Like most people who dabble in writing, I started by being an avid reader of the works of others. I grew up on books which most of you have probably never heard of.
In the late fifties and early sixties, I read books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Corbin Space Cadet. Interestingly enough it is the lesser of the series, Tom Corbin, which in a very real sense, stands with us to this day.
Tom had a telephone in his belt pouch. Back then belt pouches were sissy, and the idea of a telephone which could carry with you, much alone put in a small belt pouch or pocket, was totally ridiculous. Telephones were chunky black things which had to be connected to an operator by a special set of wires. It was true that car phones did exist. They were huge things, which took up most of the trunk of a large car. They could only connect to another telephone by talking to the mobile operator. They did have a way to, ring, you if you were in the proper area, but there was no dial and they were an extremely expensive monster. The thing could cost several thousand dollars, and hundreds of dollars a month to use. Remember that this was in a time when a new car could be purchased for less than one thousand dollars.
In addition to the children's literature, I was captivated by things like 1984 and Robinson Crusoe. I even liked some things written by Poe, and like most kids I closely followed the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
One thing I have never been able to tolerate was Shakespeare. In college English, lit professors all seem to love Shakespeare. As I have never been overly fond of soap operas, or old English, my reaction to this was pretty well locked. I do understand why many people love Shakespeare it's just that I am not one of those lovers. What is annoying is that English professors who are in love with him seem to think that anyone who does not blindly agree with their worship is an illiterate heathen beyond any help. To them, we are obviously so stupid that we can not understand the material. The truth is that I do understand the material, quite well, in fact. I simply do not like having to deal with an antiquated style of English which is required to read it. Unfortunately, when the material is updated to modern times, the story is often butchered so much that it is only marginally recognizable.
My most recent foray into the world of Sir William was during a resent Shakespearean Festival at the local university. A friend was in town and wanted to see one of the plays. The play was "A Mid Summer Nights Dream". Try to get this scene. The play was performed in the style of Japanese Kabuki Theater retaining all of the old English dialogs. I found this decidedly strange.
Not everybody likes every writer and as far as I am concerned, that is the way it should be. If everyone liked exactly the same things, this would be a very boring world. Take, for example, the classic story told by Herman Melville, Moby Dick. I love the tail told by Melville. Unfortunately, I hate the writing style of Herman Melville. In a similar light, I love the western stories of Zane Gray but absolutely hate his writing style. After the fiftieth page, of reading about the sunrise over the far mountains, it gets on my nerves. I find I am almost screaming for him to get on with the story. Granted his colorful writing style is part of the lure of Gray, but there is such a thing as driving it into the ground.
So just what types of things do I like? Today, I find myself reading books by Webb Griffith, Tom Clancy, Nathaniel Lowell, Robert Heinlein, George Eliot, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling and many others. As you can see, my reading varies from classics to fantasy to thrillers and just about anything.
To me, an author must grab my attention in the very first paragraph, and I must be captivated well before I finish the first chapter. Often it is something simple, which grabs my attention. Occasionally an author will do something in the very first sentence which will almost make you groan. But, in the very next sentence they kick you in the pants by letting you know that things are decidedly not as the first seem.
One example of how an author can play with their readers is the opening as used in the book Quarter Share by Nathaniel Lowell, "Call me Ishmael." This is the exact opening line from chapter one of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. After this line, the only real similarity between these two books is that both of them are told in the voice of the protagonist, and both occur on board ships. One of the ships is an old Whaling Ship, and the other is a Star Ship, but both are ships none the less. You quickly discover, however, that the moniker of the protagonist is in a very real sense a statement by his dead mother.
One thing both of these authors do quite well is to bring to life the characters in their story. You start to care about what happens to the characters. The thing that all good writers try to do is make you care about what is going to happen to, the people they are telling you about. In a Christmas Carrol, you find yourself, starting to hope for a true villain Ebeneezer Scrooge. As is usually the case in literature but almost never happens in real life Scrooge becomes a good guy.
After all is said and done, especially at this time of the year, shouldn't we all wish along with Tiny Tim;
God Bless Us, Everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment