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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

Creativity and “Powers of Two”

August 7, 2014 by Scott Timberg

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JOSHUA Wolf Shenk’s new book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, is the subject of my latest story. Shenk looks at more than 100 partnerships — some overt, some hidden — to try to distill the process of creation and derive patterns. He works especially with figures in literature and the arts — J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Balanchine and Suzanne Farrell, and so on.

When I saw Shenk’s recent cover in the Atlantic, on the Lennon-McCartney partnership, I was skeptical. Is there anything left to say about the Beatles at this point, especially after books like Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head demystified that supposedly magical mind-meld between the two. (We increasingly think of “John songs” and “Paul songs.” The rise of George Harrison’s capital in recent years seems to complicate the old notion still further.)220px-Lennon-McCartney

And I know people who admire Shenk’s work but are not convinced by the book’s argument — that duos are the rule in creative work.

But the Atlantic article, and Powers of Two, won me over. Shenk is a hard-working and earnest dude who really dug into the history and psychology of his subjects. He also struck the right balance between observing rules and respecting the “sea of mystery” around creativity — he admits we can’t really explain it all.

I found him less neurotic, in our meeting, than he describes himself. But he’s very rigorous, hard on himself, and has turned out a book everyone interested in the workings of creativity should check out.

I ended up with way more good quotes than I could use in my piece, and hope to post some of them here.

Filed Under: beatles, books, Creativity, dance, literary, Los Angeles

Comments

  1. George Laase says

    August 8, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    My wife and I enjoyed another enjoyable night at the Hollywood Bowl last night. The highlight was a bright new star Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducting the LAPO in Mahler’s 1st Sym. Even though it was evident many of the first chairs were absent, the music performace was exhilarating. After hearing Ms Grazintye-Tyla conduct, I have to say, I would rather see her leading the LAPO than the overly-hyped Gustavo Dudamel.

    George Laase

Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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