for enhanced creativity. Conversely, in Chapter 38, “Temporary Rules,” Rubin recommends that artists create their own rules to catalyze problem-solving in their creative process. These contradictions can appear to undermine the argument, but Rubin’s belief that art cannot be produced through logical reasoning suggests that the message adheres to the form, i.e., creative work exceeds rationality, thus the explanation for the creative process necessarily includes some amount of contradiction.