Are we erotic thefts or avant-authors?

[CharleyH]

Marguerite Duras, and my spell of her first name is atrocious, forgive me (all these years I should know) but she is, in a way, my erotic mentor. She was always too experimental, took chances in form and content, and yet was so beautifully poetic, erotic and haunting.

I suppose i write like her at times, but subconsciously, I think, certainly not purposefully.

Which famous author do you aspire to? Are you conscious or unconscious of similarities in your writing and influence? And how?

 

[cantdog]

I used to aim for Wodehouse, actually.

 

[cantdog]

Now, though, the stuff I am writing is out on its own. That is, I don't read anyone who writes the way I am trying to do. I want the writing itself to be transparent; I don't want people to notice it, but to see the events and hear the conversations I tell about.

Stylistic avant-garde gets in the way. Anaïs Nin, for instance. I don't fuckin get it. This is supposed to be not only erotic but sensitive erotica! Yet it's very difficult to even make sense of it, half the time. If you can't decode it, you can't react.

 

[rgraham666]

Now, though, the stuff I am writing is out on its own. That is, I don't read anyone who writes the way I am trying to do. I want the writing itself to be transparent; I don't want people to notice it, but to see the events and hear the conversations I tell about.

Stylistic avant-garde gets in the way. Anaïs Nin, for instance. I don't fuckin get it. This is supposed to be not only erotic but sensitive erotica! Yet it's very difficult to even make sense of it, half the time. If you can't decode it, you can't react.

Agreed cant.

Too many authours, in my opinion, speak only to other authours. They are not trying to tell a story, but show off their expertise at the techniques of writing. Like that 'post-structuralist' we had here a couple of months ago.

Although such authours stuff is still better than most of the stuff here on Lit.

 

[cantdog]

I can't say whether they appeal to other authors. Nin must speak to someone, I guess. It isn't me. I'd like to write as you do (now), or yui, to draw them in and make em listen.

I used to write farce, and I wanted to do it as well as Wodehouse did. But now, not so much. And I have no conscious goal, no author i hold before me as a beacon or whatever. I just polish and polish to make it come clear, to get out of the way of the story.

 

[elsol]

Vachss -- has the most stylistic effect on me. He also affected the way I writer my supporting cast...

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks for the kind words, cant.

I realise I didn't answer the original question.

Undoubtedly, all the SF authours I read as a teenager had a big influence on me. Heinlein, Zelazny, Anderson, Niven, Asimov. William Gibson probably as well, although I encountered him much later in life.

The only voice I aspire to is my own.

 

[CharleyH]

Now, though, the stuff I am writing is out on its own. That is, I don't read anyone who writes the way I am trying to do. I want the writing itself to be transparent; I don't want people to notice it, but to see the events and hear the conversations I tell about.

Stylistic avant-garde gets in the way. Anaïs Nin, for instance. I don't fuckin get it. This is supposed to be not only erotic but sensitive erotica! Yet it's very difficult to even make sense of it, half the time. If you can't decode it, you can't react.

We all write on our own, my sweet, but nothing is ex nihilo? We dont need other writers to write, but we are certainly influenced by writers, whether by Harliquin (sp) or Aritotle? There's an influence there.

 

[CharleyH]

Vachss -- has the most stylistic effect on me. He also affected the way I writer my supporting cast...

Sincerely,
ElSol

Vachss? Never heard. Tell us more, tell us how more specifically?

 

[cantdog]

In that sense, I suppose, every book a man reads is an influence. But I hold to my statement, just the same. I like Niven, but he's making a cool joke with you as he tells the story. I used to read a lot of Heinlein, but he wants to be a curmudgeon and tell you a thing or two. I was blown away by reading The Greeks by an Oxford don named Kitto. It was as though you were in a comfortable room lined with books and paintings, discussing the Greeks with enthusiasm in a delightful atmosphere. I am currently reading and digging Walter Mosley, but he writes nothing like I do, either.

I say, I can't think of one author I've read who is doing what I'm doing when I polish. And if I had read one, it would be exactly because she was doing just that, that I wouldn't remember her. If I do what I'm setting out to do, no one will remember my style, either. Just my story.

 

[cantdog]

I dunno Vachss, either.

 

[elsol]

Vachss? Never heard. Tell us more, tell us how more specifically?

*burp*

Andrew Vachss writes a anti-hero, first person series about an 'underworld' detective.

Burke is basically the guy you go to if you need to go places cops don't go... the series is deeply about child abuse.

The series starts with Flood.

It has some of the coolest supporting cast ever

And of course, there's Wesley -- someday, when I'm all grown up, I'll write a story from Wesley's perspective

Edited to add: Yui 'teases' me about Vachss because my "A Master's Ring" is stamped very hard by my reading of Vachss's books... right down to a pseudo-Wesley.


Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[CharleyH]

*burp*

Andrew Vachss writes a anti-hero, first person series about an 'underworld' detective.

Burke is basically the guy you go to if you need to go places cops don't go... the series is deeply about child abuse.

The series starts with Flood.

It has some of the coolest supporting cast ever

And of course, there's Wesley -- someday, when I'm all grown up, I'll write a story from Wesley's perspective

Edited to add: Yui 'teases' me about Vachss because my "A Master's Ring" is stamped very hard by my reading of Vachss's books... right down to a pseudo-Wesley.


Sincerely,
ElSol

Anti-heros are not unusual in the post modern? Tell us whats so great or different of a rape story?

Cant: Is not all art a pique on everthing before?

 

[elsol]

Tell us whats so great or different of a rape story?

Huh?

Don't know what you're referring to here.




Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[cantdog]

el sol? That's Charleyspeak for "Elaborate, please. Besides the cool JLA of secondary characters, what makes Vachss stand out from other authors tackling child-abuse issues?" What's it about him, anyway?

And no art arises in isolation except the products of madness. I just have no literary hero now. If one did write as I would like to write, I would never notice their style. That's because it's "style," as a thing, thatI want to repress.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I read obsessively. And style matters a lot to me. O prefer writers that show a distinctive style, sometimes I prefer them even if their style interferes with their clarity of writing.
William Burroughs is the greatest of my influences in this way, as a youngster I wrote a lot of pastiche, even using his cut-up technique. And his "Wild Boys" were so hot!

Nabokov- I love his long allusory sentence structure. "Ada" is one of my top ten novels. And I've written that way, too.

I think reading a book by Gore Vidal; "Harlot's Ghost" really illuminated for me, some story-telling techniques. I was astounded by the clarity of his words.
Other authors that have taught me to speak clearly, are the mystery writer Dorothy Sawyers, and of all people- Margary Allingham, who can keep a LOT of characters separated.
And Damon Runyon, for his first-person technique- and also for his sardonic voice.

Terry Pratchett took care of a lot of little lessons. I absolutely adore that man!

 

[Stella_Omega]

....If one did write as I would like to write, I would never notice their style. That's because it's "style," as a thing, thatI want to repress.

We go through phases and periods. Cantdog, why are you repressing "Style" right now? any particular reason? And what have you to say to those of us who want a little style in their stroke? "Sorry"?

 

[rgraham666]

We go through phases and periods. Cantdog, why are you repressing "Style" right now? any particular reason? And what have you to say to those of us who want a little style in their stroke? "Sorry"?

I can't answer for cant, Stella, but for me it's too easy to get lost in 'style'.

It's too easy to worry about the sound of the words, the shape of the paragraphs, while missing the fact that the story is now hidden behind 'style'.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I can't answer for cant, Stella, but for me it's too easy to get lost in 'style'.

It's too easy to worry about the sound of the words, the shape of the paragraphs, while missing the fact that the story is now hidden behind 'style'.

Like Burroughs, who wrote much clearer in his later years. BUt his first books are fantastic, and fantastical, and give you a sense of pure emotion (me, anyway)
It becomes another exercise altogether. It can be tough on the readers. But sometimes it's worth it!

 

[rgraham666]

Like Burroughs, who wrote much clearer in his later years. BUt his first books are fantastic, and fantastical, and give you a sense of pure emotion (me, anyway)
It becomes another exercise altogether. It can be tough on the readers. But sometimes it's worth it!

I suppose.

I haven't read Burroughs. I will confess to staying away from people who are considered 'Great Authours'. A prejudice of mine, I'm afraid. My own opinion is that most 'Great Authours' are too busy being 'great' to be 'good'.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I suppose.

I haven't read Burroughs. I will confess to staying away from people who are considered 'Great Authours'. A prejudice of mine, I'm afraid. My own opinion is that most 'Great Authours' are too busy being 'great' to be 'good'.

Burroughs isn't really considered a "great" author, is he?
...Is he?

 

[Alex756]

I have to agree with alot of the SF guys especially...

Card for the knowledge of detailed and beautiful worlds

Zelazney for the knowledge that a flawed main character is more interesting

HP Lovecraft for not whitewashing all regional character from a piece

H Beam Piper for the knowledge no matter how good you are, the worms still get you when you die.

If i try to be influenced by anyone really it's Lovecraft. The detail of his world and the interconnected independent short stories. Thats a format that theoretically works well on something like Lit. HOwever Card's books on writing style are the one's I seach for at the library.

~Alex

 

[Recidiva]

I don't think I thieve, but I do blend.

It's mostly me and my versions of people I'm attracted to or ideas I'm attracted to.

Robert Heinlein is one of the most generous authors to his readers and I think what I learned from him was: Don't be too perfect. Have a sense of humor. Be able to write from different perspectives. Above all, introduce people to ideas, but do not preach.

I love Thomas Harris and he is so incredibly well researched and has a polish to his writing and no cracks in the illusion due to his confidence in the material and attention to every detail.

I couldn't attempt to be like these people, though. I admire them and all the pleasure they gave me reading them. The sense that you're in good hands, the person driving knows where they are going and will get you there. They're not a schoolmarm tapping on a blackboard, they're a very cool Limo driver who will talk to you on the way to wherever you have no idea you're going.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Marguerite Duras, and my spell of her first name is atrocious, forgive me (all these years I should know) but she is, in a way, my erotic mentor. She was always too experimental, took chances in form and content, and yet was so beautifully poetic, erotic and haunting.

I suppose i write like her at times, but subconsciously, I think, certainly not purposefully.

Which famous author do you aspire to? Are you conscious or unconscious of similarities in your writing and influence? And how?

My writing style proably takes more from Louis Lamour than anyone else. I see a lot of similarities in the long descriptive passages, the attention to detail I strive for, and the way I build and introduce minor characters.

I also take a lot from robert Louis Stepehnson, in the way I set up my backgrounds.

My fantasy is heavily influnced by Howard and De Camp. My Cyberpunk is heavily influenced by Lit's own Raphy

I think my voice has become a distilled product that is pretty much my own.

 

[Guest]