poll: influences?

[silverwhisper]

a question and my apologies if it's been done recently: what authors or works would you say most strongly influenced your writing style?

ed

 

[BlackShanglan]

All are more what shape the way I would like to write than necessarily the way I do; when I approach any one of them, I am happiest.

Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, The Tain, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, W. H. Auden, William Wordworth, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Robert Browning, Seamus Heaney, The Dead Milkmen.

 

[silverwhisper]

the tain? so sorry...?

myself, i prefer to think that i am most influenced by blake, coleridge and salinger.

ed

 

[BlackShanglan]

Good choices all ... really, if you trace back Wilde, Yeats, and even Eliot, you come up with Blake on the other end. He had a profound influence that really proved his vision.

The Tain is a collection of verse and prose extant in multiple conflicting manuscript forms, on the whole forming the story of the Tain Bo Cuailgne, an ancient Irish epic dating (in various parts) to the 6th-8th centuries.

 

[silverwhisper]

i completely agree about the giants you mentioned ultimately being indebted to blake's earlier work: heaven knows eliot was almost certainly quite consciously aware of it, having been one of the first new critics himself IIRC.

although i'm less certain re: the dead milkmen... :>

i was completely unfamiliar w/ the existence of that body of work. is it the basis for our understanding of celtic lore now, then, does it inform that understanding?

ed

 

[BlackShanglan]

i

although i'm less certain re: the dead milkmen... :>

A great old Philly band with a wonderful sense of surreal humor to their lyrics.

i was completely unfamiliar w/ the existence of that body of work. is it the basis for our understanding of celtic lore now, then, does it inform that understanding?

I wouldn't go that far. There are actually mountains of manuscript materials informing the best conceptions of the early Celtic society. Many of them are not works of legend or fiction but legal documents or histories of key events (although the borders blur at times). Still, it's great reading and filled with powerful events described with, as Yeats puts it, "that simplicity which is force."

 

[Samandiriel]

Blake is great for a man with bad hair...but not as fun as Swift....loved A Modest Proposal, today he would be touted as being non-PC....

I love Amy Tan, Pearl Buck, Margaret Atwood........Eliot makes me sigh.....Austen over Bronte.......Dickenson in all her gloominess.

Tama Janowitz too.

King and Barker for horror.

Colleen Thomas for gratification.

 

[FantasiaRealms]

For me, it would depend, somewhat on the genre of writing to which I could say I owe my style thus influenced, I think. For instance, in terms of dark..that is more melancholy/shadow writing, I suppose I would have to say EA Poe would top that list. He and Emily Dickenson, but perhaps she especially for her more familiar insight to sadness than to the fact simply that we are both females. When speaking, however of those things considered erotic, most of that comes from me, I think; my mind, my experiences, and the way in which I file information for future reference. However, I might consider a few to mention as infulences in this genre as well...such as John Norman for his personal prologoues in his works, to explain the true roles of men and women, and Jack Chalker for his take on the fantasy aspect of relationships in general. Somewhere in the middle of all that lies a bit of Chas. Bukowski who without I would not have a dark muse of modernistic thinking. For Poe and Dickenson surely fit the bill, when considering shadows...but what in this day and age one might DO in such darkness...Bukowski leaves great maps to find those treasures, I think. In closing, I realise I would be remiss not to mention the perfect reason I write, and the perfect 360 degrees of my character, when it comes to writing just about anything. Therefore the single greatest influence upon my own personal style/inks as a writer, I would have to say, it none other than the great Theodor Seuss Geisel (otherwise known as 'Dr. Seuss") His perfect blend of beauty and the beast, by way of fantasy, presented not for interpretation, but simply 'because that is how it is in his world' has always sustained me to consider, no matter the genre, no matter the words themselves...I am a writer, and if I am read at all...it is my world people will find themselves within. There is a power in that, I think...

~Fantasia

 

[gauchecritic]

I have been told, on various occasions, by various people that my writing approaches artists such as Thomas, Hardy and Joyce.

I am delighted to report that I have never, (except for the python sketch which includes the very beginning of "Return of the native") I have never read any of those authors or their work.

Asimov, Bradbury, Pratchett, Lem, Gash, Niven: I wish.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Nice lists, Gauche. You reminded me, too, that the comparisons I'd gotten - Thomas as well, and Fielding - are authors with whom I am relatively unfamiliar. Strange thing.

 

[NoJo]

The writers who most strongly influenced my style aren't my necessarily my favorite writers. But here goes:

Robert Sheckley -- Woody Allen meets Monty Python
John Sladek -- Voltaire meets Swift
Robert Coover

All of them were part of the American new wave in the 1960s, but Sheckley and Sladek were originally science fiction writers.

Jenny Diski -- her surreal book "The Monkey's Uncle" was the funniest story about a mental breakdown I've ever read.

 

[BlackShanglan]

The writers who most strongly influenced my style aren't my necessarily my favorite writers. But here goes:

Robert Sheckley -- Woody Allen meets Monty Python
John Sladek -- Voltaire meets Swift
Robert Coover

All of them were part of the American new wave in the 1960s, but Sheckley and Sladek were originally science fiction writers.

Jenny Diski -- her surreal book "The Monkey's Uncle" was the funniest story about a mental breakdown I've ever read.

Sounds like a "must read" list.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I think King was the most obvious influence. Focus on character and realism. *ahem* Literary Elephantitis.

Faulkner has laid some shadows over my style as well. My willingness to go into run-on sentences, as though they aren't a sin. He tended to be somewhat character-focused as well, though I haven't read enough of his work to say the aforementioned statement is properly interpretted (and it's beena while since I've read him).

Believe it or not, a lot of musical lyrics have struck home, though i think the ideas that urge my character forward ar emore affected by this than my actual style.

Mary Shelley; though only at time. Also the run-on deal, but in an overly pedantic way.

Q_C

 

[TheEarl]

I have been told, on various occasions, by various people that my writing approaches artists such as Thomas, Hardy and Joyce.

I am delighted to report that I have never, (except for the python sketch which includes the very beginning of "Return of the native") I have never read any of those authors or their work.

Asimov, Bradbury, Pratchett, Lem, Gash, Niven: I wish.

Being compared to Hardy is not a compliment!

In my case, I'd have to say King simply for On Writing - the book that set me off and going properly. In terms of actual style, I'm going to have to be boring and give my usual answer of Christopher Brookmyre. I dream of being as funny and as good a storyteller as him.

The Earl

 

[cantdog]

I long to approach Wodehouse, and I think of him when I feel the stir of humor under me.

 

[hmmnmm]

Gibbon's Decline and Fall was an influence.
One of many bad ones.

 

[rgraham666]

Other people will have to tell me.

I'm too wrapped up in my work to recognise my influences.

 

[yui]

Gibbon's Decline and Fall was an influence.
One of many bad ones.

At least your bad influences look impressive.

I'm not sure my writing reflects a specific influence. I could list writers that I would emulate, but I certainly can't judge my success (or lack of).

 

[SeaCat]

I will have to be utterly boring here but I can't think of any writer whos style I have tried to emulate, nor have I ever been compared to another author. I believe my style varies from story to story and depends entirely on the story itself. Who knows though, maybe someone did influence me.

Cat

 

[elsol]

Andrew Vachss
Milton
Shakespeare
Hemingway

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Dar~]

I don't know who my writing emulates/immitates. I have never been told I sound like anyone.

 

[minsue]

The Dead Milkmen.

First Scarlett lists one of my favorite Cracker songs in the lyrics thread and now this. I love this place more and more.

 

[shereads]

My run-on sentences are an homage to James Thurber.

No, that's a lie. Thurber did it on purpose. I just type too fast. If I didn't slow down for the speed bumps, I'd never punctuate at all.

 

[Guest]

hrm...
margaret mitchell meets linda lovelace meets jon stewart in a literary milkshake toped with a vella cherry and a dash of shakespeare topping.
or sumphin like that.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't know. There are plenty of writers who I wish were influential on me, but I don't know if I really write like them.

I'd list Kerouac for lyricism and inventiveness, Raymond Chandler for concision and atmosphere, Patrick O'Brian for richness of plot and character, maybe Faulkner for having that author's voice rumbling in the background like an idling motorcycle engine. Isaac B Singer for story-telling, a talent I don't think I'll ever master.

The one story I've studied more than any other is Joyce's The Dead.

I'm afraid the authors who've really had the most influence on my writing are the series of B-list sci-fi and fantasy authors I used to read as a kid: Murray Leinster, A.E. Van Vogt, Asimov, Simak, Sturgeon, Knight, etc. Bradbury and Beaumont, certainly.