I used to mentally prepare myself not to overeat at
Thanksgiving time. I’d spend days sometimes reminding myself of last year’s
Butterball hangover only to regain consciousness Friday morning hooked up to a
gravy drip yet again and cursing my lack of will power, that mythic thing some
humans can supposedly develop, (kinda like telekinesis).
But this year, I’m cutting the drawstring on the sweatpants in advance. I've accepted the fact that I'm that guy who will eat too much regardless my best intentions. So, yes, I believe in the concept of too much of a good thing.
In honor of said holiday and the glut that is going to put me off rich food for a couple of weeks, I thought I’d make a list of writers whose work I admire, yet whose influence I rather dread. Does that make sense? Somebody whose style is so singular and refreshing when you first discover it and then becomes watered down and retread by too many inferior writers aping it, you ever had that happen?
Raymond Chandler - We can probably all agree that he's influenced plenty of great work, (where would James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss be without The Long Goodbye?), but his corny asides or the mold Marlowe set for detective fiction of the 20th century was lazily aped far too often with diminishing returns. So how about we skip the seminal names like his and Dashiell Hammett's and other early and mid-century authors like Hemingway or Faulkner, okay?
Elmore Leonard - Guess what? Criminals like all the same stuff in popular culture that straight citizens do... and they talk about it sometimes. I really don't know if Leonard's the first to do the riffing criminal, but he's certainly known for it more than anybody else, (though he credits George V. Higgins - so go check out The Friends of Eddie Coyle). But c'mon, so many laaaaaazy copy-cats doing that criminals-with-opinions-on-trivial-stuff thing without ever tapping into the existential underpinnings of Leonard's best stuff. On a side note, you know who did tap into Leonard in a really great way? Quentin Tarantino, baby. Check out his adaptation of Leonard's Rum Punch, Jackie Brown.
Ken Bruen – some folks have the humor, some have dark, some have the pacing, but nobody has the whole package, which includes rhythm and take no prisoners tragedy. Y'know who's built on Ken's thing and made it his own successfully? Allan Guthrie. Go read Hard Man or stick with the real thing and re-read American Skin.
Charles Bukowski - lots of people write the down and out, but too often it’s attached to nihilistic or strictly misanthropic points of view. I wouldn’t love Buk without his intelligence and fierceness. Without his bursts of passion, he’d just be depressing. As the man said, “scream when you burn.” Check out Ham on Rye and then some of perhaps Buk's biggest influence, John Fante, (try Ask the Dust).
Kurt Vonnegut - too many folks err on his whimsical side and a few on the heavy allegory, but who else balances the bitter and sweet the way K. did? I haven’t found ‘em yet. Tom Robbins perhaps, (Still Life with Woodpecker)? I'm gonna revisit Cat's Cradle.
Chuck Palahniuk – plenty of transgressive stuff follows in the wake of Chuck, but who else makes it so thematically integral, so un-gratuitous and non-exploitive? Hmmm. Dunno. Been a while since I read Survivor. Or just maybe... Nope. Forget it. I haven't found a suitable heir yet. Have you?
Or how about films? These directors all have films that rank among my favorites, but their knockoffs, (sometimes even their own), have become insufferable - David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, John Woo…
Jeez, I’m getting all worked up, feels like I could keep going and as I look at these lists I’m thinking? What's my problem? Why do I care? Where are the ladies? Help me out. Who’s missing? Who’re your favorites whose style has been co-opted once too often?
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
