Kari started this conversaton about artistic influence and it's been rattling around my head.
Do we appreciate product better if we know process? Why do we love those shorts on the making of films? Why did I buy a book of essays by playwrights on their favorite writers? Do I really see the finger traces of Shakespeare and Noel Coward and Larry Gelbart in all my work? If I write a paragraph on influences on the history page, what does that say?
Oh Christ, I'm in your blog.
ReplyDeleteWrite about your influences, please.
John Irving's bravery when he kills major characters
ReplyDeleteJoan Didion's White Album
Margaret Atwood's fully realized characters
Shakespeare's 5 act arc
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magic realism
Hunter Thompson's weird turned pro
Christopher Durang's dark line between comedy & humor
Kurt Vonnegut's clean prose and drawings
Sylvia Plath's bravery wrapped in a cry 4 help
Noel Coward's flippancy
Larry Gelbart's pacing
and there's more . . .