Twixie recommends a book! · 5:07am Jun 3rd, 2013
This book is stellar. The Sirens of Titan.
It's thoughtful and impossibly well put together. The author was quite prominent in the 50s and only recently passed away.
Now, a word to authors that Twixie finds most insightful.
Sometimes it takes an established author to make known to Twixie that most fan stories aren't not exemplary fiction. While there are some gems out there, most of these stories we read are derived and inspired by other fictions in this niche. When fanficion inspires fanfiction, it is difficult to do better than what inspires oneself and we are left with strange artificial ceilings.
What Twixie has noticed is that most fanfiction writers are quite caught up in editing and writing, too much so to read as much as they need to, and even when they do, they read fanfiction.
Put simply, reading fanfiction is enjoyable, but it will not make you a better writer. All writers are even better readers. Good readers find good literature and fanfiction, generally speaking (not counting Past Sins, etc.), isn't good literature. Enjoyable, but not immensely talented. This isn't meant to be a strike against any writers, as Twixie fancies herself a writer for the very market, but if you want to be the best fanfiction writer, you need to move beyond fanfiction.
This book is one that Twixie recommends for that very reason. If you are a writer, take a day off and read it. You will not be disappointed!
Ehh, I'll just stick with the Ender Series.
Wow, this takes me back...
Kurt Vonnegut is impossible to describe but highly worth reading. One word of warning: read at least two of his other books before you even consider 'Mother Night'
It is not a story for the faint of heart.
I would say that in my experience, professional works often seem to suffer from a similar lack of imagination as fan/amateur (non-professional) works. But then, most of my experience as a critic comes from television...(probably the art form most grounded in reality)
I like amateur stuff more, generally. It's written by people who aren't writing something that could be published (or commercially released). They don't really tend to know what they're doing, or what not to do. It's true that to some degree that they copy other fanfiction/amateur writers, but their own lack of experience often causes mutations. They often do things you would rarely see elsewhere. I don't just mean on this site, or even fan fiction in general, but any form of amateur art on the internet or elsewhere (keeping in mind that on average amateur stuff is indeed worse).
I almost burnt food because I was writing this.
Now, keep in mind, I'm certainly nowhere near as well read as you, and I'm sure there an impossible number of (published) stories I haven't read that I would love.
I'm just challenging this commonly held notion that "published equals automatically better" and all it insinuates (you did not say that, I just think it's relevant).
I absolutely agree people should expand their artistic horizons, and I wouldn't even limit that to written fiction. It's all connected- elements from one kind of art are used in another kind. So basically I agree with most of what you said. I just wanted to defend the amateurs (we need them too!)
I'd like to know if anything you've ever read was written similarly to these last couple of Sparkling Reflection chapters, because I can't recall anything quite like it. If I had to guess, I'd say it'd be a book about a dream/dreams.
Also, I found a link to the book in PDF form. Whether or not the copyright is still active is ambiguous to me, but it's probably expired. I could link it here if you want.
...Wait a minute...
From Sirens of Titan: "Nothing about the Rumfoord mansion diminished as it approached heaven. Turned upside down, it would have looked exactly the same."
From chapter 4 of The Sparkling Reflection: The structure didn’t come to any high-rising point. Had it been turned on its top or dropped upside by a sudden change of reality, it would have retained its shape and probably survived the fall.
And I know you probably wrote that chapter well before you finished the book.
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Heehee, Twixie has such obvious influences in each of her stories. Well, at least with some narrative voicing and such.
She sees your point about the pure imagination of the fanfiction community because of just how much diversity is strived for. However when it comes to the best delivery of these fantastic ideas, as long as it's done in a standard way, the fanfiction lacks crispness and that "edge". It's functional, but we're talking about perfection of the art: Publish=/=good, but if it's on the shelves you know you can rely on that fact that someone thinks they can make money off it. Now if only they got published authors with the imagination of fanfiction authors...
Good stories? No idea. Entertaining stories? Most definitely.
She has been told that she is closest to Diana Wynne Jones, and she has been told she's in a genre all by herself. Twixie isn't sure if she's ever read something so close to what The Sparkling Reflection is trying to do. She fancies herself an old-fashion surrealist, "To resolve contradictory natures of dreams and reality," but even then, literature where's it's approached with such a complete lack of permanency (physical and not) as her story is something even Twixie can't find.