poll: influences?

[NoJo]

I love "The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth. It was very influential on me. There's a hilarious fifteen page section comprised entirely of an exchange of insults between a two prostitutes.

Everyone from Maryland should read it.

Here's a NY Times review from 1960, when it was first published.

 

[Boota]

In a book review I was compared to Lawrence Block and Donald E. Westlake. I just started reading my first Westlake book, and I don't see it. I've never read anything by Block. Most readers who have written to me compare me to Kurt Vonnegut or Hunter S. Thompson. I don't really see that, either. The authors I read constantly are Christopher Moore and Stephen King, and I can admit that I get a lot of my mechanics from them. I read King's On Writing and adopted a lot of his techniques. And I love his depth of character. I talk to Chris Moore online a lot and he's given me some excellent advice, too.

Still, I would have to say the biggest influences in my writing is Porky's Caddyshack, Revenge of the Nerds, Motley Crue, drunken pitfighting, strip clubs, getting in trouble with the police, suicidal thoughts, loud guitars and tons of bad attitude with nowhere to go. That's my writing in a nutshell.

(I think that's going in the bio of the next book. LOL. )

 

[Svenskaflicka]

After all the Blakes and Keats and Shelleys and Faulkners you guys have listed, I feel almost embarrassed to say

Terry Pratchett
Maria Lang
Margit Sandemo.

 

[Guest]

O Henry's ironies. Heinlein's dialogue and characters. Piers Anthony's twisted sense of humor.

The rest? Who knows.

 

[silverwhisper]

svenskaflicka: don't worry about it. this wasn't intended as an exercise in "more literate than thou". it was an honest question seeking honest answers. so i claim blake as an influence. big fat deal! that's certainly no guarantee as to the quality of our respective writings, is it? hell no!

ed

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Well, to be honest, I didn't know that Blake Carrington even wrote books.

 

[thebullet]

I suppose I was influenced a bit by Robert A Heinlein.

I have tried to emulate JD Salinger in the past. One time in English class in HS we were supposed to write a paper. I wrote mine in the exact style of Salinger (I had just finished Catcher in the Rye for the first time). - well, at least I thought it was in Salinger's style. My English teacher read the story in class, then asked the class: "Who wrote this story?" I eagerly anticipated hearing Salinger's name. Instead to a man the entire class yelled "thebullet!!!" - or whatever the hell name I went by back then.

Needless to say, I was devistated.

SO I guess I write my own style. It just sounds like other people to me.

 

[shereads]

Joan Didion gave me the idea of ending sentences with these small, plain dots. Her use of semi-colons in "A Book of Common Prayer" changed my life.

 

[silverwhisper]

svenskaflicka: bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

ed

 

[Extreme Bohunk]

Stan Lee & John Romita,
Ellery Queen's mystery digest,
and some sci-fi digests my Aunt used to send me when
I was a kid.