Friday, March 06, 2009

Influential Writers Meme

"in which you name 25 writers who have influenced you. These are not necessarily your favorite writers or those you most admire, but writers who have influenced you. Then you tag 25 people."

Lots of people are doing this, including Undine, who tagged me for this. I am including critics, and I will follow the lead of Lumpenprofessoriat who has taken the idea of moving chronologically. I may also list people twice, in order to indicate the return of certain writers or their ideas to my life. I'm also boldfacing writers who remain particularly influential to me now. Also, I can't stop at 25.

Finally, I'm defining influential broadly, since I mean that it shifted my thinking about both ideas on their own, and also how I conduct myself in the world. Part of this is that I think my intellectual work has a great deal of bearing on my ethical stances in life. And since you'll see a lot of stuff here on theatricality, feminism, and queerness, I think you'll see some trends.

Early:
  • King James's translators
  • Editors of the World Book Encyclopedia
  • Judy Blume
  • C.S. Lewis
Secondary School:
  • Harper Lee
  • Bullfinch (of Mythology fame)
  • William Shakespeare
  • Robert Frost
  • C.S. Lewis
  • T.S. Eliot
  • A.A. Milne
Undergraduate
  • Truman Capote
  • John Keats
  • William Shakespeare
  • Caryl Churchill
  • Samuel Beckett
  • Erica Jong
  • Italo Calvino
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Tom Stoppard
  • Michel Foucault
  • Richard Schechner
Graduate and beyond
  • Caryl Churchill
  • Samuel Beckett
  • Thomas Kyd
  • Alan Ginsburgh
  • Luigi Pirandello
  • Bertolt Brecht
  • Judith Butler
  • Michel Foucault
  • William Shakespeare
  • Peggy Phelan
  • E.L. Doctorow
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Tom Stoppard
  • Jeannette Winterson
  • Angela Carter
  • Anna Deavere Smith
  • Suzan-Lori Parks
and Undine tagged basically everyone I read (or if I missed you, sorry!) So I'll just copy and paste her list below.
  1. Bardiac
  2. Mel
  3. Profgrrrl
  4. Lesboprof
  5. Sisyphus
  6. Dr. Crazy
  7. Horace (oops, that's me)
  8. Fretful Porpentine
  9. Heu Mihi
  10. K8grrl
  11. Bittersweet Girl
  12. Dr. Virago
  13. What Now?
  14. jo(e)
  15. Dance
  16. Philosophy Factory
  17. Dr. Brazen Hussy
  18. The Salt Box
  19. Moria
  20. 10eleven
  21. Historiann
  22. New Kid
  23. PhDme
  24. MuseyMe
  25. Cheese and Responsibility

2 comments:

Sisyphus said...

Well now you're going to have to do the meme again if you've tagged yourself!

Horace said...

Oh, now that's just asking for it...