I think this is okay here 'cuz it's a discussion on 'writing' and I think that's integral to XWF.

I was having a skype conversation and got on this roll about what 'art' and literature are to me, as a writer.

I'll paste that here but I'd like to see what you guys sorta think on the subject...

ahluniak does that, oddly.
[7:48:58 PM] Cyren: Writer of Fightclub.
[7:49:06 PM] Cyren: He's one of my favorite authors, has been since childhood.
[7:49:26 PM] Cyren: Reportedly, at times when he does readings, people have supposedly 'puked' they were so respulsed.
[7:49:32 PM] Cyren: That's a kind of vibe, I'd be aiming for.
[7:49:40 PM] Cyren: Make someone feel 'dirty' afterfinishing the rea.
[7:49:42 PM] Cyren: *rad.
[7:49:58 PM] Cyren: As if they were 'infected' by thoughts they would never have dreamed to dare to have before.
[7:50:43 PM] Cyren: When you have someone finish a read and they say, 'I'd never had that thought process before... or I felt things internally, questioned things I'd never thought an issue...' - that's the hallmark of a legendary writer.
[7:51:15 PM] Cyren: To introduce, as impossible a prospect as it may be, thoughts and environments, no one has dreamt up before or at least publiscized.
[7:51:41 PM] Cyren: 'Breaking Ground' in new literary territory - that's legend. That's fame, that's greatness, that's entertainment.
[7:52:01 PM] Cyren: In lieu of startling invention a perversion of the mundane can be an adequate substitute.
[7:52:42 PM] Cyren: I guess, my aim, with Scelestus - is to take a look at literary and social boundaries, stae them in the face and then rip them apart, simply because I'm a contrarian.
[7:52:52 PM] Cyren: If you tlel me to go this route, I'm gonna go the other.
[7:53:38 PM] Cyren: There's a formula to that kind of insanity - it's a mixture of rebellion and curiosity embellished by arrogance and fearlessness.
[7:54:26 PM] Cyren: In art, that would have been someone like a Van Gogh. In writing, it's something like an e.e. cummings or a Pahluniak. In film, David Fincher or Daren Aronofsky(sic?), are good examples.
[7:55:14 PM] Cyren: I like seeing things done in startling and inventive new ways - probably an aspect of my hyper-active mind, I know. I just like to see things that don't simply think outside of the box... they take the box, hold it up high and punt it way down the street where it gets chewed up in a woodchipper.
[7:55:42 PM] Cyren: Ambitious projects, things like Cloud Atlas as a film, for an example, are good efforts at that.
[7:55:49 PM] Cyren: At ground-breaking storytelling and entertainment.
[7:56:03 PM] Cyren: I feel like, society should try EVERYTHING before it can declare it knows something about ANYTHING.
[7:56:24 PM] Cyren: It's a sort of 'relatavistic thought' model.
Ben

I know these works are much more docile than what you have in mind but I hate the Catcher in the Rye and Death of a Salesman. I love the Great Gatsby for its detail but despise every God damn character in that book. Then I stop and think, wow this writer is so good he has me hating the characters. He has me vindictive of these people I have manifested memories of. That's the sign of a great writer. Getting an emotional reaction of any kind from his or her audience. It doesn't matter how offensive or violent you plan on making your writing Scelestus, as long as it's well written.

Even though I'm black and Christian and he's racist and an atheist/Darwinist/social Darwinist, I love Robert E. Howard. I love his descriptions, his actions, etc. When his racism comes through, it puts an unseemly blot on otherwise good stories. ALTHOUGH...racist or not, he created some of fantasy's most kick-ass non-white characters in Bran Mak Morn, Brule, Thoth Amon and some others. A lot of writers that are more politically correct end up having non-white characters just be total sissies or tokens or whatever.

I DO enjoy Roy Thomas's comic book version of Conan even more than Howard's however. Thomas really, I think is the guy responsible for the version of Conan that everybody knows and loves. With his comic, he created the title "Conan the Barbarian", which has become so popular and so imitated.

What else?

I love Russell Kirk, he has a lot of Robert E. Howard's energy, but more of a moral center. He reminds me of some of the great Victorian horror authors, such as Sheridan Le Fanu, whose supernatural horror served as a means of renewing or firing up man's moral imagination. Actually, Bram Stoker's short story, Chain of Destiny, reminds me so much of Russell Kirk.

So, anyway, I like short stories, I guess. Pulpy ones. Preferably ones with a moral center. Some authors, like Robert E. Howard, are such good writers that their stories transcend their own ideological limitations, giving the stories a sometimes unintended morality. H.G. Wells was that way, I think. Hardcore eugenicist, etc., but the Time Machine had a pretty tender message I think.

John Steakley's Vampire$, I loved that one. Steakley's stuff is very, very bad-ass. Man's man type stuff. Simon Hawke is good. C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is AMAZING (you know its good when Iron Maiden has a song based off of it)...if I could recommend one work of fiction by C.S. Lewis though....Till We Have Faces. WOW. Its AWESOME.

Oh, this book, Monster, by A. Lee Martinez, at least I think that was the author's name. GREAT READ.

I'm looking forward to reading whatever it is you plan on writing and this whole discussion is certainly interesting. Unfortunately at the minute I'm reading less famous literature such as Don't Fear The Reaper by Garry Kay, which is one of the most intriguing yet stunning psychological thrillers I have ever read. I will copy and paste a synopsis when I'm on the laptop later.

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