INVENTIVITY: How Man Creates in Art and Science

by Robert E. Muller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 8, 1962

Is a Creator Born or Made? Where Do Ideas Come From? Who Invented Invention? How Can You Improve Your Imagination? How Are Art and Science Similar? Are Creators Slightly Mad? Is Art Brainstormable? Can Machines Ever Be Creative? Where Is Science Heading?"" These are a few questions representative of the many given a brisk, once-overlightly treatment here in a simplistic and informal style of the sort deemed fitting for young or naive audiences. Few of the answers will surprise or illuminate many who have ever devoted more than a minute's reflection to the problems involved, and few also are the fresh bits of information given on either artists or scientists. Mr. Mueller makes his living by writing on computers and satellites for RCA-Astro; his abstract paintings and woodcuts have been on exhibit in New York City. One might wonder whom he has in mind when he remarks that ""When the urge to create art and the desire to know and understand as a scientist come together in one man, it is a truly great man that results."" At any rate, few writers have ever included in a book a better reason for their book not having to be written than the following: ""A passionate interest in anything makes the human mind fortile, but a passionate interest in making the human mind fertile makes the human mind sterile."" Mr. Mueller however has a good out: his study can hardly be called ""passionate"" in any sense.

Pub Date: Jan. 8, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION