an informal poll
Jul. 24th, 2014 04:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksI have, as I know I've mentioned several times here before, an ongoing project in which I try to write about things that I really, really love, because critics don't do that often enough.
I've also not been writing much here lately, partly because I am focused on writing fiction, and partly because I am feeling fairly boring (not bored, there is a difference), but also because I am reviewing things elsewhere. And my principal elsewhere-place has an anonymity policy, so I can't link those.
The difficulty with writing about things I love is that it is, well, difficult. And feeling boring makes it hard to start.
So here's a brief list of things that are really foundational to me, books and films without which I would literally not be the same person. Let me know what it would be most interesting for me to write about, and I will let people's interest, hopefully, push me into writing about some of it.
These are in no order.
Non-fiction:
Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus
The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn
The Motion of Light in Water, Samuel R. Delany
The Language of the Night, Ursula K. LeGuin
To Write Like A Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction, Joanna Russ
Fiction:
Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
Moonwise, Greer Gilman
Engine Summer, John Crowley
the works of Elizabeth Enright, collectively
the works of H.P. Lovecraft, collectively
The Folk of the Air, Peter S. Beagle
The Door into Shadow, Diane Duane
On Strike Against God, Joanna Russ
The Female Man, Joanna Russ
the works of M. John Harrison, collectively
Comics:
Kabuki, David Mack
Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, Diane DiMassa
Berserk, Kentaro Miura
old-school Elfquest, by which I mean I am ignoring the fact that they even have a webcomic la la la I can't hear you, Wendy and Richard Pini
Film, TV, Anime:
Basquiat, dir. Julian Schnabel
Orlando, dir. Sally Potter
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, dir. Terry Gilliam
Prospero's Books, dir. Peter Greenaway
The Pillow Book, dir. Peter Greenaway
Revolutionary Girl Utena, dir. Kunihiko Ikuhara
Twin Peaks, dir. David Lynch
The Passion of Joan of Arc, dir. Carl Dreyer
Things which would be on this list, but which I have already discussed elsewhere and am not at this time going to talk about again: Perelandra, C.S. Lewis; Tehanu, Ursula K. LeGuin; Burning Your Boats, Angela Carter; I'll Stand By You: The Collected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland; Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia, dir. Ulrike Ottinger; Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones; The Neverending Story, Michael Ende; The Lord of the Rings; The Muppet Show.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
comments over there.
I've also not been writing much here lately, partly because I am focused on writing fiction, and partly because I am feeling fairly boring (not bored, there is a difference), but also because I am reviewing things elsewhere. And my principal elsewhere-place has an anonymity policy, so I can't link those.
The difficulty with writing about things I love is that it is, well, difficult. And feeling boring makes it hard to start.
So here's a brief list of things that are really foundational to me, books and films without which I would literally not be the same person. Let me know what it would be most interesting for me to write about, and I will let people's interest, hopefully, push me into writing about some of it.
These are in no order.
Non-fiction:
Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus
The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn
The Motion of Light in Water, Samuel R. Delany
The Language of the Night, Ursula K. LeGuin
To Write Like A Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction, Joanna Russ
Fiction:
Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
Moonwise, Greer Gilman
Engine Summer, John Crowley
the works of Elizabeth Enright, collectively
the works of H.P. Lovecraft, collectively
The Folk of the Air, Peter S. Beagle
The Door into Shadow, Diane Duane
On Strike Against God, Joanna Russ
The Female Man, Joanna Russ
the works of M. John Harrison, collectively
Comics:
Kabuki, David Mack
Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, Diane DiMassa
Berserk, Kentaro Miura
old-school Elfquest, by which I mean I am ignoring the fact that they even have a webcomic la la la I can't hear you, Wendy and Richard Pini
Film, TV, Anime:
Basquiat, dir. Julian Schnabel
Orlando, dir. Sally Potter
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, dir. Terry Gilliam
Prospero's Books, dir. Peter Greenaway
The Pillow Book, dir. Peter Greenaway
Revolutionary Girl Utena, dir. Kunihiko Ikuhara
Twin Peaks, dir. David Lynch
The Passion of Joan of Arc, dir. Carl Dreyer
Things which would be on this list, but which I have already discussed elsewhere and am not at this time going to talk about again: Perelandra, C.S. Lewis; Tehanu, Ursula K. LeGuin; Burning Your Boats, Angela Carter; I'll Stand By You: The Collected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland; Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia, dir. Ulrike Ottinger; Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones; The Neverending Story, Michael Ende; The Lord of the Rings; The Muppet Show.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are
