(no subject)
Ugh am bloody ill. Have caught a lousy cold from my kids. They are super generous :-) Plus am suffering somewhat from menopausal symptoms. Girls, it sure does suck to be a woman of a certain age sometimes. Relish your youth while you've got it. OK, bitter old hag moan over.
What I really wanted to do here is log my reading activities. When I go back to work in September - and believe me I cannot wait! - I have to teach a module entitled Writers Reading. This is basically a class that encourages creative writing students to read. Now this sounds simple, but you would not believe the amount of people who come in wanting to be writers but do not read stuff. I find this pretty amazing. I mean, how are you supposed to learn about style, form, narrative, characterisation etc if you don't read? Surprisingly, all too many budding writers seem to think they can do just that, and when you read their work, it's very clear that they have very little idea of what they're doing. So the basic premise of the class is to encourage them to read as much as possible, and, if you like, to create their own reading canon. This, I feel, is especially important in genre work. How are you meant to create, say, a classic fantasy, if you haven't read widely in that field? Part of the course will involve them keeping a reading journal, talking about what they've read, and presenting to the class on a regular basis. That last bit's a bit mean, perhaps, but presenting work to your peers is an important part of a writer's journey.
Anyway, I thought: if I'm expecting my students to keep a reading journal, then I ought to too. So I'm going to log stuff on here as a permanent record. People who know me know that I'm a horror afficianado, so I expect much of this will talk about horror works and writers. So, here goes. I began this a few weeks ago, so some of the dates don't match today's, and I'll probably break it into several posts to prevent mega boredom!
From beginning of July 2005
Aims of this project: to build a personal canon of literature upon which I can build/reference my own writing.
Types of sources to be used:
1. Fictional works, including short stories, novellas, novels, and possibly drama and poetry.
2. Theory based works i.e. professional journals, books, internet sites.
3. Philosophy based resources such as myth, religion, philiosophers (which I have very little knowledge of so do need to begin reading more of this kind of stuff)
For my fictional canon I have decided to approach horror works, especially vampires, which are my all time favourite 'monsters'. What appeals to me about vampires/vampire lit?
1. Vamp lit has always been my favourite sub genre.
2. There's a lot - an almost inexhaustible supply, in fact - of vamp lit out there, so sources are easy to find.
3. Because there's so much, it's difficult to be inventive/original/subversive. How does what I read affect my writing? How can I subvert the genre, since subversive writing is my favourite style? What versions are there of this ancient myth, and how does it vary?
4. Research areas are huge and easily accessible. This might make my reading/research timetable more difficult in some ways, because it's easy to become confused with the amount of work to trawl through. I must learn to be selective. However - the upside of this - if I want to produce a work of vampire-type fiction that might be different from others, then the wiide range of research material could give me a new angle.
My current vampiric style writing is a novel, untitled as yet. I have to ask myself: Why vampires? What is so fascinating to me about the myth, and how can I add to an ever-growing market, and be original? These are questions I must continually ask myself as I write.
Based on my reading so far, vampires have qualities that appeal to me (and I suspect other 'vampire lovers') immensely: immortality; eternal youth (assuming they were turned when young); a feral/predatory nature that is often associated with dangerous beauty (in common with so many predators in the natural world); a sense of their being beyond/not having to adhere to mankind's 'normal' laws, along with the ability to be/remain hidden, either by tradition (the night/dark), or by their abilities of deception/obfuscation; the dubious blessing of amorality and not worrying too much about their conscience or lack of it; mystique; strength; etc etc. These are of course generalisations and based on the more modern vampire traditions (i.e. from Varney the Vampire/Dracula onwards).
These themes are not only common in vamp lit, of course, but in much other fantasy, of which the horror genre and the sub genre of vamp lit are strands which share many characteristics. The sense of Other, the I/Not-I dichotomy. To me, the vampire is both I and Other, an interesting combination that I find seductive.
So basically, those are my aims/observations so far. I shall continue with a review of 'Dracula The Undead', a novel by Freda Warrington. I'll do this next post.
What I really wanted to do here is log my reading activities. When I go back to work in September - and believe me I cannot wait! - I have to teach a module entitled Writers Reading. This is basically a class that encourages creative writing students to read. Now this sounds simple, but you would not believe the amount of people who come in wanting to be writers but do not read stuff. I find this pretty amazing. I mean, how are you supposed to learn about style, form, narrative, characterisation etc if you don't read? Surprisingly, all too many budding writers seem to think they can do just that, and when you read their work, it's very clear that they have very little idea of what they're doing. So the basic premise of the class is to encourage them to read as much as possible, and, if you like, to create their own reading canon. This, I feel, is especially important in genre work. How are you meant to create, say, a classic fantasy, if you haven't read widely in that field? Part of the course will involve them keeping a reading journal, talking about what they've read, and presenting to the class on a regular basis. That last bit's a bit mean, perhaps, but presenting work to your peers is an important part of a writer's journey.
Anyway, I thought: if I'm expecting my students to keep a reading journal, then I ought to too. So I'm going to log stuff on here as a permanent record. People who know me know that I'm a horror afficianado, so I expect much of this will talk about horror works and writers. So, here goes. I began this a few weeks ago, so some of the dates don't match today's, and I'll probably break it into several posts to prevent mega boredom!
From beginning of July 2005
Aims of this project: to build a personal canon of literature upon which I can build/reference my own writing.
Types of sources to be used:
1. Fictional works, including short stories, novellas, novels, and possibly drama and poetry.
2. Theory based works i.e. professional journals, books, internet sites.
3. Philosophy based resources such as myth, religion, philiosophers (which I have very little knowledge of so do need to begin reading more of this kind of stuff)
For my fictional canon I have decided to approach horror works, especially vampires, which are my all time favourite 'monsters'. What appeals to me about vampires/vampire lit?
1. Vamp lit has always been my favourite sub genre.
2. There's a lot - an almost inexhaustible supply, in fact - of vamp lit out there, so sources are easy to find.
3. Because there's so much, it's difficult to be inventive/original/subversive. How does what I read affect my writing? How can I subvert the genre, since subversive writing is my favourite style? What versions are there of this ancient myth, and how does it vary?
4. Research areas are huge and easily accessible. This might make my reading/research timetable more difficult in some ways, because it's easy to become confused with the amount of work to trawl through. I must learn to be selective. However - the upside of this - if I want to produce a work of vampire-type fiction that might be different from others, then the wiide range of research material could give me a new angle.
My current vampiric style writing is a novel, untitled as yet. I have to ask myself: Why vampires? What is so fascinating to me about the myth, and how can I add to an ever-growing market, and be original? These are questions I must continually ask myself as I write.
Based on my reading so far, vampires have qualities that appeal to me (and I suspect other 'vampire lovers') immensely: immortality; eternal youth (assuming they were turned when young); a feral/predatory nature that is often associated with dangerous beauty (in common with so many predators in the natural world); a sense of their being beyond/not having to adhere to mankind's 'normal' laws, along with the ability to be/remain hidden, either by tradition (the night/dark), or by their abilities of deception/obfuscation; the dubious blessing of amorality and not worrying too much about their conscience or lack of it; mystique; strength; etc etc. These are of course generalisations and based on the more modern vampire traditions (i.e. from Varney the Vampire/Dracula onwards).
These themes are not only common in vamp lit, of course, but in much other fantasy, of which the horror genre and the sub genre of vamp lit are strands which share many characteristics. The sense of Other, the I/Not-I dichotomy. To me, the vampire is both I and Other, an interesting combination that I find seductive.
So basically, those are my aims/observations so far. I shall continue with a review of 'Dracula The Undead', a novel by Freda Warrington. I'll do this next post.