Don't Let Creativity Die, Says Thimann

"Creative energy is you; no person or circumstance can stifle it unless you let it," Kenneth V. Thimann, Higgins Professor of Biology and former Master of East House, told Radcliffe seniors at the Baccalaureate Service yesterday.

Pointing out that "the creative urge which is in us all comes into its own in college," Thimann went on to discuss some of the major attitudes and situations which can kill creativity developed in college and graduate school.

"Ours is a world of incredibly rapid change," he said. "Some people get to thinking that there'll be little they can do; all the creative things one can think of have been done."

Noting that this is certainly not true in the field of science, Thimann mentioned an article written by Bertrand Russell just prior to World War I. In connection with the achievements of physics, Russell at that time contended that all the important advances had already been made, and the only major task remaining was to "determine the great constants of nature to one or two more decimal places."

In sharp contrast to this prophecy, Thimann pointed out that "whole new worlds have been opened up in recent years by the use of high-energy machines, billion-volt cyclotrons, and the study of cosmic rays."

"The only thing one can safely say about science," he went on, "is that it will continue to enlarge and spread. Science is such an enormous enterprise that almost everyone can find creative activity in it."

Another attitude that can stifle the creative process is the philosophy of the "beat" generation that "the individual is powerless in the hands of great and stifling forces," Thimann said. Pointing out that these forces are often no more than dishonest politicians, he noted that "the answer to crooked politicians is 'creative and effective women.'"

Thimann concluded that two factors are essential to all creative activity: constant practice and self-discipline. "Don't blame anyone else if you let your creative energy die," he said. "There is a certain obligation which devolves on those who possess creativity; they must exercise it."