What's a muse for?
The film director Lars von Trier made a social media post this week asking the women of the Internet of one of them would be his girlfriend/muse. It made a lot of waves online, people thought it was funny (or maybe pathetic, or both). It got me thinking—what is the function of a muse? The way he framed it—needing a woman to sort of jolt him into a creative phase—is how it’s usually thought of, a woman igniting ideas in you. But is this what a muse really is? I feel like it isn’t. Women generally obscure things, distract you, pull you away from your ideas. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it’s good to experience this, so you don’t get too serious or bogged down. But that’s what a muse should do—free you from your ideas, not give them to you.
If you are having a creative drought, as Lars von Trier evidently is, this isn’t solved by getting a muse who will bring you ideas. That’s putting too much pressure on the woman, or on the romantic idea of love—that it will rescue you in various ways, and bring you something you were missing. Thinking like that just sets you up for disappointment, and isn’t realistic. In life you have to do everything alone. Creative ideas are no different. Other people help you get through the struggles of life, but they can’t really bring you anything you didn’t already have before. Generally, the more isolated you are, the more ideas you have, because your mind is totally free and you can pursue everything that interests you, without being weighed down at all. This is very creatively fruitful, but it can be quite a strain—and that’s where the muse comes in, to help you recover from your relentless pursuit of ideas. The last thing you would want to do with a muse is discuss ideas.
A muse is something that you need to use to escape your creativity. A respite from the ideas, not a source of them.
The function of a muse, eh? Not too much into feminist theory, are we? That's some old school shit (patriarcal shit, as one may put it). I guess it's okay to not see women as salvation or the source of creative drive, but maybe see them as people too? You know, not just something that "distract you", even if the distraction is pleasant. I don't know man, I mean, vice is everywhere. Society is very vicious. Also the idea that "in life you have to do everything alone" is, I guess, very nietzschean, and probably the worst part of his philosophy, all things considered (or the saddest part).