In writing some fiction, and thinking about fiction lately, I have been reconsidering some of the major influences on my writing.
Who do I love to read? Who truly inspires me as a writer in terms of fiction?
Well, per the earlier post, Kim Cockroft is wonderful.
Michael Davis, who I also have the pleasure of calling a good friend, is also an amazing writer. I am a proud owner of his thesis work which is my plan for retirement— it will be worth a pretty penny on eBay someday.
You can actually read a Davis story on my webpage at:
http://kurtcoleeidsvig.com/Davis.html
Sherman Alexie I love. His book of short stories “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” is one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read. I stole (in art this is called appropriation) the idea for the title of the work “Jasper Johns and Frank O’Hara Fistfight in Heaven” from him, and he mercilessly emerges in my writing.
See above for my piece “Jasper Johns and Frank O’Hara Fistfight in Heaven” from 1999 that is an early example of my use of collage, paper, bright colors and the intersection of words and image in art.
I have had the experience many times where I finish a painting and look at it and say, “great, another Pollock rip-off. Or, yep, Rauschenberg already did that too,” and the same has happened with my writing and Alexie.
My first poem to be published in a major literary magazine was “Counting,” published by Hanging Loose Press. It was after publication that I realized that it might be a cheap knock-off of a Sherman Alexie (he uses creative ordering and strategies for poems, he has a character named Lester FallsApart, mine had Johnny Blockbuster)… but, Pollock, Rauschenberg, Alexie; if you have to be copying someone (or doing imitations that fall short) unconsciously, who better?
An image that I love from Alexie’s fiction that I keep coming back to is from the story “All I Wanted to do Was Dance” from “The Lone Ranger and Tonto…”
On page 89, he writes:
“Once, Victor bought a case of Coors Light and drove for miles with the bottles beside him on the seat. He would open one, touch the cold glass to his lips, and feel his heart stagger. But he could not drink, and one by one he tossed twenty-four full bottles out the window.
The small explosions, their shattering, was the way he measured time.”
* * * * *
As with Frank O’Hara, the man who introduced me to Sherman Alexie was Ron Schreiber. Also, as with O’Hara, I have become hypnotized by Alexie’s ability to weave popular culture, the history of written art, voice, narrative, image, and style in a way that is both accessible and deeply-meaningful on repeated readings.
Who else? Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, Ernest Hemingway, (this is just fiction), Vonnegut… oh, Kurt Vonnegut.
See above for a drawing by Kurt Vonnegut that I love that was included in an issue of Backwards City Review (link: http://homepage.mac.com/languageismycopilot/backwardscitydotnet/review/01issue/vonnegut.html)
Kurt Vonnegut passed away in April of this year, and will be sorely missed for his exceptional abilities as a writer.
I am sure I am missing some great influences on my approach to fiction, but need to go write.
Happy Monday.
Who do I love to read? Who truly inspires me as a writer in terms of fiction?
Well, per the earlier post, Kim Cockroft is wonderful.
Michael Davis, who I also have the pleasure of calling a good friend, is also an amazing writer. I am a proud owner of his thesis work which is my plan for retirement— it will be worth a pretty penny on eBay someday.
You can actually read a Davis story on my webpage at:
http://kurtcoleeidsvig.com/Davis.html
Sherman Alexie I love. His book of short stories “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” is one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read. I stole (in art this is called appropriation) the idea for the title of the work “Jasper Johns and Frank O’Hara Fistfight in Heaven” from him, and he mercilessly emerges in my writing.
See above for my piece “Jasper Johns and Frank O’Hara Fistfight in Heaven” from 1999 that is an early example of my use of collage, paper, bright colors and the intersection of words and image in art.
I have had the experience many times where I finish a painting and look at it and say, “great, another Pollock rip-off. Or, yep, Rauschenberg already did that too,” and the same has happened with my writing and Alexie.
My first poem to be published in a major literary magazine was “Counting,” published by Hanging Loose Press. It was after publication that I realized that it might be a cheap knock-off of a Sherman Alexie (he uses creative ordering and strategies for poems, he has a character named Lester FallsApart, mine had Johnny Blockbuster)… but, Pollock, Rauschenberg, Alexie; if you have to be copying someone (or doing imitations that fall short) unconsciously, who better?
An image that I love from Alexie’s fiction that I keep coming back to is from the story “All I Wanted to do Was Dance” from “The Lone Ranger and Tonto…”
On page 89, he writes:
“Once, Victor bought a case of Coors Light and drove for miles with the bottles beside him on the seat. He would open one, touch the cold glass to his lips, and feel his heart stagger. But he could not drink, and one by one he tossed twenty-four full bottles out the window.
The small explosions, their shattering, was the way he measured time.”
* * * * *
As with Frank O’Hara, the man who introduced me to Sherman Alexie was Ron Schreiber. Also, as with O’Hara, I have become hypnotized by Alexie’s ability to weave popular culture, the history of written art, voice, narrative, image, and style in a way that is both accessible and deeply-meaningful on repeated readings.
Who else? Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, Ernest Hemingway, (this is just fiction), Vonnegut… oh, Kurt Vonnegut.
See above for a drawing by Kurt Vonnegut that I love that was included in an issue of Backwards City Review (link: http://homepage.mac.com/languageismycopilot/backwardscitydotnet/review/01issue/vonnegut.html)
Kurt Vonnegut passed away in April of this year, and will be sorely missed for his exceptional abilities as a writer.
I am sure I am missing some great influences on my approach to fiction, but need to go write.
Happy Monday.
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