One downside of reading Nietzsche is that it makes me take stock of my creative architecture, especially in regards to the balance and conflict of its two hemispheres: The Apolline and the Dionysiac.
For Nietzsche, Apollo represents moderation, sculpture, illusion, melody, and epic poetry, whereas Dionysius represents the titanic, the barbaric, the real, the folk song, and lyric poetry. It is in the clash of these two that true artistic achievement exists.
Yet this presupposes already being creatively ambidextrous. Sadly, I lean to strongly towards being Apolline—too rational, too moderate, too controlled.
So what am I to do?
Well, I believe we all have inside of us something wild, something destructive, something waiting and wanting to be released. For me, this inner wild creativity is best visualized as an inner Kraken.
Keeping in mind that destruction is always a part of creation (after all, even God’s creation of light destroyed the darkness of the void), to move to my next creative level it’s time, as Liam Neeson said, for me to “release the Kraken.”