纽约时报 卡罗琳·卡洛威 成也流行艺术 败也流行艺术(3)（在线收听）

"But there is an airy spiritual component, too: a belief that anyone can be an artist and, ideally, everyone should be. "

但也出现了一种不切实际的思想成分：一种相信任何人都可以成为艺术家，并且理想情况下也应该成为艺术家的信念。”

This is the principle behind much of the self-help “creativity” industry —

许多自助“创意”行业背后的原则就是：

the notion, promulgated in best-selling books like Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,”

伊丽莎白·吉尔伯特的《大魔法:超越恐惧的创造性生活》等畅销书大力宣扬的那种，

that every person contains vast reservoirs of creative potential.

认为每个人都蕴藏着巨大的创造潜能的信念。

To access your creativity, Gilbert maintains, is to self-actualize.

吉尔伯特认为，发挥创造力就等于实现自我。

This, she writes, is “the central question upon which all creative living hinges:

她写道，“所有创意生活依赖的核心问题都是:

Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?”

你是否有勇气把藏在你内心深处的宝藏发挥出来?”

It’s hard not to be skeptical of a sentence like that.

不对这样的话表示怀疑是很难的。

In fact, the sickly odor of snake oil hovers over much of the “creative living” enterprise.

事实上，许多专注“创意生活”的企业上方都笼罩着一股“万灵油”般令人生厌的味道。

It may be no accident that one of the most forceful formulations of this thesis arrived in Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine: How Creativity Works,”

她的这本著作中最具说服力的公式会出现在乔纳·莱勒的著作《想象:创造力是如何运作的》一书里或许并非偶然——

the 2012 pop-neuroscience book that was recalled by its publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,

该书是出版于2012年的一本流行神经科学书籍，在被发现含有鲍勃·迪伦引用莱勒自己的发明之后，

after it was discovered to contain Bob Dylan quotes of Lehrer’s own invention.

该书被其出版商霍顿·米夫林·哈考特召回。

The prosyletizers for creative living proffer a slippery hard sell:

创意生活的布道者们提供的其实是一种狡猾的硬性推销：

You can tap into your creative side if you just learn how, preferably by buying this book or attending this workshop.

只要你购买这本书或参加这个研讨会，你就能激发出你的创造力。

Of course, this egalitarian theory of creativity ignores everything we know about the apportionment of artistic gifts,

当然，这种平等主义的创造性理论忽略了我们了解的关于艺术天赋分配的一切，

the fact that some people are simply better at making things than others.

也就是有些人就是比其他人更擅长制造东西这一事实。

It also elides the structural impediments — the lack of free time and ample resources and good education —

也排除了阻止了数百万人追求折纸爱好，更不用说在创意领域找工作了的结构性障碍：

that prohibit millions from pursuing an origami hobby, let alone finding a career in a creative field.

缺乏空闲时间，充足的资源以及良好的教育。

Faith in creativity can be especially robust among those blessed with talent.

相信自己有创造力的信念在那些有天赋的人身上尤其强烈。

Consider Kanye West.

坎耶·维斯特就是个例子。

There’s no doubting his creativity:

毫无疑问，他是有创造力的：

He makes great records, designs strange shoes, summons outrages from thin air.

他不仅创造了伟大的记录，设计出了奇怪的鞋子，还能凭空激起人们的义愤。

He also maintains one of the world’s most arresting Twitter feeds,

他的推特也一直是世界上最引人注目的推特账号之一，

where he boasts about his sneaker enterprise (“the creative make the final decisions here”)

他就是在那个账号上吹嘘他的运动鞋事业(“我的品牌最后都是有创意的人说了算”)，

and offers homilies to his peers: “As a creative your ideas are your strongest form of currency.”

向同行们布道：“作为一个创意品牌，想法就是你最有力的货币。”

In October, he took to Twitter to renounce his high-profile flirtation with Trumpism:

去年10月，他在推特上宣布放弃与特朗普主义的高调暧昧关系:

“I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative!!”

“我正在远离政治，将注意力全部集中在创新上!!”