On Influence: ‘DOOM, DOOM, DOOM!’
I was at a reading end of last year or sometime, this guy, reading words on paper, talked between the things he’d written previously, to explain the things he’d written previously, though in a way so that the lead-ins were way better than the things themselves, making me huddle in the head some for the idea of making words, at least in there.
Word schools. “My father was a steel man: me, I’m in syllables, ones that don’t quite say.”
Me too, me too, I’m sure.
Regardless, during one of these monologues between glossies the dude said something about how when he teaches fresh writing students, the first thing he tells ’em is how they have to get out of the mode of imitating what they love. How they needed to stop trying to mimic other writers in the mind of ‘using their own voice.’
I seriously had to grab my pitching arm from grabbing a book off the shelf of the store the reading was in and lobbing it at dude’s head.
I bit my mouth and forgot about it for a while, so I could get out without hemorrhage.
All this acting as a lead-in for the real post I wanted to post, my current favorite viral video of the month:
Mos Def in admiration for his man the MF Doom
Magic begets magic, like how I get up any day at all, maybe.
Those ones that make you glow.
How many years I spent trying to figure out this one:
only to come to know that my learning in not-learning was the real one, and no one could anyway, no matter how hard and long they tried.
[Here’s where I say something about the scene in ‘The Fermata’ by Nicholson Baker, the scene where the guy records the erotic story for the woman on the highway and installs it in her car so she can listen and be primed for when they pass, for those who know that story, and how time can be anything and not at all. I don’t care that that just made no sense.]
[Here’s where I say something about that scene in ‘The Wild Boys’ where the kid is riding his bike down a street, and how I have spent however many years trying to replicate the feeling those two pages gave in me.]
[Here’s where though the Ramones shat 10,000 shitty bands, they still rewired all those cells.]
[Here’s a random bowdown for my joint ‘Suttree’.]
Here’s where I show you some MF Doom and how he rules:
Get the game up.
Dude, remember all caps when you spell the man’s name.
Dude, remember all caps when you spell the man’s name.
oh fuck
oh fuck
Love this.
I remember the first time I heard MF Doom. It was the song ‘Sofa King’ that was in an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he was using the name Danger Doom for that album. Anyway his new record is incredible.
I remember the first time I heard MF Doom. It was the song ‘Sofa King’ that was in an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he was using the name Danger Doom for that album. Anyway his new record is incredible.
get over what they’d been reading and move on
I think it happens and that is all. It’s not something a writer controls. You imitate to feel it out, if it sticks it sticks, you work it and do it better or lesser, if it doesn’t stick you move on, all of this unconsciously. Imitation is healthy though, its processorial, it gets you under the skin of processes, you have to do it or else.
I’m in a thing now of reading way too much beckett lately and I keep wanting to sit down and write the longest paragraph I’ve ever written about the most mundane thing I can imagine and I don’t because I think well, it has been done, what am I doing, but maybe tonight I will do this, sit down and chew my pencil up.
get over what they’d been reading and move on
I think it happens and that is all. It’s not something a writer controls. You imitate to feel it out, if it sticks it sticks, you work it and do it better or lesser, if it doesn’t stick you move on, all of this unconsciously. Imitation is healthy though, its processorial, it gets you under the skin of processes, you have to do it or else.
I’m in a thing now of reading way too much beckett lately and I keep wanting to sit down and write the longest paragraph I’ve ever written about the most mundane thing I can imagine and I don’t because I think well, it has been done, what am I doing, but maybe tonight I will do this, sit down and chew my pencil up.
Also, just about any style is nothing but an amalgam of multiple styles from multiple influences, or variations of existing styles. All a writer ever does is imitate.
Also, just about any style is nothing but an amalgam of multiple styles from multiple influences, or variations of existing styles. All a writer ever does is imitate.
exactly
exactly
of course man. of course. pretending like mufuggas ain’t try to copy and get inspired by others is fuckn stupid. definitely magic begets magic. beckett want t be joyce but caint so he’s beckett and barthelme wants to be beckett but cant so he’s barthelme and saunders and dfw want to be barthelme but cant so be themselves and cormac mccarthy wants to be joyce and melville and old saints writing the KJV but cant so he’s cormac and barry wants to be cormac but cant so he’s barry and we all want to be them all but cant so we be ourselves.
of course man. of course. pretending like mufuggas ain’t try to copy and get inspired by others is fuckn stupid. definitely magic begets magic. beckett want t be joyce but caint so he’s beckett and barthelme wants to be beckett but cant so he’s barthelme and saunders and dfw want to be barthelme but cant so be themselves and cormac mccarthy wants to be joyce and melville and old saints writing the KJV but cant so he’s cormac and barry wants to be cormac but cant so he’s barry and we all want to be them all but cant so we be ourselves.
good thoughts
good thoughts
viktor vaughn’s vaudeville villain. still hasn’t been topped.
viktor vaughn’s vaudeville villain. still hasn’t been topped.
much love for DOOM
much love for DOOM
I”m kind of partial to King Geedorah.
But Vaudeville, Take Me To Your Leader and Operation Doomsday are essential.
I”m kind of partial to King Geedorah.
But Vaudeville, Take Me To Your Leader and Operation Doomsday are essential.
i know a poet who doesnt read anything…. except fashion magazines…. and she has her own voice, her own style.
its possible.
and even more possible when you consider that language is built into human genetics, an aptitude not only for communication but for writing.
and then when you double that with, lets say, having a creative family, or a history of creativity, you can write and write well without ever having read anything.
because you’re surrounded by people speaking all the time. I’m not saying you don’t NEED books anymore, but in terms of this argument, you do need books to become a great writer. to write something which affects, because language can be derived from conversation, or other media having nothing to do with “creative” writing.
of course one could argue even news articles are creative writing, as you must creatively string words together (or any writing in general is creative, even conversation, which might be why you have people who are just dreadfully BORING talkers).
the magic of it all….
I, on the other hand, read anything and everything.
back of cereal boxes, nutritional facts, toilet paper rolls, the pores on my face, how HTML GIANT is often called HTMLG, which makes it sound like a gangster version of HTML.
I think what MF DOOM might be saying is, you don’t have to be on other writers jock on the daily. People get too much into just the literature of things, and don’t check out music, don’t check out instruction manuals (people get paid to write those bitches), and all the other types of influence.
There’s a lot out there.
i know a poet who doesnt read anything…. except fashion magazines…. and she has her own voice, her own style.
its possible.
and even more possible when you consider that language is built into human genetics, an aptitude not only for communication but for writing.
and then when you double that with, lets say, having a creative family, or a history of creativity, you can write and write well without ever having read anything.
because you’re surrounded by people speaking all the time. I’m not saying you don’t NEED books anymore, but in terms of this argument, you do need books to become a great writer. to write something which affects, because language can be derived from conversation, or other media having nothing to do with “creative” writing.
of course one could argue even news articles are creative writing, as you must creatively string words together (or any writing in general is creative, even conversation, which might be why you have people who are just dreadfully BORING talkers).
the magic of it all….
I, on the other hand, read anything and everything.
back of cereal boxes, nutritional facts, toilet paper rolls, the pores on my face, how HTML GIANT is often called HTMLG, which makes it sound like a gangster version of HTML.
I think what MF DOOM might be saying is, you don’t have to be on other writers jock on the daily. People get too much into just the literature of things, and don’t check out music, don’t check out instruction manuals (people get paid to write those bitches), and all the other types of influence.
There’s a lot out there.
uhh, “’m not saying you don’t NEED books anymore, but in terms of this argument, you do need books to become a great writer.”
thats supposed to be you DO NOT NEED BOOKS to become a great writer.
damn it
uhh, “’m not saying you don’t NEED books anymore, but in terms of this argument, you do need books to become a great writer.”
thats supposed to be you DO NOT NEED BOOKS to become a great writer.
damn it
I think what MF DOOM might be saying is, you don’t have to be on other writers jock on the daily. People get too much into just the literature of things, and don’t check out music, don’t check out instruction manuals (people get paid to write those bitches), and all the other types of influence.
I think what MF DOOM might be saying is, you don’t have to be on other writers jock on the daily. People get too much into just the literature of things, and don’t check out music, don’t check out instruction manuals (people get paid to write those bitches), and all the other types of influence.
Hi Blake- great post. I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed listening to MF Doom while I was reading it.
I agree with you that all writing is born out of your influences. It’s like that old jazz thing (I know, “jazz”, dont fall asleep, this actually ties in with what Im saying) “imitate, then innovate” It can take you a long time to get out from under your influences enough that the voice is your own, but that period of imitating the writers you admire is like learning fucking scales or something if youre a piano player. its essential shit. Thats how you figure it out. Theres that old story that Hunter S Thompson used to transcribe Hemingways books, and that how he figured out how to pace a novel.
I dont know, I’m not sure if writing can be taught. because I think there is no ‘way”. For me, the best advice on writing came from a song – “Contort Yourself” by james Chance – “First you gotta take out all of the garbage that’s in your brain” And thats basically it for me – I think for lots of people, writing is a process of “unlearning” everything you think you know. Same with music. All of the classic type stuff I learned was an impediment when i started playing in bands. I had to learn how to strip it down, and keep it simple.
Anyway, fuck, Im high on kratom and on my second cup of coffee, so this could just be crazy talk now. i cant tell anymore.
Hi Blake- great post. I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed listening to MF Doom while I was reading it.
I agree with you that all writing is born out of your influences. It’s like that old jazz thing (I know, “jazz”, dont fall asleep, this actually ties in with what Im saying) “imitate, then innovate” It can take you a long time to get out from under your influences enough that the voice is your own, but that period of imitating the writers you admire is like learning fucking scales or something if youre a piano player. its essential shit. Thats how you figure it out. Theres that old story that Hunter S Thompson used to transcribe Hemingways books, and that how he figured out how to pace a novel.
I dont know, I’m not sure if writing can be taught. because I think there is no ‘way”. For me, the best advice on writing came from a song – “Contort Yourself” by james Chance – “First you gotta take out all of the garbage that’s in your brain” And thats basically it for me – I think for lots of people, writing is a process of “unlearning” everything you think you know. Same with music. All of the classic type stuff I learned was an impediment when i started playing in bands. I had to learn how to strip it down, and keep it simple.
Anyway, fuck, Im high on kratom and on my second cup of coffee, so this could just be crazy talk now. i cant tell anymore.
All of the O’Neills in the house, check that shit out- i wonder if kevin and i are related.
All of the O’Neills in the house, check that shit out- i wonder if kevin and i are related.
news articles, fuck no. not when there’s a ceiling on the ‘level of writing’. i graduated as a journalism major at a top school and they told us from the get go that we had to write at mostly a fifth grade level.
there’s a little bit of give when doing feature stories but not hard news articles.
news articles, fuck no. not when there’s a ceiling on the ‘level of writing’. i graduated as a journalism major at a top school and they told us from the get go that we had to write at mostly a fifth grade level.
there’s a little bit of give when doing feature stories but not hard news articles.
I get asked alot if I’m related to Martin O’Neill. (I’m not.) If you are to him we might be.
I get asked alot if I’m related to Martin O’Neill. (I’m not.) If you are to him we might be.
“Theres that old story that Hunter S Thompson used to transcribe Hemingways books, and that how he figured out how to pace a novel.”
Dirty Projectors recording a Black Flag album from memory.
“Theres that old story that Hunter S Thompson used to transcribe Hemingways books, and that how he figured out how to pace a novel.”
Dirty Projectors recording a Black Flag album from memory.
Yes. The best three.
“Please
Aint nobody fucking after her
I’m out of here as soon as I fix the flux capacitor
N O N and speak to V in a proper manner
before he stabs ya and put out all type of proper gander
Stop the slander
Chop the hand of a thief
And cut the mouth off of who ever comes out they teeth”
Yes. The best three.
“Please
Aint nobody fucking after her
I’m out of here as soon as I fix the flux capacitor
N O N and speak to V in a proper manner
before he stabs ya and put out all type of proper gander
Stop the slander
Chop the hand of a thief
And cut the mouth off of who ever comes out they teeth”