On inadvertently quoting Playboy


I have never knowingly quoted Playboy magazine before, and I have no expectation that I shall do so again, but it turns out that, in my blog a couple of weeks ago, I did.

I referenced a John Updike quotation and mentioned that I had asked Nigel Rees of Quote... Unquote for help in tracking it down. He included the query in his latest newsletter and from there it was picked up by the Quote Investigator website in USA, where it received further attention.

It turns out that the Updike quote about creativity came from his contribution as one of 13 writers invited to contribute to a Playboy piece "On Creativity".  This appeared in the December 1968 edition (which had in excess of 300 pages so clearly a substantial publication), in which Updike wrote:

"For one thing, creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity; the ditchdigger, dentist and artist go about their tasks in much the same way, and any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better" which was the original quotation.  He continued, "Out of my own slim experience, I would venture the opinion that the artistic impulse is a mix, in varying proportions, of childhood habits of fantasizing brought on by not necessarily unhappy periods of solitude..."

In the same piece, Henry Miller stated: "I believe we are all born creative and that this creative spirit would manifest itself much more freely were it not for our archaic notions of education. Those who are able to emerge as creative individuals owe it to their stubborn, steadfast devotion, their complete unswerving dedication to their chosen role. Inspiration is open to all, but the successful realization of one's aims depends upon discipline, obsessive perseverance and absolute belief in one's own self and in what one is doing. The urge to create may spring from good or bad conditions..."

And Truman Capote opined: "I've never understood the term 'creative person.' All people are creative. The difficulty is that most of us are unaware of our creative gifts; through faults of fortune, they lie undreamed of—to be discovered only, if at all, through fateful chance."

A common theme is the suggestion that we are all creative and that the extent to which such creativity is fulfilled is affected, at least in part, by experiences in our formative years.

That we are all creative should not come as a surprise within a biblical world view, which holds that all of humanity is created 'in the image' of the ultimate Creator.  But perhaps Playboy magazine is a surprising place to find this reflected.

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