April 13th, 2009 / 7:38 pm
I Like __ A Lot & Random

Let’s make a list.

liszt

Kevin commented on my Letters to Wendy’s post earlier today that he thought the book is one of the most “stunning pieces of art to appear in the last ten years.” It occurs to me that I tend to agree with that assessment. Letters to Wendy’s really did change the way I thought about poetry and fiction. It changed the focus of my reading. It changed the way I approach writing, too.

The writers and readers of this blog seem to have a taste for innovative work. If asked to name one book that permanently and significantly rewired the way you read or write, what would it be?

In a few days, I’ll update this post with a list.

UPDATE:

Actually, what the heck. Let’s open this up. A piece of music, a film, a photograph, a painting. What piece of art significantly rewired the way you think of art or create art.

Tags: ,

87 Comments

  1. barry

      christopher kennedy – trouble with the machine

  2. barry

      christopher kennedy – trouble with the machine

  3. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Naked Lunch

  4. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Naked Lunch

  5. Ken Baumann

      Just one? Guh. I just started to compose a list in chronological order then deleted it.

      2001: A Space Odyssey

      and book:

      The Stranger

  6. Ken Baumann

      Just one? Guh. I just started to compose a list in chronological order then deleted it.

      2001: A Space Odyssey

      and book:

      The Stranger

  7. larry

      Public Enemy – Fear of A Black Planet (bomb squad production)

      William Gaddis – JR (95% of which is unattributed dialogue)

      Richard Linklater’s Slacker

  8. larry

      Public Enemy – Fear of A Black Planet (bomb squad production)

      William Gaddis – JR (95% of which is unattributed dialogue)

      Richard Linklater’s Slacker

  9. Shya

      I’m going to narrow the question to include the qualifier “most recently,” because the more general question feels too big. The most recent book that dramatically effected the way I write was Hunts in Dreams by Tom Drury. I don’t expect many on this site would agree that it’s an important book, per se, but it was just what I needed to read, exactly when I needed to read it, and in my opinion, that matter of timing is at least as important to its significance to a particular individual as where a piece of art stands in relation to the Great Art Continuum.

      For the record, I thought Letters to Wendy’s was quite good–Forrest Gander gave it to me after reading excerpts of In This Alone Impulse in poetry workshop–but I wasn’t as impressed by it as I was, say, Ben Lerner’s Angle of Yaw, which I’d put in a similar category. Both went for easy humor a bit too often for my taste, but both sought to approach popular culture with a kind bald evenhandedness which sought to avoid traditional modes of critique even as they cried out in moral dismay.

  10. Shya

      I’m going to narrow the question to include the qualifier “most recently,” because the more general question feels too big. The most recent book that dramatically effected the way I write was Hunts in Dreams by Tom Drury. I don’t expect many on this site would agree that it’s an important book, per se, but it was just what I needed to read, exactly when I needed to read it, and in my opinion, that matter of timing is at least as important to its significance to a particular individual as where a piece of art stands in relation to the Great Art Continuum.

      For the record, I thought Letters to Wendy’s was quite good–Forrest Gander gave it to me after reading excerpts of In This Alone Impulse in poetry workshop–but I wasn’t as impressed by it as I was, say, Ben Lerner’s Angle of Yaw, which I’d put in a similar category. Both went for easy humor a bit too often for my taste, but both sought to approach popular culture with a kind bald evenhandedness which sought to avoid traditional modes of critique even as they cried out in moral dismay.

  11. Ken Baumann

      I take that back. For book, definitely Cat’s Cradle.

  12. Ken Baumann

      I take that back. For book, definitely Cat’s Cradle.

  13. sasha

      film: you the living by roy andersson

      i’ll get back to you on the book

  14. sasha

      film: you the living by roy andersson

      i’ll get back to you on the book

  15. KKP

      Films:
      The Five Obstructions by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth; Friends Forever by Ben Wolfinsohn

      Book:
      I Looked Alive by Gary Lutz

  16. KKP

      Films:
      The Five Obstructions by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth; Friends Forever by Ben Wolfinsohn

      Book:
      I Looked Alive by Gary Lutz

  17. KKP

      ALSO! In the Year of Long Division by Dawn Raffel

  18. KKP

      ALSO! In the Year of Long Division by Dawn Raffel

  19. ben

      probably either Infinite Jest or Stories in the Worst Way

      also Life A User’s Manual

  20. ben

      probably either Infinite Jest or Stories in the Worst Way

      also Life A User’s Manual

  21. Lincoln

      Just the books that changed the way I think about fiction, but not necessarily recent?

      These aren’t highly original but the two books that totally reconfigured how I wrote and read fiction were:

      60 Stories – Donald Barthelme
      Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson

      I read both of these back to back in college… maybe sophomore year. Before that my models for fiction were the quirky realism of people like Raymond Carver, Rick Bass and so on but then I read 60 stories and jesus’ son back to back and…

  22. Lincoln

      Just the books that changed the way I think about fiction, but not necessarily recent?

      These aren’t highly original but the two books that totally reconfigured how I wrote and read fiction were:

      60 Stories – Donald Barthelme
      Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson

      I read both of these back to back in college… maybe sophomore year. Before that my models for fiction were the quirky realism of people like Raymond Carver, Rick Bass and so on but then I read 60 stories and jesus’ son back to back and…

  23. pr

      Bad Behavior? I change my mind every five minutes…but come back to that one- it was pivotal for me, certainly.

  24. ryan

      Film:
      Citizen Kane — I know that sounds too obvious or something, but that film has sincerely effected how I look at every form of art. Orson Welles in general has inspired me tremendously.

      Book:
      I can’t pick just one book, but recently How Like An Angel by Jack Driscoll really spoke to my writing and the struggles I was having/the questions that were coming up with my own work.

  25. ryan

      Film:
      Citizen Kane — I know that sounds too obvious or something, but that film has sincerely effected how I look at every form of art. Orson Welles in general has inspired me tremendously.

      Book:
      I can’t pick just one book, but recently How Like An Angel by Jack Driscoll really spoke to my writing and the struggles I was having/the questions that were coming up with my own work.

  26. evelyn

      Orlando by Virginia Woolf. And Gummo.

  27. evelyn

      Orlando by Virginia Woolf. And Gummo.

  28. jereme

      really ryan? fucking citizen kane? i don’t understand the love of this movie.

      it was boring to me. i don’t know.

      rosebud?

  29. jereme

      really ryan? fucking citizen kane? i don’t understand the love of this movie.

      it was boring to me. i don’t know.

      rosebud?

  30. jereme

      “hagakure” aka “hidden within the shadow of leaves” changed how i view life in general. it is more philosophy than “art” i guess.

      van gogh’s “cafe terrace at night” blew my little cock off when i was first introduced to it in 7th grade. it was one of the few things to capture my attention in school.

      movie list could be big.

      i think i would say “sonatine” by kitano takeshi. the emotionless violence and the ending changed me. very eastern.

      “knife in the water” by polanski

      “le cercle de rouge” by jean pierre melville

      “tetsuo” by tsukomoto

      “the asphalt jungle” by john huston

  31. jereme

      “hagakure” aka “hidden within the shadow of leaves” changed how i view life in general. it is more philosophy than “art” i guess.

      van gogh’s “cafe terrace at night” blew my little cock off when i was first introduced to it in 7th grade. it was one of the few things to capture my attention in school.

      movie list could be big.

      i think i would say “sonatine” by kitano takeshi. the emotionless violence and the ending changed me. very eastern.

      “knife in the water” by polanski

      “le cercle de rouge” by jean pierre melville

      “tetsuo” by tsukomoto

      “the asphalt jungle” by john huston

  32. Adam R

      Beckett, Samuel. Endgame.

  33. Adam R

      Beckett, Samuel. Endgame.

  34. Gabriel Blackwell

      First, seeing Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings at MoMA when I was 9.

      Then, hearing Hek-Atomic Cherries “Clamato Block Party” when I was 15.

  35. Gabriel Blackwell

      First, seeing Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings at MoMA when I was 9.

      Then, hearing Hek-Atomic Cherries “Clamato Block Party” when I was 15.

  36. Joseph Young

      Visual stuff, paint etc: David Park, Ernst Kirchner, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofman, Franz West.

  37. Joseph Young

      Visual stuff, paint etc: David Park, Ernst Kirchner, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofman, Franz West.

  38. Tony O'Neill

      Man, for me the biggies were “Chump Change” – Dan Fante, “The Herbert Huncke Reader” and “Junky” by William Burroughs. I’d say all three books were pretty pivotal for me, and reading them all at a pretty interesting time for me would have big repercussions on how my writing would later develop…

  39. Tony O'Neill

      Man, for me the biggies were “Chump Change” – Dan Fante, “The Herbert Huncke Reader” and “Junky” by William Burroughs. I’d say all three books were pretty pivotal for me, and reading them all at a pretty interesting time for me would have big repercussions on how my writing would later develop…

  40. ryan

      a lot of people think it’s boring. i’m in the other camp. i can watch it over and over. it singlehandedly changed the way art in many mediums was made.

      rosebud, man.

  41. ryan

      a lot of people think it’s boring. i’m in the other camp. i can watch it over and over. it singlehandedly changed the way art in many mediums was made.

      rosebud, man.

  42. andrew

      Twilight was pretty good.

  43. andrew

      Twilight was pretty good.

  44. jereme

      i seem to get into the citizen kane debate once every 6 months.

      i really would like to be persuaded to like this movie.

      it never happens though.

      man, you want to talk about dick hardening movies? the wild bunch by the master of gratuitous violence mr. sam peckinpah.

      i don’t know if you can say it “changed” my view points on film. maybe it did. i constantly replayed that movie in my head for 48 hours after initial viewing.

      the end scene, where there is supposed to be a speech but there isn’t. just a look and then the walk to redemption.

      that was some powerful shit.

      plus the dialogue in it blew my mind a little.

  45. jereme

      i seem to get into the citizen kane debate once every 6 months.

      i really would like to be persuaded to like this movie.

      it never happens though.

      man, you want to talk about dick hardening movies? the wild bunch by the master of gratuitous violence mr. sam peckinpah.

      i don’t know if you can say it “changed” my view points on film. maybe it did. i constantly replayed that movie in my head for 48 hours after initial viewing.

      the end scene, where there is supposed to be a speech but there isn’t. just a look and then the walk to redemption.

      that was some powerful shit.

      plus the dialogue in it blew my mind a little.

  46. jereme

      oh and emmanuelle

      i changed the way i viewed my penis after seeing it on cinemax as an early teen.

  47. jereme

      oh and emmanuelle

      i changed the way i viewed my penis after seeing it on cinemax as an early teen.

  48. Clapper

      Ishmael Reed’s “Mumbo Jumo” opened up all kinds of doors for me as far as the way language is used. WP Kinsella’s “The Alligator Report” let me know short-shorts can be more than just exercises. CS Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” were what made me want to write when I was a kid. Natalie Goldberg’s “Wild Mind” gave me tools.

      But most recently? Anything by Ellen Parker is a revelation.

  49. Clapper

      Ishmael Reed’s “Mumbo Jumo” opened up all kinds of doors for me as far as the way language is used. WP Kinsella’s “The Alligator Report” let me know short-shorts can be more than just exercises. CS Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” were what made me want to write when I was a kid. Natalie Goldberg’s “Wild Mind” gave me tools.

      But most recently? Anything by Ellen Parker is a revelation.

  50. davidpeak

      Gummo. I never watched another movie the same way after that.

  51. davidpeak

      Gummo. I never watched another movie the same way after that.

  52. davidpeak

      Red Circle is the shit. Melville is a master. Le Samourai is even better.

  53. davidpeak

      Red Circle is the shit. Melville is a master. Le Samourai is even better.

  54. davidpeak

      Suspiria.

  55. davidpeak

      Suspiria.

  56. barry

      i forgot film and visual art

      visual : dr. seuss illustrated books

      i think in both literature and visual arts, dr. seuss has been my biggest influence. the way his words sound against one another, the sentence structures, the stops and starts, the nonsense, his ability to layer and tell too much and not enough simultaneously. the way your senses are overloaded and your tongue twists up and how much meaning you draw from the text is in direct correlation to how much the reader is willing to invest themselves into the world laid out before them.

      film: im not big into films. visually, i like naked chicks and cartoons. so long as no one on the cartoons are naked. although i wouldnt mind seeing jessica rabbit’s tits. or princess jasmine from alladin. or lilo’s older sister in lilo and stitch. or…….

  57. barry

      i forgot film and visual art

      visual : dr. seuss illustrated books

      i think in both literature and visual arts, dr. seuss has been my biggest influence. the way his words sound against one another, the sentence structures, the stops and starts, the nonsense, his ability to layer and tell too much and not enough simultaneously. the way your senses are overloaded and your tongue twists up and how much meaning you draw from the text is in direct correlation to how much the reader is willing to invest themselves into the world laid out before them.

      film: im not big into films. visually, i like naked chicks and cartoons. so long as no one on the cartoons are naked. although i wouldnt mind seeing jessica rabbit’s tits. or princess jasmine from alladin. or lilo’s older sister in lilo and stitch. or…….

  58. Mike Topp

      1. Ed Ruscha’s ROYAL ROAD TEST (Account of the tossing of a Royal typewriter out the window of a car while going 90 miles an hour. Ed Ruscha drove, Mason Williams threw the typewriter and Ian Blackwell took the photos. This photography book is told in the gravitas akin to an FBI report).

      2. Blue Velvet by David Lynch

  59. Mike Topp

      1. Ed Ruscha’s ROYAL ROAD TEST (Account of the tossing of a Royal typewriter out the window of a car while going 90 miles an hour. Ed Ruscha drove, Mason Williams threw the typewriter and Ian Blackwell took the photos. This photography book is told in the gravitas akin to an FBI report).

      2. Blue Velvet by David Lynch

  60. KevinS

      I liked Gummo a lot but I sort of prefer Kids actually. The main movie on this list for me though is Blue Velvet. I could say Leolo if I wanted to seem fancy (but I’ll hold back. Haha).
      Book-wise, maybe My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (Mark Leyner), Breakfast of Champions, Dear Mr. Capote (Lish), and of course, Stories in the Worst Way.
      Music-wise, seeing Beat Happening live for the first time and listening to Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted.

  61. KevinS

      I liked Gummo a lot but I sort of prefer Kids actually. The main movie on this list for me though is Blue Velvet. I could say Leolo if I wanted to seem fancy (but I’ll hold back. Haha).
      Book-wise, maybe My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (Mark Leyner), Breakfast of Champions, Dear Mr. Capote (Lish), and of course, Stories in the Worst Way.
      Music-wise, seeing Beat Happening live for the first time and listening to Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted.

  62. KevinS

      Mike Topp and I watch Blue Velvet together all the time.

  63. KevinS

      Mike Topp and I watch Blue Velvet together all the time.

  64. jereme

      yeah Le Samourai is a great film but I like the Red Circle a little more. Probably because I saw “The Killer” from John Woo before watching Le Samourai. I don’t know.

  65. jereme

      yeah Le Samourai is a great film but I like the Red Circle a little more. Probably because I saw “The Killer” from John Woo before watching Le Samourai. I don’t know.

  66. jereme

      butterscotch yo!

  67. jereme

      butterscotch yo!

  68. Drew

      Stoner by John Williams. Empire Strikes Back.

  69. Drew

      Stoner by John Williams. Empire Strikes Back.

  70. Mike Topp

      Oh, and Georg Trakl, the German poet who died of a cocaine overdose at age 27 in 1914 is pretty cool.

      De Profundis

      It is a stubble field, where a black rain is falling.
      It is a brown tree, that stands alone.
      It is a hissing wind, that encircles empty houses.
      How melancholy the evening is.

      A while later,
      The soft orphan garners the sparse ears of corn.
      Her eyes graze, round and golden, in the twilight
      And her womb awaits the heavenly bridegroom.

      On the way home
      The shepherd found the sweet body
      Decayed in a bush of thorns.

      I am a shadow far from darkening villages.
      I drank the silence of God
      Out of the stream in the trees.

      Cold metal walks on my forehead.
      Spiders search for my heart.
      It is a light that goes out in my mouth.

      At night, I found myself on a pasture,
      Covered with rubbish and the dust of stars.
      In a hazel thicket
      Angels of crystal rang out once more.

  71. Mike Topp

      Oh, and Georg Trakl, the German poet who died of a cocaine overdose at age 27 in 1914 is pretty cool.

      De Profundis

      It is a stubble field, where a black rain is falling.
      It is a brown tree, that stands alone.
      It is a hissing wind, that encircles empty houses.
      How melancholy the evening is.

      A while later,
      The soft orphan garners the sparse ears of corn.
      Her eyes graze, round and golden, in the twilight
      And her womb awaits the heavenly bridegroom.

      On the way home
      The shepherd found the sweet body
      Decayed in a bush of thorns.

      I am a shadow far from darkening villages.
      I drank the silence of God
      Out of the stream in the trees.

      Cold metal walks on my forehead.
      Spiders search for my heart.
      It is a light that goes out in my mouth.

      At night, I found myself on a pasture,
      Covered with rubbish and the dust of stars.
      In a hazel thicket
      Angels of crystal rang out once more.

  72. davidpeak

      i like it in red circle when the crabs come out of the alcoholic guy’s closet and corner him in his bed.

  73. davidpeak

      i like it in red circle when the crabs come out of the alcoholic guy’s closet and corner him in his bed.

  74. jereme

      woah how come i have not read this before? thanks mike.

  75. jereme

      woah how come i have not read this before? thanks mike.

  76. Molly Gaudry

      Oh dear, I’m so late to this one. Kate Bernheimer’s THE COMPLETE TALES OF KETZIA GOLD and Lydia Millet’s MY HAPPY LIFE.

      There are others, of course, but these two women really opened up the idea of what a book could do…and my last year of writing has definitely taken cues from these two books in particular.

  77. Molly Gaudry

      Oh dear, I’m so late to this one. Kate Bernheimer’s THE COMPLETE TALES OF KETZIA GOLD and Lydia Millet’s MY HAPPY LIFE.

      There are others, of course, but these two women really opened up the idea of what a book could do…and my last year of writing has definitely taken cues from these two books in particular.

  78. drew kalbach

      a new quarantine will take my place by johannes goransson right now is the book i read over and over, but john ashbery’s where shall i wander is what originally opened the entire world of poetry up for me.

      gravity’s rainbow and V. did it for me in fiction.

      and the fucking animorphs.

  79. drew kalbach

      a new quarantine will take my place by johannes goransson right now is the book i read over and over, but john ashbery’s where shall i wander is what originally opened the entire world of poetry up for me.

      gravity’s rainbow and V. did it for me in fiction.

      and the fucking animorphs.

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  83. Colie

      I thought the word Gummo and then I read the word Gummo directly afterward. You know that feeling, like when you’re in the shower and you catch some ridiculous chemical-compound-sounding word in the corner of your eye, but think that maybe you came up with it yourself?

      Anyway, yea, Gummo. And Seymour, An Introduction/Raise High the Roofbeams, and The Waves by VWoolf, for sure.

  84. Colie

      I thought the word Gummo and then I read the word Gummo directly afterward. You know that feeling, like when you’re in the shower and you catch some ridiculous chemical-compound-sounding word in the corner of your eye, but think that maybe you came up with it yourself?

      Anyway, yea, Gummo. And Seymour, An Introduction/Raise High the Roofbeams, and The Waves by VWoolf, for sure.

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  86. ryanp

      infinite jest, lift your skinny fists like antennae to heaven, brothers karamazov

  87. ryanp

      infinite jest, lift your skinny fists like antennae to heaven, brothers karamazov