Riffing off of Harold Bloom’s classic The Anxiety of Influence, Jonathan Lethem writes about the influences that helped him write novels like Gun, With Occasional Music and The Fortress of Solitude. The biggest influence on Lethem is Philip K. Dick. Lethem cites Philip K. Dick in many of these essays. Lethem is also open in his acknowledgement that PKD was an uneven writer: masterpieces and dreck rub shoulders in those Library of America volumes. Speaking of those Library of America collections of Philip K. Dick’s work, Lethem lobbied hard to have PKD included in the series. If you’re interested in what influences a writer’s style and artistic development, The Ecstasy of Influence provides a model case study. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS
i: My Plan to Begin With
My Plan to Begin With, Part One
The Used Bookshop Stories
The Books They Read
Going Under in Wendover
Zelig of Notoriety
Clerk

ii: Dick, Calvino, Ballard: SF and Postmodernism
My Plan to Begin With, Part Two
Holidays
Crazy Friend (Philip K. Dick)
What I Learned at the Science-Fiction Convention
The Best of Calvino: Against Completism
Postmodernism as Liberty Valance
The Claim of Time (J. G. Ballard)
Give Up

iii: Plagiarisms
The Ecstasy of Influence
The Afterlife of “Ecstasy”/Somatics of Influence
Always Crashing in the Same Car
Against “Pop” Culture
Furniture

iv: Film and Comics
Supermen!: An Introduction
Top-Five Depressed Superheroes
The Epiphany
Izations
Everything Is Broken (Art of Darkness)
Godfather IV
Great Death Scene (McCabe & Mrs. Miller)
Kovacs’s Gift
Marlon Brando Breaks
Missed Opportunities
Donald Sutherland’s Buttocks
The Drew Barrymore Stories

v: Wall Art
The Collector (Fred Tomaselli)
An Almost Perfect Day (Letter to Bonn)
The Billboard Men (Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel)
Todd James
Writing and the Neighbor Arts
Live Nude Models
On a Photograph of My Father
Hazel

vi: 9/11 and Book Tour
Nine Failures of the Imagination
Further Reports in a Dead Language
To My Italian Friends
My Egyptian Cousin
Cell Phones
Proximity People
Repeating Myself
Bowels of Compassion
Stops
Advertisements for Norman Mailer
White Elephant and Termite Postures in the Life of the Twenty-first-Century Novelist

vii: Dylan, Brown, and Others
The Genius of James Brown
People Who Died
The Fly in the Ointment
Dancing About Architecture
Dylan Interview
Open Letter to Stacy (The Go-Betweens)
Otis Redding’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Rick James
an orchestra of light that was electric

viii: Working the Room
Bolaño’s 2666
Homely Doom Vibe (Paula Fox)
Ambivalent Usurpations (Thomas Berger)
Rushmore Versus Abundance
Outcastle (Shirley Jackson)
Thursday (G. K. Chesterton)
My Disappointment Critic/On Bad Faith
The American Vicarious (Nathanael West)

ix: The Mad Brooklynite
Ruckus Flatbush
Crunch Rolls
Children with Hangovers
L. J. Davis
Agee’s Brooklyn
Breakfast at Brelreck’s
The Mad Brooklynite

x: What Remains of My Plan
Micropsia
Zeppelin Parable
What Remains of My Plan
Memorial
Things to Remember 435

The Serpent Sea continues the story of Moon and the Raksura of the Indigo Cloud court. The story is set on a strange planet where various groups, sky people, water people, and groundlings, compete for domination. The Serpent Sea takes Moon and a group of the court into dangerous waters to recover an important magical artifact. Wells creates a unique (for me) setting for the bulk of her story. I don’t want to spoil the surprise when you get to that part. The Serpent Sea features more court intrigue than The Cloud Roads, but it will certainly satisfy your need for a fantasy fix. I’ll read the next book in the series whenever Night Shade Books publishes it. Bill Crider has more to say about The Serpent Sea here. GRADE: B+

The Cloud Roads is the first book in a new series about a misfit called Moon who lives on a very strange planet with floating islands like in Avatar. The planet is divided into sky people, sea people, and groundlings. Moon is an orphan who drifts around, trying to fit in with the groundlings. But he meets a flying creature called Stone who shows Moon who he really is. But that only complicates things as Moon becomes a key player in the battle against the evil Fell who are intent on conquering the entire planet. The Cloud Roads features plenty of action and a satisfyingly complex plot. I’ll be reviewing the just published second book in this Raksura series tomorrow. For Bill Crider’s more detailed review of The Cloud Roads click here.  GRADE: B+

Tanya Huff is best known for her urban vampire novels, so Valor’s Choice came as a surprise to me. Carl V. recommended this SF military novel. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr and a combat platoon are sent as an honor guard to an alien planet where delicate diplomatic negotiations are taking place. This was supposed to be a symbolic mission, but when their ship is hit with missiles and crash-lands in a dangerous area of the planet, the survivors are thrust into a situation similar to Michael Caine in Zulu. I was impressed as Torin Kerr keeps her Marines alive as thousands of alien warriors attack their tiny redoubt. If you’re a fan of military science fiction, you’ll enjoy this action-filled adventure. Carl has more to say about Tanya Huff’s series here.

Mindy Kaling is a screen-writer and producer of NBC’s comedy, The Office. She’s cute and perky and her writing reflects that. Mindy Kaling tells how she went from a chubby (her word) teenager to a successful Hollywood writer. Along the way, Mindy shares her fashion tips, writing routine, and some personal history. If you’re a fan of The Office you’ll appreciate the inside story of Mindy’s interactions with the stars and staff. Think of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? as Bossypants-lite. GRADE: B

Last year, I posted my 1000th blog entry. I could not have continued a daily posting without your insightful and frequently humorous comments. Thanks to Jeff, Patti, Todd, Deb, Drongo, Beth, Bill, Art, Steve, Bob, Anne, Dan, Rick, Joe, Randy, Scott, James, Carl, and all the rest of you who support this blog with your interest and opinions. I hope 2012 is a great year for all of us. I’ll keep blogging if you keep reading and commenting!

Anna Nicole is a tragic-comic cautionary tale about the extremes of celebrity culture. Composer Mark Anthony Turnage, librettist Richard Thomas, and director Richard Jones bring Anna Nicole Smith to the level of opera’s most tragic women. This opera of Anna Nicole’s life from sexy Playboy model, to wife of an octogenarian billionaire, to her sudden drug-induced death is filled with glorious music. Eva-Maria Westbroek’s convincing performance and the jazz-flavored music makes this opera worth watching and listening to. The New York Times called Anna Nicole “an engrossing outrageous, entertaining and, ultimately deeply moving opera.” I agree. Check out the trailer below. GRADE: A

Dystopian Young Adult fiction wouldn’t seem like a hot commodity with the target audience mostly obsessed with the Twilight and Harry Potter series. Yet Suzanne Collins seems to have captured lightening in a bottle with her The Hunger Games Trilogy. North American has suffered an apocalyptic event that has reduced cities and populations to 12 Districts who service the rulers in the Capitol district. The series is narrated by sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister in District 12 (a mining district). The elites in the Capitol hold a yearly televised gladiatorial event called “The Hunger Games.” A girl and a boy from each of the 12 districts are chosen at random to compete in the Games. Only one contestant will survive. I was surprised at the level of violence in these books. But Suzanne Collins knows how to tell a very compelling story. Once you start these books, you’ll find them hard to put down. The movie version of The Hunger Games will be released in March 2012. Check out the trailer to the movie below.