Post by account_disabled on Dec 27, 2023 21:36:16 GMT -6
If I think back to my first stories, I can very well trace which authors and which novels and narrative genres inspired me. Or, rather, which ones I had let myself be influenced by. Because the correct term is precisely this: authors, books and literary genres had "acted decisively on my will". In reality, the first story I ever wrote, "The Return of the Knight", a medieval story written in the first person and disarmingly boring, I believe was born like this, inspired by the moment. I was doing homework, as usual, and had found something better to do to pass the time, as usual. But for the other stories, there are 3 names that had an influence on my writing in the first hour. Poe, Lovecraft and Terry Brooks: the influential trio I had read a 1960s edition of some Edgar Allan Poe stories .
For me they were new, especially in the approach to the story: they were something different, that I had never read. The incipits struck me: Poe almost always seemed to take off before approaching the actual story. But then you Special Data realized that he, on the other hand, hadn't distanced himself at all. For me, at the time, it was necessary to start a story exactly that way. Then fantasy entered my readings, with the oft-cited novel The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. It was a short step from that reading to planning "Daniele's great fantasy novel". And also plagiarism. Because my novel, fortunately just started and then abandoned, was a bad copy of Brooks's.
Finally, by chance, Howard Phillips Lovecraft entered my readings . I slowly purchased all 4 volumes of his stories, from 1897 to 1936, and I was fascinated by them. If Poe's horror was psychological, Lovecraft's was material. And so I said to myself, “This is the way to write horror stories.” And I got serious about writing stories about haunted houses, inexplicable events, spooky things and so on. There was also a Tolkienian parenthesis : after reading The Lord of the Rings I wanted to emulate its monumentality with one of my fantasy novels, filling dozens of sheets of notes that are now turning yellow inside some envelope. And they will continue to yellow, as far as I'm concerned.
For me they were new, especially in the approach to the story: they were something different, that I had never read. The incipits struck me: Poe almost always seemed to take off before approaching the actual story. But then you Special Data realized that he, on the other hand, hadn't distanced himself at all. For me, at the time, it was necessary to start a story exactly that way. Then fantasy entered my readings, with the oft-cited novel The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. It was a short step from that reading to planning "Daniele's great fantasy novel". And also plagiarism. Because my novel, fortunately just started and then abandoned, was a bad copy of Brooks's.
Finally, by chance, Howard Phillips Lovecraft entered my readings . I slowly purchased all 4 volumes of his stories, from 1897 to 1936, and I was fascinated by them. If Poe's horror was psychological, Lovecraft's was material. And so I said to myself, “This is the way to write horror stories.” And I got serious about writing stories about haunted houses, inexplicable events, spooky things and so on. There was also a Tolkienian parenthesis : after reading The Lord of the Rings I wanted to emulate its monumentality with one of my fantasy novels, filling dozens of sheets of notes that are now turning yellow inside some envelope. And they will continue to yellow, as far as I'm concerned.