sacrificial wamb

I read a lot of non-fiction. When I graduated uni I ended up doing a bullshit grad scheme job I LOATHED, so instead of doing any work I sat around reading a now-dormant website which curated longform journalism (its full archive is here, though it's now littered with broken links). Writing from the POV of a journalist was like catnip to me, though honestly I squeeze in references to shit I've read whenever I can. In one Succession fic I really enjoyed playing with Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and some other notorious articles when writing a faux profile of Shiv Roy--but the references to shit I've read articles about also get more oblique: the same fic also contains a frankly heinous mid-sex-scene reference to the nutty putty cave incident, for example.

As a child I was a huge fan of Greek/Latin plays and poetry, particularly Euripides and Ovid: I was lucky enough to see Alan Cumming in John Tiffany/David Greig's adaptation of the Bacchae and I genuinely came out of the theatre transformed. I was at just the right age for it to hit and make me think: you know what? You can write whatever you want forever and no matter how arcane you get with it, so long as you are funny/insane/perverted/horrific enough there will be people who think it slaps. Sparagmos for the masses!

In terms of fiction, I read loads and loads and loads of Terry Pratchett as a young child. I remember dressing up as Susan Sto Helit for World Book Day aged 9 and no one having a fucking clue who I was supposed to be. I loved (and love) the Discworld, even though back then fully 90% of the jokes did not land with me. My dad was a big fan of sci-fi/fantasy/horror, so I ran the gamut of Asimov/Herbert/Bear/Bester/Wynne Jones/King pretty young, too. I honestly just read quite widely. I wish I had the time to read more! I got really into short stories recently and read a bunch of Borges.

I'd also be remiss not to mention some non-literary inspirations:

I really enjoy using the writing process as a vehicle for googling weird shit. Right now I'm working on an asoiaf continuation, for example, and I've really been loving researching, variously: nomadic warriors of the steppe; gout; ancient musical instruments; jousts; medieval Venice; Macbeth; banking systems; etc.. Just this morning I was checking out movie palaces in 1920s Boston for another thing. It's such a springboard for discovery and I can't sand the edges off that sentiment to make it sound less earnest and therefore more cool. I love learning shit and I don't have the time or money for a master's degree! So it goes! In the next year or so I'd really like to make inroads on an original thing I'm writing about left-wing organising in 1930s America, primarily so I can give myself a curriculum and disguise it as creation.

Cannot overestimate the value of a good special interest, either. Over the last few years it's been mycology, plane crashes, and recently birds, but prior to that it's been Ancient Greece, palaeontology, geology, Charles VI of France, etc.. Having a special interest makes experiencing the world feel like Charlie Kelly's red-string board moment from iasip, in that it's chaotic in there but I'm having a great time.

Film!!! I love movies. I need to watch more movies. When my work life calms tf down I will watch movies for days on end and that's a PROMISE. I love TV too but movies are where my heart is. Here's my letterboxd, though it's looking pretty sparse this year due to the work woes. I'm particularly inspired by Agnès Varda, who said in her self-titled documentary retrospective: 'When you decide to look closely at something that may be trite, it's no longer trite. The very act of looking at it changes it. Nothing is trite, if you film people with empathy and love--if you find them extraordinary, as I did'.