Sources and Outworkings

[rj_anderson]

It's always fun to read an interview with an author and find out that you share some of the same enthusiasms and inspirations.

Yesterday's interview with Elizabeth E. Wein at Finding Wonderland (syndicated feed is wonderland_blog) was fun, because given that Ms. Wein's Aksum books are serious, lyrical historical novels I would never have thought to map Lleu and Goewin onto Luke and Leia (for one thing, Lleu is about a million times more interesting than Luke!) or considered that "Ras Meder" sounds a lot like "Darth Vader". Hee. But I can't really claim Star Wars as a profound influence on my own work, much as I did enjoy it as a child.

But today's interview with D.M. Cornish made me all kinds of gleeful, because while I knew that we shared a love for Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books, I had no idea that he was also influenced by the Daniel Day-Lewis Last of the Mohicans, the writings of Patrick O'Brian (yay!) and Frank Miller's Elektra: Assassin. The latter was definitely an influence on me as well. My brothers ran a comic book store while I was in my teens, and I used to sit behind the counter after school reading every new issue of Marvel, DC and the independent comic publishers that I could lay hands on. (Yes, comic buyers of Sudbury, your cherished mint-condition issues were pre-read. I am sorry to break this news to you.)

I couldn't really tell you the plot of Elektra: Assassin now and I'm kind of glad I can't, because I think there was a lot of grim, violent, nasty stuff in there that's probably better forgotten. But I remember Bill Sienkiewicz's gorgeous watercolored art for the comic, and I remember being fascinated with the character of Elektra herself, her mystery and emotional closedness combined with that fierce determination and fantastic fighting ability. And now that D.M. Cornish has mentioned that comic too, I can see the echoes of Elektra in his character of Europe, the cool and deadly monster-fighting woman that Rossamund (the hero of Cornish's Half-Continent books) encounters early in his adventures.

And yet would I have guessed that if Cornish hadn't specifically mentioned Elektra: Assassin? Not at all. And I doubt most people would see Elektra in Knife either, because ultimately a lot more things went into that character and that world than just one comic book -- as is true of Cornish's character and worlds as well. I think all writers borrow inspiration from other sources: if they say they don't they've just forgotten where their ideas came from (or perhaps are too embarrassed to admit it!). But the more experienced writers draw from a wide variety of sources, whereas beginners tend to cling to only one or two. Which is what sets a fantastically detailed world like Cornish's Half-Continent apart from the score of pallid Tolkien and Peake imitations that have emerged over the last fifty years, and what makes the characters and relationships in Elizabeth Wein's Aksum books so much more rich and diverse and interesting than anything George Lucas came up with.

What about you? If you're an author, what do you consider to be the most interesting or unusual influences on your own writing? Or as a reader, have you spotted any odd influences on other people's work?

ETA: I forgot to include my favorite bit from the Cornish interview, which would be this quote:

One role women certainly do NOT have in Half-Continent stories is that of flesh-exposing objects of pubescent fantasy; I really enjoy clothing them sensibly and beautifully, especially the more "fighterly" types; it is like some kind of relief to dress women in properly protective, practical, functional and aesthetic clobber.What is there to say to that, except "Yay!"

Comments

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

D.M. Cornish ftw! I am a big fan-girl, so thanks for linking to that. *suppresses squees*

I share with Dean a love of big, elegant world-building, so I was delighted to see Peake and Herbert among his influences.

An odd influence of mine is "Battle of the Planets" aka "Gatchaman" (subtitled Science Ninja Team Gatchaman). Loved that cartoon as a kid and it really influenced how I shape villains, esp. always having a little surprise twist in there somewhere.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

So much love for G-Force here! I used to pedal my bike as fast I could down the sidewalk as a kid, pretending that it was a motorcycle and the "Phoenix" was going to come and pick me up any minute.

Did you feel robbed when you realized that pretty, helpless-seeming "Princess" was originally named Sun and blew stuff up? I know I did. I found "Princess" so lame that I refused to even play her when my friends and I pretended we were G-Force -- I made up my own Mary Sue character instead. :)

On the other hand, I prefer "Jason" to the original Ken. Jason just seemed cool and smart and snarky (way more interesting than "Mark" ever was), whereas the feel I get from Ken is more like "raving psycho, DO NOT DISTURB".

No love for 7-Zark-7 and 1-Rover-1, though. Whose lame idea was that?

[shoebox2.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, does this take me back. Princess...yeah. I spent a lot of time wondering what exactly she was princess of. Also, agreed that Jason was just way, way cooler than...well, pretty much anybody else on the series...in every respect.

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

That is awesome! My swingset was at the top of a hill and I used to swing as high as I could, singing paeans in praise of G-Force. :) I loved G-Force so much that when they took it off the air, my dad ended up calling the TV station begging them to put it back on b/c I was so distraught.

It's funny b/c whenever we played stuff like that, I *never* played a girl. Never. What that says about me, I'm not certain.

Also, *so much love* for Jason. I remember there was a meme that went round a year or so ago about one's top five hottest of the hot, and guess who was at the top of my list? Yep. Jason is still my secret true love. Well...not so secret anymore.

I heard that the whole 7Zark7 thing was an attempt to soothe American audiences re: all the violence. Which is downright amusing, considering.

ETA: Upon a second read, this sounds scary-fangirly. Eep!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Uh... I think we will have to be scary together, then. Or can I out-scary you by admitting that I also had a bit of a thing for Chief Anderson?

And yeah, I knew about Zark being an American addition -- even as a kid I could tell that he was pastede on because every time Mark and Princess went to visit him they looked so stiff and badly drawn... but how on earth he was supposed to soothe the tortured souls of North American youngsters I cannot imagine. He always just annoyed me.

After BATTLE OF THE PLANETS went off-air I went looking for more Japanese animation wherever I could find it, and ended up watching ALBATOR (a.k.a. CAPTAIN HARLOCK) on the local French channel. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in that show, but I loved it anyway. I mean, what is not cool about space pirates?!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I prefer "Jason" to the original Ken.

Not Ken, JOE. Duh.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Dunnett's influence on a bunch of women writers has been fairly clear over the past couple of decades...but I once saw bits of a non fic book called A Nervous Splendour in a John Irving book--what's more, his view of Vienna seemed to be based on it, as well as his tone.

[shoebox2.livejournal.com]

I think all writers borrow inspiration from other sources: if they say they don't they've just forgotten where their ideas came from (or perhaps are too embarrassed to admit it!).

Mm. Mark Twain, commenting on accusations of plagiarism leveled at Helen Keller:

The kernel, the soul - let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances - is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction borne of the superstition that he originated them...

Less flamboyantly, I once read an interview with Dean Koontz in which he added that this being true, the best training a writer could have would be to ensure his sources were the best possible. It's something I've always tried to keep in mind.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

But what/who defines "best" sources, I wonder? Is an author who watches an episode of Blue's Clues with her four-year-old and is suddenly struck with a brilliant idea for a mystery novel inferior to an author who is inspired by their fifth reading of Anna Karenina? Or is it equally possible that the author who reads nothing but "classics" might turn out to be pretentious and boring while the author with the ignominious source comes up with a sparkling gem of brilliance?

[shoebox2.livejournal.com]

Well, for what it's worth, the Koontz interview (actually, more of an appreciation) was part of a forward to a Rex Stout novel, so I don't think he meant classics in that sense. (Especially since, well, Dean Koontz.)

Myself, I've always associated 'best' with good writing - regardless of genre - on the theory that it automatically stimulates the reader's imagination, resulting in good ideas in their turn. Blue's Clues, for instance, demographics aside, is a remarkably bright, tight little creation.

I think there's an element of consciousness in there, too. If you're deliberately shooting for 'highbrow', you're probably going to end up with dutifully boring and pretentious - or if you're trying to write the perfect genre novel, a cliched pastiche. If on the other hand you assimilate sources naturally, as Twain described, because you're taking real pleasure in them, you're ipso facto going to turn out something much more interesting.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Yes, good point. And "best sources" can mean the best of every medium and genre that's out there, as opposed to merely the perceived best of a single narrow field.

[kerravonsen]

I think all writers borrow inspiration from other sources: if they say they don't they've just forgotten where their ideas came from (or perhaps are too embarrassed to admit it!). But the more experienced writers draw from a wide variety of sources, whereas beginners tend to cling to only one or two.

Absolutely.

And this can be a conscious thing, too. If I'm writing a particular kind of story (yes, I know I'm not a "proper" writer) then I'm aware that I'm likely to be influenced by the ideas of other authors who have written something similar. So I take one of two routes when I'm writing said story; either avoid reading the similar stories completely, or read a lot of them, so that I'm not influenced by too few sources.

To take a specific example, right now I'm writing a Doctor Who/Buffy crossover, where Buffy is the Doctor's companion. I know of the existence of another story, which I would like to read, which has the same premise, but since it's the only other story I know of with the same premise, I'm putting off reading it so that I don't get too influenced by it. However, if there had been lots of stories with that premise, then I would happily have read them all, because then my subconscious would be cherry-picking from the lot of them, and the synthesis would be my own.

Or as a reader, have you spotted any odd influences on other people's work?
Well, my favourites have been some of the stories in which some of the characters are heavily influenced by favourite characters from other sources, such as Parl Dro and Myal Lemyal in Tanith Lee's "Kill the Dead" being avatars of Kerr Avon and Vila Restal from Blake's 7.