How to Free a Naked Man from a Rock: An Anthology

Introduction
by Robert Kane
There’s a 17-foot-tall naked guy who lives in Florence, Italy. He spends most of his time being ogled by anyone who cares to look. He’s okay with this—he isn’t the least bit ashamed. He’s been doing this for over five hundred years, after all.
Come to think of it, maybe you’ve seen him before. His name is David. His picture’s on the cover of this book.
David began his life as a very large, very lonely, and very slightly mistreated block of rock. When David’s father, the legendary sculptor and all-around artistic genius Michelangelo, looked at that rock, however, he didn’t just see a simple piece of weathered marble—he saw the stone boy, the statue, trapped inside.
When you look at rocks, what do you see inside? What are the things you see in life that no one else sees?
Chances are that you see some pretty cool, pretty wild stuff.
Michelangelo thought that David was pretty cool and wild, too, standing contraposto-style inside of that rock, staring out with those imposing eyes, and flexing those giant-slaying muscles. The problem was that, as long as David was trapped in the stone, no one but Michelangelo could see him! The solution? Michelangelo carved away at the rock until David was revealed.
The result? Now everybody can marvel over David. Michelangelo was right—the guy’s pretty cool, even if he’s too big to find a decent pair of jeans.
Take a look at the works of art the following authors freed from their minds. The process didn’t work much differently for them than it did for Michelangelo—they saw the world in ways that no one else did, and they worked to free the visions in their minds so that everyone could see them.
Those same authors even wrote down some thoughts on how they freed the thoughts from their heads . . . and how they think that you could do the same. Maybe they’re right, and maybe they’re wrong. If they’re right, let their words inspire you. If they’re wrong, prove it by doing something better!
Okay, it’s your turn to give it a shot. Take the sweetness, the sadness, the rage, the romance, the pathos, and the passion in your life. Look hard at them. No one else sees them the way that you do.
. . . Not yet.

. . . Superman and
Dracula and King Kong
and dozens of others . . .