MEME: 25 Influential Writers
I found this interesting meme and thought I would give it a shot. The object is to list twenty-five writers who have influenced you in some way. Everyone who wants to do this is tagged (and feel free to leave me a link in the comments, as I’d like to see your choices). Here goes (in no particular order):1. Philip K. DickHe may be the one writer who has had the most influence on me. His novels, short stories, and non-fiction have influenced not only my writing, but also my academic interests. PKD is, to put it simply, the man. I owe him a lot as far as my future career is concerned. If it wasn’t for him and Tananarive Due I don’t think I would be interested in the human in science fiction. 2. Tobias S. BuckellMr. Buckell has brought back that adventurous side in my writing interests, which is a good thing. Nothing wrong with a bit of adventure and badassery. 3. Salman RushdieI’m not actually a fan of Rushdie’s writing, or him as a person (I think he’s a tad too pretentious for my tastes). Still, his writing has had a tremendous influence on my style and he has opened a few doors academically, particularly into issues of history within literature (historical continuity, the consumption of history, and the fragmentation of history). So, while I may not read any more of his work unless I have to, I can at least say he has had discernible influence on me as a writer and as a student and future scholar. 4-5. George Orwell and Yevgeny ZamyatinI would say that Orwell single-handedly got me into science fiction. He was sort of the beginning for me. I love dystopian fiction as a result. Much like George Orwell, Zamyatin has strengthened by interest in dystopian fiction. He was an early influence to Orwell, so it’s understandable that I like him as well. 6. Richard A. KnaakOne of the first adult fantasy writers I ever read. He was one of the folks that first got me into writing, particularly fantasy, and, well, not much more can be said about that. I still like his books to this day and still remember how his works started getting me interested in reading for fun. 7. William HorwoodOne of the reasons I still love reading is because of Horwood. His Duncton Wood books were fascinating and stunning fantasy stories unlike any other. You should read his book too; his work is probably as original as you can get in the fantasy genre, considering that none of his characters are human. 8. Poul AndersonOne of the few folks who made me a lover of science fiction. “Call Me Joe” is probably the first science fiction story that I fell in love with. I’ve since resolved myself to collect all his books, because I want an entire Poul Anderson library! 9. J. R. R. TolkienI don’t think this one needs any explanation, to be honest. 10. Robert J. SawyerWhile not an influence because of his fiction writing, Sawyer has, through his discussions of science fiction and his relative popularity, offered a lot of hope in the field of science fiction. I’ve been inspired by a lot of what he has said about the genre and hope he will continue to be as popular as he is today. 11-14. Maurice G. Dantec, Richard Calder, Thomas Pynchon, and Brian Francis SlatteryThese folks are all relatively recent influences on me. Calder has primarily had influence on my writing style and content. I’ve become a bit more daring in both, taking up more “controversial” subject matter in some of my stories and altering my prose to be more, well, “literary” (in a good way, I hope). Dantec has had a similar influence.As for Pynchon, well I’m not an enormous Pynchon fan, but I have to admit that his writing style, along with several others mentioned here, has made me rethink how I write. The same can be said for Mr. Slattery, who wrote a fantastic novel called Spaceman Blues. 15-17. Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, and Orson Scott CardAs one of those big idea science fiction writers, Asimov has helped secure my interests in science fiction. Foundation was an incredible book.Gibson is, well, the unintentional creator of cyberpunk, which should be enough for anyone who has read more of my recent science fiction.Card has been instrumental in fostering my desire to be a professional writer. Not only have I enjoyed many of his books, but his book on writing was, for a long time, my Bible. I’m not sure if I would still be writing today if not for OSC. 18-20. Elizabeth Bear, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tananarive DueAll three of these authors have had an impact on my academic interests through their portrayals of the Other in their work. I’ve even written a few papers of one of Due’s short stories and I hope to do the same for Bear and Hopkinson in the future. 21-25. Karen Miller, James Clemens, Diane Duane, and Obert SkyeThese are some of the best fantasy writers I’ve read. Miller and Clemens have both inspired me as a writer and lover of fantasy, reminding me what good epic fantasy can be (The Innocent/Awakened Mage and Shadowfall are still some of my favorites today). Duane and Skye have kept me fascinated with YA fantasy and have inspired me to write my own series (well, two of them actually, one called The World in the Satin Bag and the other called The Mysterious House of Mr. Whim and the House of (Un)Desirables). 25. Dipesh Chakrabarty, Darko Suvin, Samuel R. Delany, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (and a lot of others)I’m putting these all in one primarily because they all have written on similar subjects (or at least subjects I am interested in) and have influenced me academically. Without these writers I don’t think I would have developed much in my academic career and I certainly wouldn’t
SF/F Links: Another Pre-May Batch
I just keep finding nifty stuff to let you all know about. Hope you find some of these interesting: I give you Zombie Kids. I love this image. For those of you writing superhero fiction/comics, you might want to check out this detailed questionnaire. Might be a good place to start with developing a superhero or supervillian who is three dimensional. Remember that post not too long ago about current events and reader preferences? Well, I was right about a few things, like how escapist fiction gets a rise in not-so-good times. Natania Barron has an interesting article on the other in fantasy literature. It’s short, but interesting nonetheless. Futurismic highlights some of the insanely Orwellian things happening in the U.K. right now. You’ll be surprised the things they’re doing. You think we have it bad? They’re closer to Fascism than we’ve ever been. I may be ranting about this in the near future. Here’s an interesting cyberpunk reading list. Might be worth checking out if you’re into that genre or are curious about it. (Thanks to SF Signal) Book Giveaways Today’s Adventure has a copy of Bloody Jack by L. A. Meyer to give away.
SF/F Links: Pre-May Batch
Here are a few more links. Enjoy: Nothing Sacred writes an interesting post about Lord of the Rings as a science fiction tale. I don’t agree that it actually is science fiction, but the points he makes about why LOTR is important from an science fictional view certainly have merit. The Torch Online has a really cool list of the ten coolest moments in fantasy. What do you think are some of the coolest moments in fantasy? Top Cultured has pictures of some really unique bookshelves. I have no idea how useful a bookshelf shaped like a map of the U.S. will be, but it’s still cool. At risk of being hounded by Twilight fans, I must link to this list of reasons why Twilight sucks (it’s funny, give me a break). How about a literary rap of Macbeth? See, now this is entertaining: merging pop culture with plays written by dead white guys. Lastly, I give you steampunk Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter vs. the Punisher. Need I say more? Oh, and a giveaway: Blood of the Muse has a copy of the Perfect Dark comic to give away. Thanks!
SF/F Links: Some More April Goodies
I have a few more links for you all, including some book reviews. Here goes: Self-Published Reviews has a discussion of self-publishing that isn’t exactly rosy. WebEcoist has a list of 12 dystopian science fiction films you should all check out. There are a few in there I’ve never heard of, but now want to see. David Steffen asks: What is “literary?” He makes some great points worth considering. ShareWorlds (a world-building workshop for teenagers) is back for 2009. Mary Robinette Kowal has a top ten list of evil queens. It’s a bit old, but still cool. The Plenty Principle asks if science fiction is finished as a genre (from a reader’s perspective). OnlineColleges.net has an interesting list of fifteen of the strangest college courses in America. Some of these courses really are completely pointless, but a handful I’d take in a heartbeat, because they sound fascinating! And some book giveaways: J. Kaye’s Book Blog has a copy of Once Bitten by Kalayna Price to giveaway. She also has a copy of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams to toss out there. Reviewer X has a copy of Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon to giveaway. And there you go. Enjoy!
A Fun Fantasy Quiz
(Found over at Fantasy Book Reviews) 1) Lord of the Rings: Movies or books?In all honesty, I prefer the movies. I respect the books for what they are, but I hate reading them. The movies managed to take an exceedingly dull story and bring it to life. I’ll always take the movies over the books. 2) Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms?Dragonlance. I never got into the Forgotten Realms stuff. 3) Online bookstores or physical (local) bookstores?Depends on the situation. If I’m buying books for school, I’ll use Amazon. If I’m buying books for myself, I prefer physical stores because I get to actually touch the books and see them in real life. You can learn a lot about a book by actually touching it with your fingers (or smelling it). 4) Hardcover or paperback?This depends too. I prefer hardback to trade paperback, primarily because the latter has a tendency to end up bent or in shoddy shape. But I prefer mass market paperback to hardback because I can get three mass markets for the price of one hardback. Seems logical, right? 5) Secondary World or Real World?Hmm. Now this is a hard one. I don’t think I can properly answer this. Are science fiction worlds representative of the real world? Or are they secondary? Or neither? If neither, then I’d have to say I prefer secondary worlds, even though I do happen to enjoy a lot of contemporary fantasy that takes place in our own world. If the real world is meant to be science fiction, then I prefer that to the other. It’s a bit of a dilemma. Well, there you go! Feel free to answer the questions in the comments or turn this into a meme and write a blog post!
Meme: The Guardian List of Best SF/F
Peggy over at Biology in Science Fiction brought to my attention this meme of the Guardian’s list of 149 best science fiction and fantasy novels. Being the good little bookworm, I decided to join in on the fun: 1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)5. Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)6. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)7. J.G. Ballard: The Drowned World (1962)8. J.G. Ballard: Crash (1973)9. J.G. Ballard: Millennium People (2003)10. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)11. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)12. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)13. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)14. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)15. Greg Bear: Darwin’s Radio (1999)16. William Beckford: Vathek (1786)17. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)18. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)19. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)20. Charles Brockden Brown: Wieland (1798)21. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)22. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)23. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)24. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)25. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)26. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)27. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)28. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)29. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)30. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)31. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)32. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)33. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)34. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)35. Angela Carter: The Passion of New Eve (1977)36. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)37. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood’s End (1953)38. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)39. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)40. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)41. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)42. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)43. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)44. Samuel R Delany: The Einstein Intersection (1967)45. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)46. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)47. Thomas M Disch: Camp Concentration (1968)48. Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum (1988)49. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)50. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)51. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)52. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)53. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)54. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)55. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)56. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)57. M John Harrison: Light (2002)58. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables (1851)59. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)60. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)61. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)62. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)63. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)64. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)65. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)66. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)67. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)68. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)69. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)70. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)71. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)72. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)73. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)74. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)75. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)76. CS Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56) (not all of them)77. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)78. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)79. Ursula K Le Guin: The Earthsea series (1968-1990)80. Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)81. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)82. MG Lewis: The Monk (1796)83. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)84. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)85. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)86. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)87. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)88. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)89. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)90. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)91. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)92. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)93. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)94. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)95. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)96. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)97. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)98. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)99. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)100. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)101. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)102. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)103. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993) (part of it)104. Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)105. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)106. George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four (1949)107. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)108. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)109. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)110. Frederik Pohl & CM Kornbluth: The Space Merchants (1953)111. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)112. Terry Pratchett: The Discworld series (1983- ) (A few of them)113. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)114. Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials (1995-2000)115. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)116. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)117. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)118. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)119. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)120. Geoff Ryman: Air (2005)121. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)122. Joanna Russ: The Female Man (1975)123. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)124. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)125. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)126. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)127. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)128. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)129. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)130. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)131. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)132. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)133. JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit (1937)134. JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)135. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court (1889)136. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)137. Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto (1764)138. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)139. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)140. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)141. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)142. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)143. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)144. Angus Wilson: The Old Men at the Zoo (1961)145. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)146. Virginia Woolf: Orlando (1928)147. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)148. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)149. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924) And another list where I did poorly! Twenty novels from this list (well, twenty three if you count