Fifteen authors

[janradder]

haddayr tagged me on Facebook for this, but I'm posting here instead.

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and who will always stick with you.

1. John D. Fitzgerald. I read The Great Brain series in 5th grade, at probably one of the lowest points in my life, and I used to imagine coming to school like T. D., otherwise known as the Great Brain, and conning my classmates out of their allowances. How I'd ever expected to do that when no one at school spoke to me, I had no idea, but imagining I could was one of my great refuges of that time.

2. Norton Juster. Did he ever write anything other than The Phantom Tollbooth? Does it even matter? For that book alone, he makes my list, because thirty years later it remains as vivid today as it did back then. It was one of the funniest books I'd ever read as a kid and made me realize just how much fun a person could have with language.

3. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Yes, he's a horrible racist, but when I was a preteen all I cared about was the Ape Man and how unbelievably stoic and strong he was, and how the guy took shit from no one. Then again, only a fool would start shit with someone who could take down a lion with his bare hands. Inspired by his feats, I even once ate raw hamburger I'd warmed in the toaster oven just so I would know what it might be like to eat from a fresh kill. Did I mention I was a total dork?

4. Stephen King. He was the first author I read who made me not only want to be a writer, but who also made me believe that was a goal I could attain. I read 'Salem's Lot when I was eleven and it scared the living crap out of me (I spent most of a year going everywhere in my house with a cross made out of emery boards I'd taped together). So much so, that I wanted to be scared again, and again, and again . . .

5. J. D. Salinger. My God, Holden Caulfield is such an insufferable, whiny ass. But he's a real insufferable, whiny ass, which is a testament to Salinger's gift for bringing his characters to life. You might not like them -- in fact, you might even hate them -- but you'd be hard pressed to say any were phony.

6. Ken Kesey. He was a one-hit wonder, but man was that one hit amazing. I'd never before read prose that could be so stream of consciousness and journey so far into the mind yet maintain a narrative thread the entire time.

7. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. At the time, Notes From the Underground perfectly captured the way I felt at eighteen the way no other book had.

8. George Orwell. Yes, he wrote a couple of good novels, but it was in his essays where his genius truly shined. Every single aspiring writer should be forced to read "Politics and the English Language" until they finally understand how every word you use has meaning, and the way you use them has an effect on the world. Each time I've reread him, I've learned something new about writing, and that says something.

9. Henry Miller. I'm embarrassed to put him on this list. He's a misogynist, a racist, and an egotistical asshole. Still, if you can get through all the baggage he carries, as well as his hideous propensity for verbal masturbation (all of which is, admittedly, a sometimes Herculean task), there are places where he sings. I still find the end of Tropic Of Cancer to be one of the most exquisite passages I've ever read.

10. Charles Bukowski. Whereas Miller is completely blind to any of his shortcomings, Bukowski is fully aware of all his, and he shows no fear in baring them to the world. He doesn't sing, but instead mutters his sad beauty into a glass of beer while you sit a few seats away from him, glad for the distance but also grateful and richer for what you can overhear.

11. Walt Whitman. Whitman soars on wings of prose and lyric. To travel with him is to be lifted up in the air and swim in currents of light as you marvel at the mystery of existence. To read his words is to feel as if you were not only touched by the hand of God, but sensually and lovingly caressed, fondled, and taken to bed by it as well.

12. Gertrude Stein. I've only ever read Ida: A Novel. What struck me was how eloquent she could be while being so sparse with her language. That's a good lesson for someone who's prone to overwriting.

13. Joseph Conrad. Like Stein, I've only read one book of his, Heart of Darkness, but it's stayed with me since college. It's short, more a novella than a novel, but it's nearly perfect.

14. Ray Bradbury. Each one of his books and stories holds a sadness and an aching sense of loss and longing for things which are gone, or which will soon be gone. At the same time, they hold onto and cherish that which is still here. If you think he's a science fiction writer, you couldn't be more wrong. He's a horror writer, and, as anyone who knows me knows, I'd be happy to explain why, but I'm not going to do it here.

15. Alan Moore. I don't write comics and I have no desire to write comics, and even if I did, I wouldn't try to write them like Alan Moore. Still, I love his work, and I'm continually amazed at all the little details and connections he makes in each one of his books, and how each new reading can uncover an entirely new interpretation, or at the very least, reveal something heretofore unseen. He's the James Joyce of comics.

Comments

your 15

[(Anonymous)]

Nice list. I'm with you on Burroughs, Kesey, Bradbury, Orwell, and Moore. (Sounds like a law firm.)

Kesey was a two-hit wonder for me--I liked Sometimes a Great Notion better than Cuckoo's Nest. And I never read any of Orwell's fiction, but his essays are the best. He grabs you by the throat with amazing opening lines, and chokes the life out of you with his endings. (I particularly remember an essay called "Such, Such Were the Joys" about British public schools.) I'd have to add Robert E. Howard to Burroughs. Conan was a little dearer to my heart than Tarzan or John Carter, but they were a delightful trinity for the adventure-starved adolescent I once was.

Did you add Gertrude Stein because you needed a woman on the list, you Lang alum, you? For me that woman is Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice just does it for me. The rest of her stuff I could take it or leave it, but the way that book completely twists around your first impressions of its characters (and the way their feelings for each other go topsy turvy) is just amazing. And nobody writes a wittier send-up of annoying personalities than Jane Austen. She's got some bite! The main character in that book is at worst tied for my favorite character in all of fiction, if not the outright winner.

Thanks for sharing. I feel all readerly-happy now.

-Ben F.

Re: your 15

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I liked Sometimes a Great Notion, but I thought it lacked the cohesion of Cuckoo's Nest. A lot of times he seemed to lose his narrative thread and there were long passages in that book where I just lost interest. That said, I think he was attempting something on a much grander scale than Cuckoo's Nest, which I respect, but I don't think it was entirely successful. But that's obviously just one opinion.

Aside from "Politics and the English Language," my other favorite of Orwell's is "Shooting an Elephant." You're right about his endings (and if you haven't read them, both 1984 and Animal Farm were quite good and definitely worth reading). I've never read Robert E. Howard, and I never really read any of the Conan comics. I have no idea if it's true because I haven't read enough, but Conan always struck me as being kind of dumb whereas Tarzan was super strong and super smart. I could have that impression because of the Conan movies, though.

I really should read Jane Austen. Haddayr is a huge fan and keeps trying to get me to read her. We have a ton of her books, so eventually I'll get to it.

Re: your 15

[(Anonymous)]

It's hard for me to say if the Conan stuff holds up, because I read it all when I was 10 or so. But I loved it. I don't remember him being portrayed as dumb, but I can see how Schwarzenneger would give you that impression. I may have exaggerated it all in my head, but it seems to me that there were a lot of scenes of getting tied up, and then using vein-popping muscle-busting strength to bust out.

If you do read any Austen, I'd go for Pride and Prejudice. Especially since I talked it up so highly, I'm bound to have ruined it for you. There are certain scenes in that book that I've reread at least a dozen times, and I almost never reread things. I also read Emma, (another Austen book), but it lacked the zing of Pride and Prejudice. It's also nice to see in characters like the father that sarcasm was alive and well in centuries past.

-Ben.

Re: your 15

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I'll take you up on that suggestion (I already know the story, having seen the movie with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy).