Don't Worry, It's Just a Minor Existential Crisis

[bosstweed]

Lately I've been reading various criticism on horror and Gothic fiction, all of which has conspired to make me think more -- and confuse me -- about my own writerly goals. Regardless of my mini-diatribe the other way about how Lovecraft, et al., are superior and Whedon, Pratchett, et al., are inferior, I'm not sure of anything at the moment. Part

Comments

[rwx]

what would you characterize as the worldview difference?

Don't know if you saw this, but...

[bosstweed]

Well, I'm thinking of how authors' original fictions (not so much pastiches) often tend to arise from their life and view of things. Stephen King does not write Nabokov. Nabokov does not write Burroughs. Burroughs does not write Rick Moody. Rick Moody does not write Erica Jong. Why not? Any number of reasons, but on some level it's because such things would be fairly artificial.

I'm not sure if I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing, or if I'm doing what I want to be doing. I'd like to write the sort of things Algernon Blackwood wrote, but I'm not an early 20th century Spiritualist. I'd like to write as well as Clive Barker did in the Books of Blood, but I'm not a homosexual British auteur living in Thatcherite Britain. Etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Probably more than you wanted, but that's more or less what I meant...

[trailofstars]

Part of it is that I know the writers I like and why I like them... but I don't always share the worldview that leads to the kind of fiction they wrote or write.

I think this is pretty common. I know I often feel that way.

[trailofstars]

Yup yup. Orson Scott Card comes to mind everytime ;-)

[anonymous]

writing can be very hard work - hang in there.

Chris Perridas

http://chrisperridas.blogspot.com/
&
www.horrorlibrary.net

You should send a story to the slushpile or even DarkRecesses 'zine.

[bosstweed]

Thank you for your comment! I appreciate it much and will check out your sites and 'zine.

[bosstweed]

Well, I'm thinking of how authors' original fictions (not so much pastiches) often tend to arise from their life and view of things. Stephen King does not write Nabokov. Nabokov does not write Burroughs. Burroughs does not write Rick Moody. Rick Moody does not write Erica Jong. Why not? Any number of reasons, but on some level it's because such things would be fairly artificial.

I'm not sure if I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing, or if I'm doing what I want to be doing. I'd like to write the sort of things Algernon Blackwood wrote, but I'm not an early 20th century Spiritualist. I'd like to write as well as Clive Barker did in the Books of Blood, but I'm not a homosexual British auteur living in Thatcherite Britain. Etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Probably more than you wanted, but that's more or less what I meant...

[brassratgirl]

I read this comment, started mentally composing a reply, noted the headline of your post, and stopped composing.

I think you know what I would have said, though.