Current Events > Nothing is more insincere than a creative artist's list of inspirations.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm working on a story right now and I'm reading certain books for the sole purpose of being able to cite them as influences. The book that made me say, "I could do better," I'm intending to cite as a source of inspiration at face value because the author was famous in a similar field to the one I'm writing for now.

There is a problem in that all of the authors I intend to cite are male. I want to cite J.K. Rowling as an influence since there is an influence of magic in my story. But her problematic views completely undercut my reason for wanting to cite her. I might as well read The Talented Mr. Ripley and cite Patricia Highsmith as an influence. "That woman who hated Asians and Black people? Major influence on all my stories. Major influence."

Politics can be a part of who you mention and who you don't. Certain names may be a vote of confidence - an opportunity for you to, in all humility, count yourself among the great ones. And you sure as hell don't want to credit the person who's immediately going to call their lawyer and say, "Yeah, he just admitted he stole everything from us."

It's all a game. That's what it is. It's all a game.

Just do as all authors do an cite your significant other or children, maybe in your case, Waifu/husbando and pet as your inspo

What about citing Ursula K. Le Guin?

Alan Smithee is my muse.

FortuneCookie posted...

There is a problem in that all of the authors I intend to cite are male. I want to cite J.K. Rowling as an influence since there is an influence of magic in my story. But her problematic views completely undercut my reason for wanting to cite her. I might as well read The Talented Mr. Ripley and cite Patricia Highsmith as an influence. "That woman who hated Asians and Black people? Major influence on all my stories. Major influence."

Eh. Tons of shit is heavily obviously based on Lovecraft mythos, sometimes doesn't even bother to change the names of people, and still has nothing to do with how racist he was.