Influence and Inspiration

Writer Neil Gaiman claims, ‘You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.’ In many ways I find my everyday life influence enough to write.

Emily Dickinson gained her inspiration, from what I can gather, the view from her bedroom window, newspapers, and perhaps most importantly books, she claims ‘The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul- BOOKS.’ Whilst Cheever appears to gain inspiration from the world around him, there is a shattering truth to Cheever’s work that bleeds his brutal exposure to reality; his alcoholism, his need to support his family and his battle with his own sexuality.  It seems to me; all this fed into his writing and therefore must have played an integral part in his inspiration and influence.

As I writer I think it’s important to view the world through the eyes of a writer, everything is inspiration. Whether I’m sat in a restaurant or walking along the street, all the people around me are my inspiration. I think writers have to be nosy; I listen in on conversations and arguments, I’ll see a particularly disdainful check out assistant at Sainsburys and wonder about the life that lies behind that glazed over expression. As Graham Greene argues, ‘The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You’re there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see—every scrap, even at the longest and most boring of luncheon parties.’

Painter, George Seurat, took inspiration from a typical Sunday afternoon at the park to create this famous painting:

Our letter to the world..

Emily Dickinson writes in poem ‘441’:

This is my letter to the World

That never wrote to Me

I interpret a ‘letter to the world’ as a means of revealing to everyone your stripped back opinions, morals, regrets and struggles within your life. Freud believed all texts are autobiographical, that everything we write is a result of the anxieties and psychological tensions we have suffered in our life. If this is the case, and I personally believe it is, then every writer’s work is their letter to the world, including Dickinson and Cheever. Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeffellholz claim that Dickinson’s poetry was ‘an attempt to communicate with the world, either at large, or a specific audience whom she courted, that had abandoned her’ (A Companion to Emily Dickinson, 2008). I would argue that Dickinson’s work was, even if she didn’t intend it to be, her letter to a world, that she spent her entire life distancing herself from. In my opinion both Dickinson and Cheever’s work portrays many of their life struggles; for example, many of Cheever’s characters are projections of his own flawed character, such as Neddy in ‘The Swimmer’, who’s an alcoholic, just as Cheever was known to be. As writers, we may not necessarily be aware of it, but our unconscious mind is constantly being fed into our writing. I have, in the past, looked back at short stories and poetry I’ve written and been surprised at how alike the voice of a character is to mine, although that was never my intension. Therefore I would argue that a writer’s work is their ‘letter to the word’, even if they never intended it to be.

The political and social dilemma...

Charles Dickens, arguably considered one of Britain’s greatest writers, undeniably used his writing as a vehicle to comment on the social and political tragedies he saw unfolding around him during the 19^th century, Oliver and A Christmas Carol  being a prime example of this. In literature there are always going to be writers who devote their talent to promote a political and social message, however I disagree that it is every writer’s responsibility to do so.

Donald M. Hassler in Political Science Fiction (1997) argues ‘Sometimes the political content is only a minor theme in a larger design’.

Arguably Dickinson is a prime example of this, I don’t believe she wrote with a political or social agenda in mind but in many ways some social and political influence, is inescapable. She may not have consciously intended to comment on the American Civil War through her poetry, however due to the fact she was alive during this time, critics are inclined to interpret her work from this angle.

Arthur Yap, a poet from Singapore, claims, ‘I’m not a person who wants to write poems with a political basis or a social basis, commenting on society as such. As a writer my commitment is to writing.’ (Yap, Arthur 1989)

In many ways I can sympathise entirely with Yap’s statement, as when writing myself, I rarely write with social or political issues in mind, however I don’t think this effects the strength of my writing. Inevitably if someone is a talented writer, as long as they create a good story, I don’t think it’s important what they write about.

In contrast, here is an example of a modern day musician, Plan B, using his art to convey a political and social message: 

Individual style.

American writer Katherine Porter claims, ‘You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being’, therefore style is the voice which a writer develops; it’s the integral essence of their writing that sets them apart. Scott Donaldson claims in John Cheever: A Biography (iUniverse 2002), ‘What distinguishes Cheever from minor writers is that throughout the assimilative process he kept his own distinct and idiosyncratic voice’, therefore although many have argued Cheever embraced the New Yorker witty, wry, sardonic style in many ways, I would argue, he was so successful because of his ability to develop his own unique style; a style that very much encompassed his own voice and being.  

Donaldson states ‘You can pick up a Cheever story or novel anywhere and know within a paragraph or two who is speaking’, I would argue the same when discussing great writers such as Kafka, Hemingway and Emily Dickinson. Therefore I believe developing my style is a vital part in my process of becoming a writer and although I don’t believe I’ve completed this process as yet, I feel university has definitely aided me in evolving my own unique voice. This is important, as ultimately it’s the great writer’s unmistakable style that sets them apart from the crowd, because, at the end of the day, every aspiring author’s crucial aim to get themselves noticed.

William Carlos Williams definitely achieved with:

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

The stories we weave of our existence...

Writer, Jeffrey Eugenides writes, ‘I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused’and I have to admit this fits my experience of writing about my life perfectly. I don’t think anyone has the ability to portray an entirely truthful account of their existence, as past events are always going to be distorted by the way in which that person has perceived and remembered them, and it does then, become incredibly confusing.

Of course, we may attempt to conceal the truth of our existence deliberately when we write about it, I personally wouldn't wish to reveal everything, in an effort to avoid being completely vulnerable. So yes, I do believe there’s a contrast between the truth of our lives and the story we tell of our existence.

But as Eugenides states, ‘I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real’ and I believe this is something, as writers, we all do. Cheever’s stories ooze his depressed and conflicted character, John Updike writes in a review of Bailey’s biography of Cheever, ‘Cheever’s characters are adult, full of darkness, corruption and confusion’, therefore Cheever’s writing could arguably be considered a truer depiction of his existence than anything else.

And at the end of the day, every writer’s true aim is to create a good story and perhaps truth doesn’t play a particularly vital part in achieving this.

Grandma Snail

The shrivelled snail and I

played noughts and crosses

until slowly her cinnamon mind

began to dry and

we crushed her shell.

We liked to think she was grinning.

When she died,

I did not wipe one tear

but tore a section of paper

from a pad

and covered it with crosses.

Damn right I'm special.

‘Anyone literate can take an implement in hand and make marks on a flat surface,’ Atwood argues and this in itself is an undeniable fact. So what separates the hand behind the scribbles of shopping lists and ‘To Do’ notes written everyday, by each of us, from the hands of a true writer?

I believe writers, myself included, distinguish themselves by using language to develop something captivating; to allow us to immerse ourselves into someone else’s life for a few hours; to be spies, to observe the sorrow of a middle age woman who no longer loves her husband, to experience the enduring love of a mother for her teenage daughter. Cheever made his living providing us with striking short stories, conveying such naked emotion, that I couldn't help but feel genuine sorrow for many of his characters, particularly for Jack Lorey in Torch Song.

A writer has the unique ability to take mundane, everyday life (words we write, objects we see, phrases we speak) and, just an artist does when creating a painting, craft something so original and enchanting that people should want to read them and allow themselves to be influenced by what they read.

Atwood captures the essence of being a writer rather perfectly, 'The point is the voice (of a writer) is unlike any other voice you have heard and it is speaking directly to you, communing with you in private, right in your ear, in its own distinctive way.’ How can a person’s ability to achieve an accomplishment such as this, not make them special?

Surrealist artist, Max Ernst is a perfect example of how an artist's perception of the world makes them special: