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[draegonhawke]

One of the things most vital and damaging to an author is the reading of excellent works by other people.

Discuss.

Comments

[x_los]

I refer you to the Helen Vendler essay on Ashbury's poem about the self-portrait in a convex mirror, because it's a really eloquent discussion of this. Actually you might like that essay, I'll just give you my copy with my Egyptian book to borrow tomorrow. We just did a big discussion on this in class yesterday, oddly enough.

[thiefofvoices]

My experience is a bit different from that: One of the things most vital and damaging to an author is the reading of excellent works their peers. This might just be a personal thing, but when I read something amazing written by someone significantly older than I am, I can step back and say, 'Someday I want to write like this.' (Or, if not necessarily like that, then 'I want to write something that effects someone as much as this did me.') However, when a peer writes it, no matter if it's one of my friends or someone I only know of because of their published work/any other story I may have run across, then I'm left with not only the feeling of having something inside me torn out in a good way, but also the feeling that I will never be as good as they are because they are close to or are my age. Yet at the same time, if I don't have this kind of competition, I slack off and don't improve, so I still need this experience.