Taught By The Past

Today I just wanted to mention a few formative books. Books that shape me as a writer. Now, obviously everything I've read has contributed to that in one way or another, but I thought I'd try to pick out a few that have an ongoing impact on my writing.

So, as a young man I read a lot of fantasy authors; Arthur C. Clarke, Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Douglas Adams, etc. As much as I would love to write in the fantasy genre, I have come to realise that my gifts do not live in that field. No, my talents (if any) lay firmly in the realist drama area. My most successful stories, and by successful I mean most well received, are ones that focus on the real people in my life. I've never written autobiographically, but I certainly do use aspects of my past, people I've known, etc, to develop stories and characters.

The first real author that made an impression on me in terms of writing real life was Jack Kerouac. Obviously, like many others, I found him through On The Road. Such a huge, seminal work will always capture peoples attention, yet I found many of his other books just as good, if not better. Desolation Angels is an amazing piece of writing, and I think I read it at a very formative time in my life. In the book, Kerouac goes up a mountain in Washington State to spend a season being a fire lookout. This involves Kerouac being in total isolation for a long period of time. At this point in my life I was into Buddhism and totally understood this need for isolation, yet as the book moves on we realise that Kerouac has to ultimately reject this asceticism in favour of his life in the world below, the crazy world of the Beats. Yet, his thought process whilst on the mountain is incredibly interesting to read; poetic and veering towards cabin fever, it is unique to say the least. Once Kerouac descends the mountain, he goes back to his friends, travels to Mexico, and on to New York. It is the best of all sides of Kerouac; the lonesome traveller, the ascetic, the poet, the drunk, the famed, the broken minded angel. This book taught me how to write thoughts. How to surrender to the darker, weaker parts of my own mind. To embrace my flaws. To let the world in.

Whilst at University, part of the canon of literature was The Dubliners by James Joyce. This blew me away. I'd never seen writing like it. It wasn't fancy and florid, but rather frugal and sparse. I loved it. It is a collection of short stories, and I'd never really put much stock in the short story. In this collection, he transforms these tiny little windows into the lives of lowly Dubliners into dramas of epic proportions. I was fortunate in that my lecturers were able to dissect and analyse the book without destroying its magic. The themes of paralysis, progress, modernity, class, etc, are all dealt with so well in Joyce's work. Characters stepped off the page like nothing I've read since Dickens, settings were so alive, I felt I was there too. It totally threw me onto a trajectory of short story writing. This book is the standard. This is what I shoot for.

Another author I found at University was Raymond Carver. We only covered two short stories, but boy did they hit home. The one I really think of is I Could See The Smallest Things. This very short story is loaded with subtext and curiosity. It is basically just a conversation between two neighbours over a garden fence in the middle of the night. I realise that does not sound dramatic, because it isn't, yet the themes of regret, control, change, etc, he manages to cover is so clever. Clever, yet very simply told. Like The Dubliners, one of the main themes of this story is paralysis. I like the notion that paralysis effects so many of our real lives. The need for change and progress being overridden by the fear of consequence, the risk of loss, and it's this paralysis that many of us live in; wanting to improve our lives, yet unable to take that next step. Carver taught me all about subtlety, nuance, simplicity and the truth of real lives. The minutiae that permeates all of our days, that gives meaning, despite our apparent insignificance.

There are so many more books that could've made this little list, but obviously that could spiral out of control. I will give another couple an honourable mention though.

The Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger: This story is everything to me. I aspire to capture the notion of the glory and sincerity of youth he captured in this book.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach: Again, a perfect realisation of the short form. This is a real lesson in economy of words. He brings the allegory back to it's true place in literature.

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran: Well, I'm sure if you've read this it will come as no surprise that I rate this book. If you've ever needed a manual for living a good life, this is it. The poetry of the language will never fail to light up any day.

Well, that's it for now. I could go on and on discussing Steinbeck or Dostoevsky or Kundera or Marquez, but you may be bored already.

Until next time...

M.