urban ku # 122 ~ to be obsessed
Monday, October 15, 2007 at 08:29AM 
Obsessed with Willeys? • click to embiggenRegarding my statement re: vision and obsession, Paul Maxim opined, "Someone who is such "an educated and informed boy", it seems to me, ought to be able to do a little better with the language. Obsession? Are you kidding? ... As a photographer, I don't think I'd want to be labeled "obsessive" or "compulsive". Such a photographer would likely just keep taking the same images over and over again. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
'Obsession' does have it's negative connotations, however, I still believe that it is the most accurate discriptor that I know of for artists who are driven to create. To be obsessed - 1. adjective, having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something; 2. v. intr., To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.
It is well known that many people in all manners of human endevours - to name a few, law enforcement, science, business, medical research and, yes, the arts - have been obsessed by, consumed by, driven to do what they do. Many, perhaps most, great advances have been made by those who 'won't let go'. Just ask all the 'victims' - spouses, children, friends, co-workers, et al - of 'obsessively' driven people. Wrecked marriages and relationships are everywhere scattered about the landscape of obsession. It's not a pretty picture.
To be sure, like everything else, there are degrees of obsession. Not all obsessions lead to personal / relationship mayhem. But, suffice it to say, obsession (to be obsessed) goes way beyond the polite notions of 'desire'and 'passion' and many great artists seem to have 'obsessive' personalities.
I liked Steve Durbin's and Sean McCormick's takes on 'obsession':
SD - Can't help but think of George Bernard Shaw: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
SM - ... Perhaps if you were a diagnosed (albeit high-functioning) schizophrenic you'd understand how an obsession can be turned around so that it becomes the bellows that drives the flames of creativity ...
PS - stay tuned - more later today on '... Such a photographer would likely just keep taking the same images over and over again. If you've seen one, you've seen them all.' hint: ever been to a 'name' photographer photo exhibit - it's the same 'images' over and over again.
Reader Comments (2)
Definitely "obsession." I had that GB Shaw quote posted in my cubicle towards the end of my Boeing life. There may have been a correlation between the quote and the end of my Boeing life.
Instead of "obsession" maybe "focussed". Same thing but not attached to "compulsive".