Well, it more of an editorial 'you.' The fact is that 'you' are drowning in a sea of cultures. If I was a fourteen year old female cheerleader I would have influenced the world you live in. An entire faction of our society creates, sells and is influenced by beauty contests, bizarre clothing lines, reality shows and wannabees. Whether you like it or admit it, every channel that plays the Kardashians by the process of elimination does not play old movies, football games or tractor pulls. This act influences you. As for 'out of nowhere,' I believe this also applies to reading. Somewhere out there is a book that I have not read that might have changed an attribute of my life. However, I did read Hunter Thompson. It's a literature butterfly effect.
If 'I' am drowning in a sea of cultures why did you assign it as 'my culture' which signifies you own or are a part of a single culture. That's a contradiction. If you where a fourteen year old female cheerleader (which I can only assume is an Americanism) I doubt you would have influence on my 'world'; I being a twenty-one year old, European, published as a journalist and short story writer. I'm not sure how you could. And Hunter S. Thompson's work was pretty unique, but it didn't really come out of nowhere.
Well, if you wear blue jeans, drink Coca Cola and listen to rock n' roll (or rap in the modern guise) not only have I influenced your culture, I am about to destroy it. For some reason, modern man takes the worst attributes of society, packages them and sells them to a new market. For example, I was watching TV the other night and it showed a building in Bulgaria. I was surprised that it was a modern, clean building, replete with computers, but devoid of barbed wire and stern secret police. In short, I have come to believe what I see in movies, and I should know better. It is impossible to honestly and fully depict a culture and it's people. Let me give you another example. My wife and I used to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and one of their Asian waitresses told me she was afraid of street crime. I told her to pretend, to go into a karate pose and scream out a grunt. She informed me that she wasn't Japanese or Korean or had even taken a rudimentary course in martial arts. I told her it didn't matter. Everything Americans know about martial arts comes from old Bruce Lee movies.
What is funny is I used to watch movies that were Lovecraftian and were into poetic performances with the inspiration of that style. I will take that into consideration. Any books I should read from him to start?? I understand exactly what you mean. When I was in middle school people connected martial arts to Karate Kid and Jackie Chan. I was made fun of it a lot because I was the only student in my grade who took Martial Arts and Seriously. We see things in one perspective and assume that it is the way it is. It is not until we see another perspective where we get a better idea of what things are like. Lol sort of a metaphorical way of you telling me how I should approach new reading material. Please Please do not get personal when responding to this. I agree that you may not have read the stuff I was reading and we may have differences. I am confused with the culture part and i do not know if it is because you are comparing my interests or that you are trying to oversea a my complicated connection with reality. This response really confused me here.
I recommend starting with The Colour out of Space, The Shadow out of Time, or his shorter works first like Dagon or The Statement of Randolph Carter. The best thing about Lovecraft and Poe is their complete works are on the internet for free, or if you want them in book form they are very cheap.
When you can experience the world over a life time you can write about it. It doesn't require you to be an avid reader to write an interesting story if it's based on an interesting life. You can have a desire to read but lose interest in reading because you find what you have at hand boring. It doesn't have to be poorly written to be boring, just incompatible to the mind that's trying to read it. For some people a pace has to be maintained to hold their interest. For others if the a cultural or life's perspective of reader and author is so different the reader can't comprehend what is being communicated, it's going to be boring. Would a crime novel in which everything hinged on the subtleties of color be of interest to a blind man? People think they know the world. They judge others by their own experiences but each of us only knows what our experience has taught us, which often can be very different from what someone else may perceive. And if there were no books that matched your individual cultural or life's perspective, isn't it possible you just may want to write one.
Me and my Aunt have common traits of this. I , surprisingly hated reading until i was 11 or 12. Just within a very short time i noticed a few books i really liked and enjoyed and before i knew it i had created another interest. It's like being sucked into a newly discovered world that returns your pride and joy. It is possible but very rare that you can be somebody who hates reading but loves writing. Tolkien actually had somewhat of this problem, he hated most of the books he read so he decided to write his own joy. To me, Authors such as these should be deemed for this.
I'm sorry but when you write things like 'not only have I influenced your culture, I am about to destroy it.' when I'm not even aware what exactly started you off on this tangent I have to ask: what are you going on about? How have you, who is presumably American, influenced 'my' culture when you don't know the first thing about where I live, and what on earth is 'my' culture anyway? And what do you mean 'I am about to destroy it'? What? You alone? How can you destroy this 'My' culture that is also somehow a mix of cultures and 'your' culture at the same time. Please start making sense, because all these messages read like rambles from my grandmother off her medication.
You're supposed to be a writer, with assumed talents in complex plot developments and the crazy quilt of multiple characters. Figure it out, or show it to your grandmother and have her explain it to you.
You are not answering any of my questions, so no - I'm not going to study your posts for apparent meaning because, quite frankly, I only bother with writing that is coherent. Your supposed to be a writer too, and a writers main job is to make their writing readable.
During the last seven minutes I've received two PMs telling me to open up and let you have it. I think we're done here.
To the OP: I understand what you mean, I have suffered from the same things in periods recently, but I have also discovered lately that the books I read and didn't particularly like are the ones who has affected my writing and my story ideas the most. Maybe because I wasn't too caught up in the story itself or transported into another world or anything, I just read it critically and learned stuff from them. That is why my advice to you, if you are serious about your own writing, is to read the books people talk about/those who have gotten great critiques even though they don't appeal to you or correspond to your vision of a good book. you're likely to learn stuff from them that you can use in your own writing, even though you're not writing the same kind of stories.
Guy, you are the one who derailed this thread. The least you can do is explain yourself, which you haven't done. So let me have it. I'm waiting.
I guess you do have to be old to understand it. In the modern world cultures influence each other. What is absorbed primarily are those things that are attractive and glamorous but not necessarily beneficial. Naturally it impacts on tradition and cultural values, there is no way out of it. Initially it was coming primarily from America which was productive enough they could create a lot for their enjoyment and pleasure. As other cultures developed and prospered they began to copy and then convert much of the materiel to their on tastes. This further spreads cultural tastes, blending them. Elvis infects England, the Beatles return the favor, etc, etc.
Thank you superpsycho, this makes sense. Even if it has nothing to do with this thread. My problem is, the original poster wasn't making sense. With this other poster becoming aggressive when I try to ask him to explain himself, it's not making my life easier.
Then I'm even stranger then I thought because I've understood exactly what everybody has been saying, including the op. Of course on more then one occasion I've set in a board room or a meeting explaining what someone meant rather then what the other person heard. Usually they were of vastly different cultures though.
Wouldn't say that maybe a freak with a weird talent. But of course we are all freaks with own special weird talents. Many people just haven't figured out what their talents are yet or even bother to look because they fail to believe they have one or more. It's something to see when people discover for them self's their own weird talent. Returning to the op I'm sure the name of a good fast paced Gothic style Science fiction book would be appreciated. Try looking at her avatar and ask what would that face read?
There is no need to accuse anyone of trolling in this thread. Please remember that you are expected to remain respectful in all forum communications.
Strange thread. To the OP, I'd second Murakami, definitely. On the sci-fi side of things, Gibson's Neuromancer, Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Bradbury's Farenheit 451, and Stross' Accelerando are all favourites of mine. I don't promise you'll like all or even most of them, but I'm sure one of those will catch your interest. Also, you might like The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler -it's fast paced, at least.
