Wading Into the Waters
A week of King, Ellison, and McCullers
Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is doing well. This week has been somewhat of a slow burn for me. I’m still working my way through Stephen King’s book On Writing and it really is fascinating. I think King offers some great advice and sets forth good guidelines to follow without trying to influence the writer’s individual voice. My progress feels a little slow, but I am taking notes and digesting what he has to say. At the same time, I’m reading two other books that I feel are instructional in a different way. I will go over each one of them individually in a “Book Talk” post (although I thought I was changing that to “Book Share”, I think I like BS better, lol). That being said, I would like to touch on them lightly here.
Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits (Herald Classics) has really blown me away. I was vaguely aware of him in science fiction circles, but after he was mentioned in King’s book, I purchased a copy of some of his short stories and simply “Wow!” His stories are hard-hitting and provocative and I can see now why so many modern authors (mainly sci-fi and speculative fiction writers) have been influenced by him. Ellison’s storytelling is masterful not only in it’s technique, but in its commentary regarding matters that are relevant to our modern age, but interesting enough were written over fifty years ago.
The second book I’ve been reading is Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Last year I had read The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories, and I was awestruck by how much life I recognized in her writing. I started reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (amazing title by the way) for a library event that I ended up not being able to attend, but I am still in the process of drinking it all in. There is something in McCullers’ writing that I find fascinating, akin to a siren’s song calling me to wade deeper into the waters, but they are dark and everything surrounding them is misty and overcast, but not in a scary way (well maybe a little scary). I am curious as to what I am discovering.
That’s about it. Let me know what you think about the channel if you get a chance or comment if there is anything you would like to talk about. If you have any writing that you would like me to post, let me know. Take care!
CeK
"fascinating, akin to a siren’s song calling me to wade deeper into the waters, but they are dark and everything surrounding them is misty and overcast, but not in a scary way (well maybe a little scary). I am curious as to what I am discovering." - this is a beautiful line and accurately depicts my experience as well! This book is one of my favorites and changes me each time I read it. Thanks for posting.