Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Confessions Tuesday : about several authors...

When I woke up this morning my Droid was blinking -  as it  does when I get new e-mail. So I check my e-mail and realized that one is a notice - I was tagged on Facebook>

"Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes, and they don't have to be listed in order of relevance to you. "
I got to think a little about my list since I hate typing in the droid so I took my morning shower and got dressed before I opened my computer and wrote my own list:

"1. William Shakespeare


2. William Faulkner


3. Fyodor Dostoevsky


4. Marin Sorescu


5. Panait Istrati


6. Andre Gide


7. Reiner Maria Rilke


8. Omar Khayyam


9. Elizabeth Bishop


10. Adrienne Rich


11. Michael Ondaatje


12. Iris Murdoch


13. Paul Squires


14. George Bacovia


15. Hans Christian Andersen"


This is not an exhaustive list  - Being an aspiring writer myself I have to acknowledge the influence of some writers such is more about style than it is about an impact on my life. This explains the presence of Elizabeth Bishop.

In fact, it is interesting that when trying to figure out this list I excluded all authors of philosophy and non-fiction books. Although I owe more to Immanuel Kant, Plato, Wittgenstein, T.S. Kuhn or John Stuart Mill when making life changing decisions than to any author above - with the exception of Dostoevsky, Khayyam and Murdoch.  Not to mention that my good habit of questioning stereotypes was perhaps rooted in the works of Jean Henri Fabre and his notes on the helpfulness and friendliness of creatures long considered bearers of bad fortunes such as the owl, the bat and the frog.

But it also made me realize that there are several authors such as Koestler and Luise Rinser who did not make the list because I never got to read a second book by them even though the first had a definite impact on me. I am talking about The Call Girls  and  respective Mitte des Lebens. It is perhaps the time to add more titles to my list... this is why I am forwarding the request to Bea, Julie , Gautami, Hannah , Bryan, Dhyan and whomever wants to try it...No need to reply or foward it , just  try it for yourself...



PS If you would like to read one of the Romanian authors from the list but cannot read in Romanian


for Bacovia I'd  suggest Brenda Walker's translation :Complete Poetical Works and Selected Prose of George Bacovia



5 comments:

Hannah Stephenson said...

Okay...I am doing this fast, as the post mentions :). Love your list, by the way.

In no particular order:
-Wallace Stevens
-Hemingway
-Robert Creeley
-Heidegger
-Rebecca Solnit
-Rumi
-Jane Hirshfield
-John Berryman
-Keats
-Orson Scott Card
-George Saunders
-CS Lewis
-Randall Jarrell
-Catherine Kidd
-VC Andrews

...well, that was weird :).
But fun!

Ana said...

I like your list, there are some 'new' names that are worth looking into...

And yeah, it's fun!

Julie said...

Hi, Ana! I love your list. Faulkner, Rilke, Rich, etc. They're all awesome.

A couple of friends challenged me to do a list like this back in March of '09. There were many more I wanted to add, because I admire so many. But I decided to make it only about poets/authors who directly influenced my own style.

If you'd like to read my list, it's here:
http://juliebuff.wordpress.com/page/9/

In my typical crazy anal way, I go on and on about each one:) But it was fun. Now you're inspiring me to go back and think about it again.

Ana said...

and, Julie, that is quite a list :

Who Shaped You?


25+ authors, wow!

earthwalker said...

-aldous huxley -(ISLAND, brave new world, blind in gaza)
-mircea eliade
-mircea cartarescu (nostalgia)
-osho rajneej, eckhart tolle
-jiddhy krishnamurti, Thich Nhat Hanh
-radu tudoran (toate panzele sus ,sfarsit de mileniu )
-michael ende
-slavoj ziziek, naomi klein
-toni morrison(she "helped me" read my first book in english)
-lots of sci-fi as a teenager shaped my mind a lot