Thirty Authors in Thirty Days

For Those Who Have Been Counting

Jim's Notes — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:01:27 GMT

I have completed 27 of my ambitious but grossly underwhelming 30 authors in 30 days project. Simply put, I have given up. So here you go with out further ado, the remainder of the authors on my list.

Joseph Conrad -- For his book, Heart of Darkness, not only for it's themes of the good and evil of which man is capable, but also for inspiring the equally great movie, Apocalypse Now. If you haven't checked out either, check them both.
Flannery O'Connor. Goddess of the Southern Gothic. Her story, A Good Man is Hard to Find is an American classic.
Elmore Leonard -- For the fact that his books are wildly entertaining. They have inspired some great movies too which include Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and the recently released remake, 3:10 to Yuma. Personal favorite book: Cuba Libre.
Bonus Author: Arthur C. Clarke -- 2001: A Space Oddity. Enough said.

Well, there you have it. The fizzling conclusion of Thirty Authors in Thirty Days. Perhaps now, I can get back to blogging in a more consistent fashion.

Kurt Vonnegut

Jim's Notes — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:30:42 GMT

"So it goes." -- Vonnegut

Okay, Kurt Vonnegut. I can't stress enough how much I admire his work. I read Slaughterhouse-Five as a young teen and I was hooked. I think after that I quickly read Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions. No other author that I can think of has mastered a style of writing that is almost a purposeful throwback to the established literary world (which can be pretty pompous at times). Vonnegut has been known to include doodles in his books, has introduced himself as a character (maybe not the first, certainly not the last to have done this, but done with panache) and has purposefully changed the rules on how numbers are conveyed in written text.

Unfortunately Vonnegut passed away earlier this year at the age of 84 after suffering a fall. In the days following his death, it became apparent how many lives he has touched.

So it goes.

George Orwell

Jim's Notes — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:10 GMT

Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings. -- George Orwell. Animal Farm

What can I say. Animal Farm. 1984. If there has ever been a social critic as tuned in as George Orwell I don't know who it could be. Big Brother is watching you. This I know to be true. The Ministry of Truth, just the other day staged a press conference to make themselves look good in the eyes of the country. The pigs always get fat. Please feel free to click the contact link at the left hand side of my site to see a picture of the man in question. Also, feel free to drop me a line, but remember.... Big Brother is watching....

Aldous Huxley

Jim's Notes — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:10:29 GMT

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley

Facts certainly don't cease to exist just because they are ignored, and the fact is, I am now on day 75 of my 30 Authors in Thirty Days project. I offer no apologies. Ye, I plug on. Blogging is my hobby, not my job, and I am thankful for it. It's sports writer syndrome. You may love it, but when you have to do it, you end up hating it. But I digress. On to Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley is best known for his utopian masterpiece, A Brave New World. Huxley's utopia ain't what it's cracked up to be. Genetic and pharmaceutical engineering is the machinery that keeps society moving. People are born in test tubes into several classes which are genetically engineered to fill different roles in society. They are controlled by soma, a mind altering drug that causes them to be happy consumers, while taking part in hapless, recreational sex as a pastime. (All reproduction is done in laboratories.) So in a way, it is a utopia -- life is pleasurable, there is no war, no poverty, no crime, but the utopia is only on the surface. In such a brave new sterile world, they miss the very things that make us human: love, art, family, religion, the self. In short, culture.

Aldous Huxley himself is as interesting as his writing. Late in his life Huxley became interested in mysticism and enlightenment. He experimented with mind altering drugs such as peyote and mescaline, and ultimately began experimenting with LSD. He thought that LSD in particular could lead man towards enlightenment. As Huxley lay dying in the early sixties, he asked for a dosage of 100 micrograms of LSD. He died peacefully several hours after he took the drug. LSD was legal at the time.

Ayn Rand

Jim's Notes — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:35:27 GMT

"It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener." -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

I could take that the above quote personally, but I won't. In fact, I include Ayn Rand on my list for two reasons the first being that I have read A LOT of Ayn Rand, and when I say a lot it is only three books, ( Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living) but with 645,000 words in Atlas Shrugged alone you get the picture. Plus, I feel obliged to mention her due to the fact that four of her books made the top ten readers choice of the 100 best novels as compiled by the random house Modern Library. (It also bares noting that none of her books made the list according to board members of the Modern Library.) In reality, her books are elitist, masturbatory, didactic and a little too romantic for my tastes. But for whatever reason her books have mass appeal and in the end you can't discount that. Oh, yeah, and this schmuck even made a career of doing nothing more than jabbering about Rand. In some unfortunate twist of fate I was subjected to a lecture by the guy recorded on cassette tape on some marathon overnight trip to New York. Take my word for it: the drivel that comes out of his mouth has absolutely no value.

Mark Twain

Jim's Notes — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:44:25 GMT

How stunning are the changes which age makes in a man while he sleeps! -- Mark Twain

Phew. Number 23 on my list. I'll get through this I swear. I don't know whether it is a fault or a virtue but I tend to dive into things headfirst and then figure it out later. That is certainly the case with this project. Anyway, on to 23....

Mark Twain. I almost crossed this off my list because I wasn't sure what I would say about him. He is definitely the most iconic writer in the history of these United States of America, but I just didn't know what to say. But I included him anyway for the fact that my father used to read me Twain while I was a young pup on his knee, and if this list is about authors who have inspired me, what could be more inspirational than that. So on this day, the day my father was born, I would like to say thank you Dad, for reading me Mark Twain, and for everything else... for making me everything that I am.

Thomas Pynchon

Jim's Notes — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:12:49 GMT

"A number of frail girls... prisoners in the top room of a circular tower, embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, seeking hopelessly to fill the void: for all the other buildings and creatures, all the waves, ships and forests of the earth were contained in this tapestry, and the tapestry was the world" -- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

Last night while thinking of tonight's author, I picked up my copy of The Crying of Lot 49 and reread the first and second chapters. I am looking forward to reading a few more chapters tonight. Now there is a great book. Every sentence, every word points towards a larger meaning, some subtext or another, that is as ambiguous as it is meaningful. Flamboyant character's names such as Pierce Inverarity, Dr. Hilarius, and Oedipa Maas (not to forget "Mucho" Maas) are carefully chosen to create humor and meaning. The whole book. If I had to choose one word to describe Thomas Pynchon's writing style in The Crying of Lot 49 it would be meaningful.

Below is a painting done by Remedios Varo that plays a role in the book:

William Gibson

Jim's Notes — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:45:51 GMT

The NET is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it.-- William Gibson

Gibson's writing portrays a world in which technology is pervasive. The futuristic devices in his work are part of the environment much in the same way that computers (and other technologies) are in our world. A notebook computer is just a notebook much like a spoon is a spoon. Technology exists to solve problems. Nano robots provide real-time protection from graffiti. Celebrities are completely virtual. Think Lara Croft. Or Buzz Lightyear. Gibson is even credited with having predicted the internet. I don't know if he predicted blogs or not, but he has one located here.

Ernest Hemingway

Jim's Notes — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:38:17 GMT

Another author who lived boldly. Another author who I desperately need to read more of. I like his short story Hills like White Elephants in particular. I don't know if I have ever read another story that says so much without saying anything at all.

Jack London

Jim's Notes — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:29:36 GMT

The next author I chose not so much for his literary work (which is far reaching), but for the way he led his life. Jack London's famous credo states:

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

These seem like words that we should all take to heart. Existing is easy. Even rocks can do it. But living! Living takes effort and the pay off if you do it right is... there is no better word I can think of than fulfillment. Jack London certainly led a life of fulfillment. Besides his literary work; which includes such masterpieces as the novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang and the wonderful short story To Build A Fire, London also worked manual labor jobs at a cannery, as a sailor and often lived the life of a hobo. He was married several times and was an ardent socialist who ran unsuccessfully several times for mayor. On top of all that, he was self educated. And his writings are masterpieces. No plain old igneous could have done all that. And certainly not a sedimentary.