The Duende

A mischievous goblin wrote some of your favorite songs.

DUENDE (Spanish)

A few months ago, my co-worker, Laura*, invited a magician to our office Zoom party. He showed us a few tricks and we giggled and struggled to figure them out. At the end of his act, he answered some of our questions. “Do you believe in real magic?” Laura asked. The magician thought for a minute, then described an interview with Michael Jackson. In it, Jackson is asked how he wrote the song Billie Jean, but he can’t seem to come up with an answer. It just came to him, almost inexplicably. The magician said that when creators can’t quite explain their process because the creativity seems out of their control, that seems like real magic.

There’s a name that describes this idea: Duende. In Spanish, it literally translates to elf or goblin. Or maybe more broadly to something like demon. And in the folklore of Spain and some other cultures, the Duende describes a mischievous pixie or imp. But the word is also used to explain a heightened state of emotion and creativity that is seemingly out of one’s control. It’s often associated with the art of flamenco dancing.

I first heard this term in a poetry class. Our instructor had us read Federico García Lorca’s essay “Theory and Play of The Duende.” Lorca writes:

“The arrival of the duende presupposes a radical change to all the old kinds of form… the duende loves the edge, the wound, and draws close to places where forms fuse in a yearning beyond visible expression. The duende feels otherworldly, wild, and willful. It is fluid rather than fixed. Feeling rather than thinking. It exists whether you have a label for it or not.”

Maybe the best translation we have for this in English is “creative energy,” but that doesn’t seem to do this concept justice. The creative energy Lorca describes feels supernatural, unexplainable, and, notably, intractable. You can’t control it. You can’t summon it. You don’t search for the duende  — the duende finds you. 

Or maybe that’s just something I tell myself when I have writer’s block.

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*Laura gave me permission to share this story. The question she asked the magician is a testament to her journalistic prowess. As a thank you, here’s a clip of David Bowie (one of Laura’s creative heroes) describing what seems like the Duende. 

What’s new?

• I read and loved this poem by Billy Collins: Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant.
  

• I used a tool called YearCompass to plan my goals for 2023. It’s absolutely free  — you don’t even need to share your email address to grab a copy of the planner. It’s also simple and doesn’t take a lot of time to use. Hat tip to Alyssa of Mixed Up Money for sharing this resource on her Instagram page.
  

• I read this Aeon essay about self-awareness and how knowing the content of one’s own mind seems straightforward but is “much more like mind reading other people.” As someone who’s never quite sure how she feels about things, this was illuminating. And validating.
  

 — Kristin