17 February, 2012

Authors I have known

Due to the fact my body hates giving up its precious blood and the cricket being on I'm enjoying a quiet Friday night in. And since there isn't that much else I can do while watching the chase I thought I'd type something out.

This post takes its origins from a facebook meme asking you to describe authors who have influenced your life that was going round about a year ago. I thought I'd expand it out and explain some of my reasoning.

So, in no particular order:

Dalton Trumbo
Johnny got his gun. Most of you know it from the video for One, but I'd always seen it on mum and dad's bookshelf when I was younger. I found myself struck by the image on the cover of a man shadowlit on a peace symbol, but never explored beyond that. I can't remember why I picked it up. I knew the premise behind it, but I still felt the shock as he came to term with each setback and almost straight away another one was thrown his way. The imagery in it is incredibly vivid and was the turning point from me doing the teenage boy "blowing up stuff is awesome!" to effectively a pacifist.

Sun Tzu and Machiavelli
Interesting that they're the next ones on the list. To sum it up, both have taught me how I can deal with things life throws at me.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I remember reading the children's edition when I was younger and then getting the full books out when I was a bit older. I found the thought process he went through fascinating and I remember putting the book down and trying to work out (with very little success) what had happened, and looking at people and trying to work out things about them.

One quote really stuck with me-
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

Ayn Rand
This will be a surprise to most people.

Awful writer. Awful plot, one dimensional characters, preachy.

However, I wasn't in a good place reading it, and Howard Roark reminded me that I had to do what was in my interest, and that was helpful.

"But you see, I have, let's say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I've chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I'm only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards--and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one."

J. R. R. Tolkien
Dude, The Hobbit. 8 year old me loved it to bits.

Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse 5. He took the crazy insanity that I couldn't quite get from my head onto paper, then took it to a whole new level. Liking Kurt is almost a prerequisite to me proposing to a girl.

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen
If we'd studied these guys in English instead of all the other poetry they inflicted on us I would have loved it. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) is a special kind of awesome.

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Existentialism.

Cormac McCarthy
A simplicity in writing and the bleak showing of the human spirit.

You might be able to tell I'm getting tired, so to sum the list up

Douglas Adams
Most of the Sci Fi stuff I'd been exposed to had been overly technical robots and nerds stuff. This, along with Red Dwarf showed me the lighter side of it, like only the British can.

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