Low Brow Influences

[lovecraft68]

Often times when the word influences come up people wax on about Hemingway and all manner of literary greats and classics. I am admittedly low brow when it comes to these things. Short of things like Paradise Lost and Inferno and anything that deals with hellish visions or any form of horror, I'm not a fan of the all time greats.

I can't be alone in this so here's a few things that have inspired my writing that many literary snobs would roll their eyes at.

Marvel Comics from the 60's to 70's. Lee at his finest when it comes to wise cracks and come backs and Kirby's great action packed fight scenes (yes,, folks there was a time when comics were for kids and not preachy pretentious BS)

The Destroyer/Mack Bolan The Executioner. Two series low on plot low on 'literature' but high on fights, weapons, violence, and in the case of Destroyer some pretty kinky sex for a mainstream series.

Heavy metal/black metal. The primal screaming loud hard heavy and chaotic music is my choice to write by and has driven a lot of my more violent scenes including rough AF sex scenes.

Porn. I'll admit it. Keep your literary erotica, I have gotten idea for several stories from watching random porn clips.

Exploitation movies. Last House on the left, I spit on your grave were strong influences in my stand alone serial killer novel and my ongoing erotic horror series.

Pulps...the old 40's/50's lurid covers and true crime noir sleazy stories have an undeniable appeal to me. I remember finding some "True Detective" magazine in my aunt's house when she passed and we cleaned it out. I took them home and read all of them.

Classic rock like the Stones in their "Satanic" phase. Sympathy for the Devil, Dancing with Mr. D, Playing with Fire. Johnny Cash God will strike you down, when the man comes around

And depressing songs like Springsteen's the River, Love her by Seether, Broken by the same band, Snuff...anything slow and melancholy clicks for certain material.

All of the above will-and has when I would talk about this in my former writing group-get eyerolls, but they've been the force behind 12 years of prolific and varied writing.

Yours?

 

[Euphony]

Porn feels (hopefully) pretty standard. Obviously seek out the genre/directing style that fits your story best (warm fuzzy, female directors etc.) and build a world around it. My real struggle is not inspiration but clash. If narrative slips in the actual porn, I struggle to shake free of it to let my characters be who they tell me they want to be, not what I saw.

Music is huge. Takes a line or even a singular word that hasn't tickled the cortex in ages and I'm off and running.

Self help books. Characters should have problems and protags the skill (or desire to learn the skills) to solve them. It can be tough sailing as there is so much shovelwork out there just to sucker in the "hey I bought a book, I did something" crowd but if you find something particularly inspiring, your characters can experience growth themselves.

AI face generators sometimes are useful. Hit refresh umpteen times until some face causes you to pause and then you reflect on what about this face did so and the rose colored story you believe it might tell. Being a visual learner, having a face that I click with (and regularly not stock art level models, etc.) helps the muse channel the character's wishes to me.

 

[SimonDoom]

I enjoy all kinds of stuff. High brow, middle brow, low brow. In terms of erotica, I would say my tastes have been shaped by low brow or cheesy stuff as much as, or more than, by highbrow stuff.

My dad had a collection of Playboy magazines, and I used to steal them. That was my first exposure to erotica. My brother would steal them from me.

The 1970s were a great era for popular novels that had lots of sex parts thrown in to attract more readers. It was a great way to read sexy stuff under my parents' nose without them paying attention. Some books that come to mind that stoked my adolescent imagination with sexy passages that I read and re-read were The French Atlantic Affair, Shibumi, Salem's Lot, and Raise the Titanic. That was the first time I realized the thrill of reading about women being naked.

I never saw much porn until the era of video store rentals, and later, of course, the Internet. But porn definitely has shaped my erotica sensibilities.

The magazine Heavy Metal in the 1970s had a lot of nude content. It was all cartoon, but it was still sexy, and, again, it was a way of getting the content without my parents having any clue. They had no idea what was in it.

The early 1950s horror comic books like Tales from the Crypt are lurid and sort of cheesy but the art is so good I'm not even sure I would call them low brow. I'm sure respectable people at the time thought of them that way. They were a generation before my time but I found out about them in the 1980s when they were hardbound in a collection set, and they can be pretty sexy. Lots of sexy femme fatales, many of whom come to bad ends at the hands of various ghouls and monsters.

Teen sex movies. These were big in the 1980s, like Porky's, but the best for my money was much later, American Pie. I think that was my first acquaintance with the MILF concept (Stifler's Mom! -- the GOAT of MILFs), and that concept looms very large in my erotica to this day.

I think I see eye-to-eye with Lovecraft in this respect on this issue: if we are honest about ourselves, for many of us our erotic desires and imagination come from weird, dark places, and that's OK.

It's so different nowadays. Anybody can get online and see anything. In my day as a kid accessing erotica was a naughty and furtive, and often unsuccessful enterprise. I'm sure that's shaped the way I see things.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm not a big fan of the idea of 'high brow' and 'low brow' generally and even less the concept of what is or isn't 'art' or 'literature. It's often just an excuse for snobbery or cultural gate keeping. Still I do admit that whenever this topic comes up Ernest Hemingway is usually mentioned in the first post and it's becomes a little awkward to admit my writing style is closer to Terry Pratchett.

For example, I'd have to take issue with anyone calling Springsteen Low-brow (if the argument is that all rock is low-brow, that's still wrong but a different argument). His songs are usually a model of efficient evocative story - telling usually with a strong emotive core. 'The River' especially I'd hold up as one of the best songs written in any genre.

In terms of erotica, I find my writing is often shaped by places as much as stories or other media. The seedy heart of London's Soho is the star of the story I'm currently working on, the Yorkshire Moors have featured in another one.

 

[lovecraft68]

I enjoy all kinds of stuff. High brow, middle brow, low brow. In terms of erotica, I would say my tastes have been shaped by low brow or cheesy stuff as much as, or more than, by highbrow stuff.

My dad had a collection of Playboy magazines, and I used to steal them. That was my first exposure to erotica. My brother would steal them from me.

The 1970s were a great era for popular novels that had lots of sex parts thrown in to attract more readers. It was a great way to read sexy stuff under my parents' nose without them paying attention. Some books that come to mind that stoked my adolescent imagination with sexy passages that I read and re-read were The French Atlantic Affair, Shibumi, Salem's Lot, and Raise the Titanic. That was the first time I realized the thrill of reading about women being naked.

I never saw much porn until the era of video store rentals, and later, of course, the Internet. But porn definitely has shaped my erotica sensibilities.

The magazine Heavy Metal in the 1970s had a lot of nude content. It was all cartoon, but it was still sexy, and, again, it was a way of getting the content without my parents having any clue. They had no idea what was in it.

The early 1950s horror comic books like Tales from the Crypt are lurid and sort of cheesy but the art is so good I'm not even sure I would call them low brow. I'm sure respectable people at the time thought of them that way. They were a generation before my time but I found out about them in the 1980s when they were hardbound in a collection set, and they can be pretty sexy. Lots of sexy femme fatales, many of whom come to bad ends at the hands of various ghouls and monsters.

Teen sex movies. These were big in the 1980s, like Porky's, but the best for my money was much later, American Pie. I think that was my first acquaintance with the MILF concept (Stifler's Mom! -- the GOAT of MILFs), and that concept looms very large in my erotica to this day.

I think I see eye-to-eye with Lovecraft in this respect on this issue: if we are honest about ourselves, for many of us our erotic desires and imagination come from weird, dark places, and that's OK.

It's so different nowadays. Anybody can get online and see anything. In my day as a kid accessing erotica was a naughty and furtive, and often unsuccessful enterprise. I'm sure that's shaped the way I see things.

Vampirella had some nudity in them black and white but when you're a kid....Salem's Lot...the woman fooling around with the young kid who worked for the phone company was a good one for back then. Offseason had a hardcore rough sex scene in it(interrupted of course, but just the part in there was an eye opener.)

Although I have a silly sense of humor the frat boy flicks like Porky's never did it for me.

You're right about pre net erotica. My greatest treasure back in the early 80's was a VHS tape I found on top of the neighbor's trash with the label ripped off. I took it home and it turned out to be porn I was like jack pot!!!

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm not a big fan of the idea of 'high brow' and 'low brow' generally and even less the concept of what is or isn't 'art' or 'literature. It's often just an excuse for snobbery or cultural gate keeping. Still I do admit that whenever this topic comes up Ernest Hemingway is usually mentioned in the first post and it's becomes a little awkward to admit my writing style is closer to Terry Pratchett.

For example, I'd have to take issue with anyone calling Springsteen Low-brow (if the argument is that all rock is low-brow, that's still wrong but a different argument). His songs are usually a model of efficient evocative story - telling usually with a strong emotive core. 'The River' especially I'd hold up as one of the best songs written in any genre.

In terms of erotica, I find my writing is often shaped by places as much as stories or other media. The seedy heart of London's Soho is the star of the story I'm currently working on, the Yorkshire Moors have featured in another one.

My use of low brow is in regards to the snobs and gatekeepers you mention. I'm not pretentious in any way so I don't care what people read or consider art or literature etc...

I didn't care for Springsteen in my younger days because back in the 80's I was all in on metal and fun. Flash forward and listening to it in my early thirties after some troubled years and a divorce etc, the River took on a more significant meaning. Back to my point the "Hemingway snobs" would consider a rock song lowbrow because they have that high falutin' rep to keep up.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I'm not much for brows and tend to take a similar position in literature to Kurt Weil's in music: "there are only two kinds of music, good and bad." It is interesting to note, though, that . . .

"Classic rock like the Stones in their "Satanic" phase. Sympathy for the Devil . . ."

"Sympathy for the Devil" was inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," a work generally considered high brow for its philosophical and politically satirical bent.

 

[lovecraft68]

"Classic rock like the Stones in their "Satanic" phase. Sympathy for the Devil . . ."

"Sympathy for the Devil" was inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," a work generally considered high brow for its philosophical and politically satirical bent.

You failed to quote where I stated "Unless it was hellish" I've read M&M because its was "Faustian". But if Mcdonalds makes prime rib....so I doubt many consider Jagger's song to be a literary masterpiece because its somewhat based on a classic work.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

You failed to quote where I stated "Unless it was hellish" I've read M&M because its was "Faustian". But if Mcdonalds makes prime rib....so I doubt many consider Jagger's song to be a literary masterpiece because its somewhat based on a classic work.

No, I was simply pointing out that "low brow" works may have "high brow" inspiration. And vice-versa, of course. That's part of why I don't equate quality with brow-ness in literature, in music, in art, in cuisine. Btw, does McDo make prime rib where you are?

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Often times when the word influences come up people wax on about Hemingway and all manner of literary greats and classics. I am admittedly low brow when it comes to these things. Short of things like Paradise Lost and Inferno and anything that deals with hellish visions or any form of horror, I'm not a fan of the all time greats.

I can't be alone in this so here's a few things that have inspired my writing that many literary snobs would roll their eyes at.

Marvel Comics from the 60's to 70's. Lee at his finest when it comes to wise cracks and come backs and Kirby's great action packed fight scenes (yes,, folks there was a time when comics were for kids and not preachy pretentious BS)

The Destroyer/Mack Bolan The Executioner. Two series low on plot low on 'literature' but high on fights, weapons, violence, and in the case of Destroyer some pretty kinky sex for a mainstream series.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Good to see another Destroyer fan out there.

"His name was Remo, and he was going to kill Santa Claus if it was the last thing he ever did."

I have lots of influences that might be considered low-brow, comparatively. John Wayne movies, Doc Savage novels (one of my characters, Mike, modelled himself from a young age on Doc Savage's Creed), H.P. Lovecraft (timeless as his horror might be), Marx Bros movies, heavy metal and 70's rock, classic anime, some comics, grindhouse movies... Hell, Saturday morning cartoons.

Given that my all-time favourite short cartoon is 'The Solid Tin Coyote' from 1967, I don't have to dig too hard.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I take inspiration from the Carl Barks style of Disney comics. A solid adventure story even if the premise is fantastical.

Oh, and Conan Doyle, Asimov, Pratchett... And many more.

 

[RejectReality]

At least two of mine have come from Memes. You don't get much more low brow than that.

Becalmed

You Serious?

 

[Comshaw]

I'm not much partial to horror. I've had too much stuff happen in my life to want to fantasize about horror.

But comic books, oh hell yes. My friends parents would buy him comic books a couple of times a week. I remember sitting in his attic and reading the very first issue of the Fantastic Four or a new adventure from DC of the Batman. For me it was fabulous.

I read a lot of Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. Jack London's "To Build a Fire" is still one of my favorite stories. And “Captains Courageous” from Kipling is one of my favorite novels. I don't consider those two authors "high brow". Their stories are gritty and real, okay some of Kipling's are and most of London's. But I don't see them in the same light as say James Joyce, mainly because Joyce's work is high brow enough I can't work my way through it.

Then I found science fiction. Back in the 50s and 60s sci-fi was looked down on. But those stories from Bradberry, Heinlein, Norton and others set my brain on fire and sent my off on a quest for more. Barnes, La Guin, Asimov, Herbert, Haldeman, Pournelle, McCaffrey, Rowley, Clarke, Zelazny, Vonnegut, those are some of the names I'm familiar with a who's work I follow. The ones who by reading their works have taught me much, about stories and what might be out there.

There were others that influenced me, George Morell's "Dark Sea Running" And Donald Honig's "Walk Like A Man" is still stuck in my head from 60 years ago.

When it comes to music, I don't listen to one genre. If you sampled my MP3 player you might hit AC DC doing "It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll" and the next selection might be "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" or "Cottoneye Joe" followed by Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" or the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” or PMJ's rendition of "It's all about the Bass" or the theme from the movie "The Sundowners" or Carlo's Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" or "Centerfield" by John Fogerty. In other words my taste in music is eclectic. I listen to a wide spectrum.

As an aside on the music comment, I also ride a motorcycle. I have for the last 55 years. When I need to soothe my soul, when life is kicking me in the ass I combine those two things. I set a course, put on my tunes and ride. The sounds of the road, the vibration of the engine, the wind, the smells coupled with the music and the fact I am all on my own, alone, to me is magical. I always find I'm calmer, ready to face what ever awaits me on my return. And some of my best story lines have found their way into my mind while I'm riding.

Comshaw

 

[Kumquatqueen]

(adds Master & Margarita to reading list)

Lots of books when I was young - Sidney Sheldon with detailed descriptions of masturbating using a shower head, Virginia Andrews, Heinlein, also Arthur Hailey, actually. Jilly Cooper. Some Page 3 girls (the top tabloid newspapers had topless photos) but not really any visual porn until very recently.

It was easier to find actual people fucking than to find decent porn showing them doing it - I think all such clubs, most purporting to be non-sex clubs that just happened to turn blind eyes, count as lowbrow!

Growing up, the gay pubs were fine with underage female drinkers and friendly, but the ladies toilets involved squeezing between guys fucking to reach a cubicle, hopefully minus anyone being fucked in it. Men being sexual yet not groping or harassing a teenage girl? Very interesting indeed.

TV inspiration - Xena, Buffy, This Life, Farscape, more recently The Magicians. And the Daniel Craig vodka ad. I don't know if anyone's bought more of the vodka recently, but the Bond/Craig fanfic scene sure exploded...

Most of my inspiration has been real people and images. The view of a guy onstage when your head is at the level of their feet so you get the upwards view of his thighs in tight jeans (hi, Bruce Dickinson!) Iron Maiden lyrics with all their imagery shouldn't be called lowbrow, either. Nor Skid Row, though the pretty Seb Bach we could also call inspiring.

A woman's cleavage when wearing a corset. Fuck it, a woman's cleavage when not wearing a corset! Sometimes I look at porn to help confirm what X can see of Y when X is lying down and Y is in a certain position...

Recently, an ad came up for a cock cage - not at all interesting to me. The view of the guy's balls and thighs thus exposed, without an enlarged cock in the way? Ended up writing a story about that...

 

[PennameWombat]

My reading influences haven’t really changed much from my youth… Science fiction very definitely. Plenty of the Golden Age authors - Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and plenty of not-quite-so-famous as Hal Clement, Lewis Padgett and others. But after LoTR (and the excellent ”Bored of the Rings”), I’ve always had trouble getting into fantasy. Failures to get past a couple of chapters into works like “Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever“ by Donaldson, “Sword of Shannara” by Brooks, and Anthony’s ”Xanth” books left me cold on fantasy and little more recent stuff has appealed to me to even try. Scott Sigler, China Mieville, Iain M. Banks and Neal Stephenson are current authors I like.

But ‘Literature’? Updike? Unreadable. Salinger? Same. And so on. The ‘classics’? Same. Unreadable.

But my favorite book in junior high was a history of disease book called “Microbe Hunters.” Recently read and loved “Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus,” by Bill Wasik, “The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator,” by Timothy C. Winegard and “Parasite Rex,” by Carl Zimmer. Parasites play somewhat important roles in some of my stories.

Almost everything I know about classical music, little though it may be, I learned from Warner Brothers cartoons. And, from ”Clockwork Orange,” the glorious, glorious Ninth.

My musical tastes are essentially frozen in the last four decades of the twentieth century. But I owned “Exile on Coldharbour Lane” before the ’Sopranos’ made one tune from that CD somewhat famous. I didn’t mind a bit of heavy or Norwegian black metal, but I was a progressive rock fan (Yes, King Crimson) and alternative rock (Joy Division, The Cure, etc.) But two of my favorite concerts, one was a triple bill of The Nig Heist, Meat Puppets and Black Flag, and the other was X. In the latter I was in the mosh pit and a stage diver landed on a group behind me, as I partially turned his flailing hand poked me in the eye and pulled my contact lens out. I managed to get a good kick to his ribs when he was dropped to the floor. Amazingly, after the show my buddy and I went back in and… we found it on the concrete floor. Well, we found two-thirds of it. In the early 1990s I played a soccer game against members and friends of Deep Purple, when they were in Woodstock, NY, recording an album and ‘asked for a game.’ I played soccer alongside Graham Parker. I’ll name drop Jandek.

While I detested and detest most country music, I have a soft spot for… the real old stuff along with old blues and folk. Robert Johnson… Jimmie Rodgers… Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash. I highly recommend visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum if you’re ever in Nashville, Tennessee.

But I’m not entirely sure how all of this feeds into my writing. I don’t intentionally try to emulate any other author. I do include music in some stories, and it’s been quite important in a couple, but I don’t listen to music to write. It’s more the milieu around say, concerts, etc., that I try to mine for settings. No specific ones (the ones I mentioned above might have certain elements make it into a story or stories but haven’t yet.) Sports and my various study subjects play more important roles in my settings and characters.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Like many of you I binged on comics when I was a kid.

My mother read mysteries and thrillers mostly, so when I was a teenager I began to read those. John D MacDonald’s Travis McGee books were a favorite of mine, and I’d say they’re lowbrow. His titles were awesome: The Deep Blue Goodbye, Nightmare in Pink, A Purple Place for Dying, Bright Orange for the Shroud, The Lonely Silver Rain, etc.

And like James Bond, Travis McGee always got the girl. The erotic-ish scenes in the books were one of the reasons I liked them so much.

 

[MajorRewrite]

When I worked in a bookstore, there were series aimed at girls that flew off the shelves. Sweet Valley High and Baby-Sitters Club are two of the series I remember, with dozens of books in each. I wonder if they had an impact on girls like comics did on boys?

 

[Blind_Justice]

My reading habits were formed by the books I nicked from my dad's bookshelf. I went by cover artwork instead of author name at first and thanks to the generous amounts of swords, spaceships and naked tits which used to adorn the classics, I quickly found stuff I liked - 90% of which was pulpy sword'n'sorcery or sci-fi. The remaining 10% were Lustbader's ninja worship books

The only highbrow influence in my writing, even if it's not readily apparent, is H.P. Lovecraft. I admire the way he uses words to create a thick, palpable atmosphere and try to emulate it when it fits.

 

[lovecraft68]

Good to see another Destroyer fan out there.

"His name was Remo, and he was going to kill Santa Claus if it was the last thing he ever did."

I have lots of influences that might be considered low-brow, comparatively. John Wayne movies, Doc Savage novels (one of my characters, Mike, modelled himself from a young age on Doc Savage's Creed), H.P. Lovecraft (timeless as his horror might be), Marx Bros movies, heavy metal and 70's rock, classic anime, some comics, grindhouse movies... Hell, Saturday morning cartoons.

Given that my all-time favourite short cartoon is 'The Solid Tin Coyote' from 1967, I don't have to dig too hard.

Funny you mention HPL because although over years he has been elevated to a master of horror and father of cosmic horror, back in the day he could barely get published in the pulps and was looked down on.

I have a bunch of Doc Savage paperbacks, haven't read them in years, but one of my favs as a teen.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Funny you mention HPL because although over years he has been elevated to a master of horror and father of cosmic horror, back in the day he could barely get published in the pulps and was looked down on.

I have a bunch of Doc Savage paperbacks, haven't read them in years, but one of my favs as a teen.

Oh, he is unquestionably the master of horror, no argument here. I just don't know if he's considered high-brow reading. You can be the god-empress of romance novels and the most popular romance author in history, but that doesn't make your works high-brow.

Lovecraft is by FAR my favourite horror author. Well, Poe is a close second, but nobody else comes close. My two fave stories are The Statement of Randolph Carter, and At The Mountains of Madness. If del Toro ever decides he's going to make a movie of the latter, I will burn orphanages down to make sure I'm involved...

 

[lovecraft68]

Oh, he is unquestionably the master of horror, no argument here. I just don't know if he's considered high-brow reading. You can be the god-empress of romance novels and the most popular romance author in history, but that doesn't make your works high-brow.

Lovecraft is by FAR my favourite horror author. Well, Poe is a close second, but nobody else comes close. My two fave stories are The Statement of Randolph Carter, and At The Mountains of Madness. If del Toro ever decides he's going to make a movie of the latter, I will burn orphanages down to make sure I'm involved...

Rats in the walls is my favorite(dubious cat name aside) The issue with adapting Mountains of Madness is nothing really happens so they'd have to embellish. I used to thing only Del Toro could handle it, but I find myself wanting to see Robert Eggers take a shot at HPL.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Rats in the walls is my favorite(dubious cat name aside) The issue with adapting Mountains of Madness is nothing really happens so they'd have to embellish. I used to thing only Del Toro could handle it, but I find myself wanting to see Robert Eggers take a shot at HPL.

Mountains would have to be on a vast, sweeping scale, and it wouldn't be to everyone's taste, certainly. Embellishing things is acceptable, as long as he doesn't suddenly channel Peter Jackson pee all over the story.

<----- might hate Peter Jackson

 

[AlexBailey]

A lot of my early kinks were inspired or influenced by comic book characters.

Vampirella was a big one!

 

[lovecraft68]

A lot of my early kinks were inspired or influenced by comic book characters.

Vampirella was a big one!

Vampirella was the original, but in the 90's Lady Death was the inspiration of that generation along with Witchblade and many others.

As far as mainstream comic characters I'm not one that go into fantasies over them-although judging by the amount of superhero parody porn I'm in the minority-however there was a cover of Teen Titans in the 80's where Starfire is chained and being tortured by her sister Blackfire that did a lot of strange things for me.

 

[AlexBailey]

Vampirella was the original, but in the 90's Lady Death was the inspiration of that generation along with Witchblade and many others.

As far as mainstream comic characters I'm not one that go into fantasies over them-although judging by the amount of superhero parody porn I'm in the minority-however there was a cover of Teen Titans in the 80's where Starfire is chained and being tortured by her sister Blackfire that did a lot of strange things for me.

Ooh, don’t get me started on the Titans… Raven and Starfire?

I was a futa Raven for Halloween once.