Creativity, the Perfect Crime by Philippe Petit (2015) is a memoir by the highwire artist who walked between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 1974, and performed other high wire feats across the globe. Philippe Petit, born in 1949, is also a magician, street juggler, artist, and writer.
The French author begins with: ‘Make no mistake. I frown upon books about creativity.’ But he’s comfortable with a book about his creativity – or to be more precise, a book about his creative process. He invites readers to be his ‘partner in creative crime’ and to realize the creativity within every person on the planet. He says, while his high wire acts are unique, his creative process is not.
Next, he begins with the bane of all writers: the blank page.
His views about the creative process are unconventional in developing a creative idea from beginning to end – a self-taught learner, attitude re-shaper, resource-builder, and problem-solver, he tackles everything from the possible to the impossible.
He calls himself a professional daydreamer, mischief-maker, rogue engineer, master of deception, and a frustrated movie director who draws a framework in his head before his begins his endeavours. There is no doubt that Philippe Petit is a rebel, an out-of-the-box thinker, and an egotist, who does not entertain the thoughts of others when he is in his creative element. He creates for himself, for his own satisfaction and sense of accomplishment – and not for fame, money, or acclaim. He creates for the very act of creating.
Philippe Petit not only writes of the trepidation of beginning a dream – like a chick leaping out of the nest as it learns to fly – and the point of no return – but he also writes of the courage to keep going. He writes of the highs and lows of creative performances, the exhileration of success, and the disappointments of delays and cancellations. When is it ever the right time to forget a dream? He answers that question too.
I like his ‘blue’ expression in each chapter, where he invites readers to ‘jump to the end of the chapter, where a little digression patiently awaits.’ It is in these blue sections where he comes alive – and very personal – recalling how and why his creative thoughts were generated, developed, and accomplished – and his own feelings about the process. In these sections, he aims to narrow the distance between the reader and the reader’s goal.
At the end, Philippe Petit offers some ‘advice to live by’ – one of which is: Place the creative act – not its attainment – in your heart.
Creativity, the Perfect Crime is an entertaining, but extremely practical, book and guide to the creative process from all perspectives – and one of the best I have ever read.
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MARTINA NICOLLS
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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