Comparative Analysis of Spike Lee and Yoky Matsuoka

Shelton Jackson Lee popularly known as Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1957. Spike Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father- Bill Lee was a jazz composer, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He majored in communications at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, where he directed his first Super-8 films. Lee is a master in producing, writing and directing movies. He is a known for his uncompromising, provocative approach to controversial subject matter (Britannica, 2019).

This paper centers on this renowned movie director, his journey to mastery using Robert Greene’s Mastery to analyze his keys to mastery, emotional pitfalls, strategies for the creative-active phase and a comparative analysis between Spike Lee and Yoki Matsuoka. Firstly, it is worthy to briefly understand what mastery is before giving in-depth information on the chosen master.

Definition of Mastery

“The classic conception of human nature is captured in the name we gave ourselves as a species, Homo sapiens…. We call ourselves “knowing man” because we see ourselves as distinguished from our ancestors by our vast amount of knowledge. But perhaps a better way to see ourselves would be as Homo exercens, or “practicing man,” the species that takes control of its life through practice and makes of itself what it will.” Peak Anders Ericsson. Mastery is a special state of mind in which the skill runs almost entirely within the unconscious (Johannsen, 1986).

George, Robert and Christine (2010) defined mastery as a psychological force that stimulates an individual to attempt independently, in a focused and persistent manner, to solve a problem or master a skill or task which is at least moderately challenging for him or her. Mastery has different meaning to different people, but it all revolves around the fact that it is an all-encompassing belief that you must learn certain skills to attain in relation to your life task. The

The Creative Task

Greene (2012) defined the creative task as one that involves the entire self—our emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds. He further explained that “the task that you choose to work on must have an obsessive element. Like the Life’s Task, it must connect to something deep within you” (Greene, 2012, p. 179). For Spike Lee, it was not just about making movies, it was about using his films as a medium of addressing and correcting societal vices ranging from urban crime, poverty, political issues, race relations and colorism in black community.

For two decades, Spike Lee has chosen something that appeals to his sense of unconventionality and calls up latent feelings of rebelliousness, just as stated by Robert Greene. Lee’s work has stirred up a lot of controversies and ruffled some feathers. Spike Lees’ movies Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcom X (1992) has examined race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence. These movies confirmed Lee's reputation as someone willing to seize controversial issues by the horns (“My Black History”, 2017).

Greene (2012) claimed that to achieve a creative task, one must first choose a realistic task. The knowledge and skills you have gained must be eminently suited to pulling it off. For Spike Lee, many of his films are semi-autobiographical and involves African-American or racial themes, as these were things he witnessed growing up as a child in Brooklyn. He incorporated his childhood memories with the skills he learned in filmmaking at Morehouse college to make movies that address these issues

“Second, you must let go of your need for comfort and security. If you are worried about what others might think and about how your position in the group might be jeopardized, then you will never really create anything. You will unconsciously tether your mind to certain conventions, and your ideas will grow stale and flat.” (Greene, 2012, p. 179). Lee’s 'Do the Right Thing', was the first movie that brought him fame and recognition. However, Critical response to the film was both enthusiastic and wary.

It was nominated for an academy award. A story of simmering racial tension between Italian Americans and African Americans in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, the film becomes a call to arms when violence erupts in response to the killing of an African American man by white police officers (“My Black History”, 2017).

Creative strategy

In creative strategy, Greene (2012) claimed that the further we progress on our creative task, the fewer alternative possibilities or viewpoints we tend to consider, and the only antidote is to enact strategies to loosen up the mind and let in alternative ways of thinking. He further explained some few strategies to adapt to loosen the mind when creative ways of thinking become narrow. one of which will be analyzed as it relates with Spike Lee.

Allow for serendipity: Greene (2012) defined serendipity as the occurrence of something we are not expecting—and although by their nature you cannot force them to happen. One of the steps Greene emphasized on is openness and looseness, and this is doing something out of your normal creative task like walking and engaging in other activities. Spike lee makes use of this strategy in other to escape the pressure of the creative process, Lee watches basketball, and according to an article in New York Amsterdam News in 2003, he was referred to as Knicks number one fan. To emphasize his love for basketball, Spike wrote a book in 1997 title “Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir”. The book explained how Lee went from a skinny kid playing ball on the streets of Brooklyn, sneaking into Madison Square to watch the.

Greene stated other creative strategies that can be used in stretching and loosening the mind in all directions such as cultivate negative capability, alternate the mind through “the current”, alter your perspective, and revert to primal form of intelligence. However, there are no sources to claim that Spike Lee used any of the strategies to escape the pressure from creative process.

The Creative Breakthrough: Tension and Insight

Greene (2012) explained creative breakthrough as the situation whereby a master begins a project with an initial intuition and an excitement about its potential success but are not easily satisfied by what they are doing. While able to feel excitement, they also feel doubt about the worthiness of their work. In most cases they end up abandoning the work for a period of time, sometimes years because they don’t feel the rush they felt when it first started. This is common in the lives of most masters; however, no source has shown that Spike Lee has experienced a creative breakthrough since the start of his career.

Emotional Pitfalls

Greene (2012) explained this to be challenges confronted by masters at the creative-active phase of their career that has the tendency of ruining all they have worked for. Greene further identified six common types of emotional pitfalls, and they are; complacency, conservatism, dependency, impatience, grandiosity, and inflexibility. However, the type of emotional pitfall related to Spike Lee is inflexibility, which was described by Greene (2012) as being hung up on any single frame of mind. Spike Lee is popularly known as an unapologetic filmmaker for decades who does not care how the public perceive him as he hammers on issues relating race relations and colorism in black community.

Flory (2006) stated some imaginative limitations of viewing Lee’s movie in the journal of aesthetics & art criticism titled Spike Lee and the sympathetic racist. He explained that Lee offers depictions that invite a deeper imagining with respect to blackness. Not only does he provide numerous detailed representations of African-American character in his films, but Spike Lee offers sympathetic racist character types who provide a conception of how it might be possible for a white person to act favorably toward blacks but still be racist toward them. Over the years, Spike Lee has received several controversies about his views on racism and how inflexible his views are.

Both Spike Lee and Yoky Matsuoka are passionate about two independent subjects. Yoky was passionate about sport (tennis) and science (robotics). However, Spike Lee on the other hand was interested in film and addressing societal issues he noticed as he grew up as a child in Brooklyn. As a result of Yoky’s hand injury which made her unable to play tennis, she took to her utmost priority to create prosthetic hand of a robot that can actually connect to the brain, operating and feeling as if it were real, so she could play tennis with it. By doing this, she would satisfy all of the different sides of her character. Spike Lee on the other hand also decided to navigate his creative ideas towards addressing societal issues like urban crime, poverty, political issues, race relations and colorism in black community in his films.

Both characters possess a great mastery skill as they have succeeded in striking a balance between two independent subjects they are interested in, as well as occupied a perfect niche in their various work field. “Your project or the problem you are solving should always be connected to something larger—a bigger question, an overarching idea, an inspiring goal” (Greene,2012, p. 229)

It’s no doubt that Spike lee is an exemplary filmmaker and a master in the entertainment industry. This paper discussed the creative life of Spike Lee in relation to his creative task, creative strategy, creative breakthrough and emotional pitfall he has faced. Finally, this paper has a cross comparative analysis between Spike Lee and Yoky Matsuoka.