39 pages • 1 hour read
Steven PressfieldThe War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Steven Pressfield (The Author)
Steven Pressfield is a screenwriter and author of numerous best-selling books including Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and The War of Art. Born in Trinidad to an American Navy family, Pressfield attended Duke University where he graduated with his BA in 1965. After serving in the Marines for several years in the late 1960s, Pressfield worked at a variety of odd jobs including taxi driver, fruit picker, teacher, truck driver, and more. In The War of Art, Pressfield admits that during his young adulthood he was controlled by his “Resistance,” not applying himself to the craft of writing that he desperately wanted to pursue.
Finally, Pressfield began writing more consistently, and sold movie screenplays such as King Kong Lives, Above the Law, and Separate Lives. He then wrote several fictional novels, beginning with The Legend of Bagger Vance, which was later adapted into a film directed by Robert Redford. Pressfield is best known as an author of military fiction due to the success of his novels set amidst ancient conflicts. These include Gates of Fire, which is narrated by a Spartan soldier fighting the Persians at Thermopylae, Tides of War set during the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, and The Afghan Campaign about Alexander the Great’s conquest of central Asia.
Pressfield has also written numerous nonfictional, self-help books including The War of Art, Turning Pro, Do the Work, Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit, The Artist’s Journey, and Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be. These books are intended for creative people; all center around overcoming Resistance and building the discipline, habits, and outlook necessary to find success as an artist. Pressfield has also written two memoirs. The first, The Authentic Swing, is about his experience writing his first published novel, while An American Jew details his experience of living in Israel while writing The Lion’s Gate. A memoir detailing his entire life story, GOVT CHEESE: A Memoir, was released in 2023. Pressfield is the co-founder of the publishing house Black Irish Books with editor Shawn Coyne, and is also active on his eponymous YouTube channel.
Socrates
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher who was born in about 470 BCE in the city-state of Athens. While Socrates did not write any texts himself, his views have been preserved in his students’ work. Pressfield agrees with Socrates that to be truly free and enjoy all the benefits of freedom, people must be disciplined enough to govern themselves. He quotes Socrates’s teaching that “the truly free individual is only free to the extent of his self-mastery” (37). Pressfield uses this view to bolster his recommendation that the reader develop self-discipline. He also quotes Socrates when analyzing the role of the “Muse” in creative life. Pressfield emphasizes that Socrates believed that technique and talent alone could not produce great art, but that artists had to be open to acting on “heaven-sent madness” in order to do great works (113). Pressfield quotes Socrates as saying that an uninspired artist cannot compete with one who is influenced by the Muse—“believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman” (113).
Krishna
Krishna is a central deity in Hinduism who is featured in the scriptures of the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna is the eighth avatar of the god Vishnu, and is known as the god of love, protection, and compassion. Pressfield refers to Krishna, who counsels the warrior Arjuna, as a source of wisdom and sound advice. Pressfield explains that Krishna told Arjuna not to labor for “fortune or attention or applause,” and to instead adopt a servant mentality in which all work is done in service to God (161). Pressfield uses Krishna’s advice to illustrate his claim that people should not pursue their craft to satisfy egotistical fantasies. He agrees with Krishna’s assessment that people’s true talent originates from God, and that artists should “give it back freely to its source” (162). Pressfield’s references to Krishna connect his advice to Hinduism’s spiritual philosophy and diversify his ancient sources.
Arjuna
Arjuna is a character in Hindu scriptures, including the Mahābhārata and the Bhagavad-Gita. While fighting as a warrior, Arjuna experiences a moment of weakness and is guided by the god Krishna while in battle. Referring to this story helps Pressfield explore his theme, The Artist as Warrior. Rather than battling physical foes, artists are fighting against Resistance. Krishna helps Arjuna learn to perform his work as a service to the divine and not for his own pride: “Give the act to me. Purged of hope and Ego, fix your attention on the soul. Act and do for me” (161).
King Leonidas
King Leonidas was the King of Sparta in the 400s BCE. Leonidas is famous for his leadership of the Spartan army, and especially for his participation in the Battle of Thermopylae. In this famous confrontation, Leonidas and the three hundred Spartan soldiers under his command fought to the death while delaying the advance of the invading Persian army. While the Persian army technically defeated the Spartans, the Spartans’ bravery and Leonidas’s strategic leadership gave the other Greek city-states enough time to ready their own defenses, enabling them to win the war.
Pressfield’s reference to Leonidas highlights his analogy of artists as warriors. Leonidas believed that a warrior’s main virtue was “[c]ontempt for death” (160). Comparing warriors to artists, Pressfield believes that failure is death to an artist, and that artists can banish failure by defining themselves territorially according to their craft, rather than hierarchically in reference to other artists.
