Comments on: Culture of Influence

By: Dustin

Dustin — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:34:35 +0000

I’m a little late to the conversation here, forgive me! As a college instructor, every semester I grapple with at least one or two students who insist thatmy insistence that they use stuff like grammar and paragraphs is an unfair imposition of my values on them. That’s the ultimate rejection of influence — they don’t even want to be influenced by the language itself! And of course, they all think they’re Jack Kerouac (though they mostly don’t *read* Kerouac, because it might influence them) and bristle at the suggestion that a round of revision might be in order.

I’m not saying this because I need more outlets to complain about “kids today” (though who can resist?). The point is, these students fancy themselves writers. Maybe every generation has a crop of “anti-influence” writers. The upside is, they fall out of the writing gene pool pretty quickly — it’s hard to find an established writer who doesn’t read and who doesn’t strongly recommend reading as the key to good writing. So somewhere between failing writing-intensive college classes and publication, the anti-influentsia either withdraw themselves from the writing world (or are withdraawn) or catch on that maybe reading a book or two might be useful. The downside is the incredible hardship and disappointment these would-be writers set themselves up for. You can’t help but feel a little sorry for them — especially as their hard-headedness means they’re depriving themselves of all the literary world has to offer.

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By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:04:53 +0000

That’s a bit like a composer not listening to other composers’ works! It all adds to the richness of the repertoire.

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By: Sophie Masson

Sophie Masson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:22:34 +0000

Thank you all for the great comments..It’s a real worry, isn’t it, when writers, or people who’d like to be writers, seem to think that writing itself just emerges from a vaccuum–or at least just from one blank slate mind, as if that’s possible. After all, writing isn’t just about self-expression but also in my view being part of the great continuity of story throughout the ages..the rich texture of it. I wonder if people are more anxious about ”influence” in literature than any other branch of the arts–after all, for example, you rarely hear musicians say they are not influenced by anyone and listen to no music other than their own!

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By: Cath

Cath — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:41:02 +0000

I feel the same way, Sophie. In fact, I posted about this just a few weeks ago. Not nearly as eloquently as you, but still, I had the same thought as I realized (with horror) that I had been so busy writing that I hadn’t read a decent book in ages. Then I picked up “No Country for Old Men” and was totally blown away by Cormac McCarthy’s brilliance.

Loved his story, but I don’t see myself being able to pull off his style, voice, tone, etc. But did he influence me? I sincerely hope so.

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By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:15:08 +0000

As an avid reader and writer, I really enjoyed this post.

Over the course of years, I have varied my reading diet from the classics to the latest ‘lit light’. I believe that it’s important to read both, one for inspiration and education and the other to see where the market is and where it’s going.

Yes, there are some writing books that discourage the reading of fiction while you are at work on your own novel, at the risk of imitating style or worse.

I disagree…first,I believe we learn from reading good or great writers, we learn what works or what doesn’t and can apply those lessons to our own work. Second, because I don’t believe I lose my ‘voice’ while reading another noveliest: 1) because I am comfortable with my voice,and 2) because reading a variety of books seems to preclude picking up one author’s style. And finally, I just can’t imagine going that long without reading another book!

Thought provoking post, thank you!

-Suzanne.

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By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:32:10 +0000

Sophie, how exciting to have been a part of those anthologies! (I wasn’t able to find the Herbie Brennan or Rick Riordan works on Borders, but I added a link to the Scott Westerfield anthology on Philip Pullman.)

I usually have to take a break from reading when I’m actively writing; I guess I can’t have too many people parading around in my imagination at once. But I love to read–especially when I’m “stuck.” I might be reading a novel about some bizarre incident in a cornfield and my muse will light up and say, “Now I know just what to do about that scene on the plane!” One has nothing to do with the other, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

Thanks for a great post, and good luck with that anthology work; it sounds fascinating!

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By: Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:06:40 +0000

Agreed, Lyle. Reading is essential if one wants to write. If nothing else, just to steer away from hackneyed plots and phrases.

Great post, Sophie!

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By: Lyle

Lyle — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:17:45 +0000

It horrifies me how many people who write (having read some of their work, I hesitate at the word “writers”) do not read. So many people in my MFA program didn’t ever pick up a book, and now that I teach writing, I find a lot of students who don’t read either.

It really shows in their writing, even at the most basic level: they usually don’t know how things should look on a page, how to punctuate, etc.

Plus, if you don’t read, how do you know if your ideas, or your style, or your tone, are fresh or not?

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