Blog 8

Blog Eight

The mystery of the lizards has been solved. I wrote in my last blog about my disappointment in Castaneda never relating if he found the lizards that don Juan had stitched. Apparently, Castaneda didn’t find them because the “stitching” and guidance of the lizards are reintroduced in chapter nine, as he practiced the sorcery on his own, without the direct guidance of don Juan. Furthermore, don Juan said (going back to the end of chapter five) if Castaneda found the lizards he would never have to catch them again. But he would have had to eat them if he found them (connection here is that they would “live” inside Castaneda and guide him forever, thus there would be no point in catching them again)…. It kind of makes me wonder how hard Castaneda actually searched for those lizards at the end of chapter five.. I think I would have preferred catching them all over again if it prevented me from having to eat them—don Juan wouldn’t appreciate my satirical insight, so moving on…

So I have been finding good connections to creativity during these last few chapters, but really all throughout the book. From the very beginning, I found don Juan to be very creative in how he presented names, specific characteristics, traits, and almost a mere personality for the drugs he was introducing to Castaneda. These specific references and characteristics of the drugs (as a man or a woman, animal or human, a protector or an ally, full of fear or ambition) developed by don Juan’s personal experiences and his lessons from his benefactor, were very sincere to him. Going back to the Hughes book for a moment to considering some definitions of creativity: “as a complex mental process bringing together disparate elements to form a new and valuable synthesis… involves the organization of everyday subjective experience as well as imaginative material, and thus includes the whole of life…intellectual ability to bring together two quite different sets of facts or ideas so as to form a new meaningful synthesis.” This is the book, this is what the book was about! Now thinking and writing about it, it is amazing to me how much creativity was woven throughout the entire book. As a last example, shortly before Castaneda ends his experiences with don Juan he relates: “After probing and exerting myself to remember, I was forces to make a series of analogies or similes in order to “understand” what I had “seen” (139).’ This understanding, the knowledge, the journey Castaneda was on throughout this period of his life was all related to creativity. Through the use of hallucinogenic drugs and the guidance of don Juan Castaneda was breaking existing rules and taking experiences and molding them into something of value. Therefore, I can understand why it is arguable hallucinogenic use in don Juan’s culture could be seen as more creative, whereas hallucinogenic uses in Western culture would be seen as substance abuse before it is classified as creative. In part, it boils back to the different purposes for taking the drug, but that is a different matter I am not examining.

After writing this, I am excited to hear more in class about other connections to creativity.