This is part of Jason Lee Norman's AMERICAS blog tour. I reviewed the book a few weeks ago and liked it a lot. Today, Jason comes in, to talk about the writers who inspired him to pick un a pen (well, keyboard) and write stories of his own. Go visit his web site and buy the book. It's very good and most important, it's unique and fun.
ON MEETING YOUR IDOLS
With the exception of Dr. Seuss and J.R.R Tolkien, there are
three writers who are responsible for me making the choice to try and become a
writer: Ernest Hemingway, Salman Rushdie, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These
three are at the top of the pyramid and there have been many others since then
who have inspired me to keep going but these three were the first three and the
path can be traced all the way back to them. One died before I was born, one is
a socialite in New York City somewhere, and one is Gabriel Garcia Marquez who
may or may not be a thousand year old magician responsible for unlocking the
healing powers of the mango. So there are two left alive who I may be able to
meet sometime in my life. What happens when you get to meet your idols?
I
finally watched Midnight in Paris last week and in it, Owen Wilson has the
ability to interact with all of his creative influences and idols. He meets
Hemingway and even gets him to read part of his manuscript. Terrifying. I don’t
think I’d be able to handle giving Ernest Hemingway my work in progress. That
would be too much for me to handle. I think the best I could do would be to
tell him how much I loved his writing and maybe if we were in Michigan or
something we could go fishing and get drunk and talk about the future. That
might be all I need from Hemingway. Just to breathe the same air as him and
share a conversation about whatever. Would most people just spend their time
asking him about his secrets to great writing or would they not leave until he
complimented their own work and say that it had strength and merit? I’m not
sure.“Mr. Hemingway. I loved Old Man and the Sea and I loved A Moveable Feast
and I love all of your short stories. Would you like to go fishing with me some
time? Teach me how to fish like you. Please?”
When I
was eighteen I read The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I didn’t know much
about the book except that awhile back it got Mr. Rushdie into some hot water
with some Muslims. That fact alone excited me enough to want to read it. It was
the most completely bonkers thing I’d ever read at the time and is still one of
my favourite books ever. What would I say if I ever ran into Rushdie at a
party? Maybe I’d say, Mr. Rushdie, your writing fills me up like a warm bowl of
soup but you’re obviously a maniac. I’d probably be the first person to ever
tell him something like that so it would definitely be a feather in my cap. What
is there to really say to these people? Do you just say thank you and move on?
Sometimes there’s even too much anxiety to say thank you. How do you even speak
about something so close to you as literature? It’s best to avoid the subject
altogether. “Mr. Rushdie, I hear that you are a supporter of the Totteham
Hotspur Football Club. I am a supporter of Arsenal Football Club and although I
think my team will destroy your team, I’d love it if we could go watch a match
together some time.”
And
then there’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’ll admit that I smile whenever somebody
reads my book and says, “I can tell that you love Marquez so much”. I don’t
mind that at all but I do know that I’ll never really come close to what he’s
done. Not even if I live to be twice as old as he is now or discover that guava
is the secret to longevity. In another Woody Allen movie, Sweet and Lowdown, the Sean Penn character is the second greatest
guitar player in the world. Second only to his idol, Django Reinhardt. Penn’s
character listens to Reinhardt’s music and weeps and the few times when he’s
been in the same room as Reinhardt he either has a panic attack or he passes
out completely. This would probably be me if I ever came within one hundred
yards of Marquez. There’s no point in even trying to imagine what I’d ever say
to him, it won’t happen. “Mr. Marquez. Gracias.”
There’s
only one real answer to the question of what to do when you meet your idols. You
work hard and create something that maybe one day they come across and really
love and then when they meet you, maybe they’ll be the ones to be a bit nervous
and not quite know what to say. Inside they’ll just be a tiny bit jealous of
your way with words. That’s really the only chance I have of ever coming in
contact with my living idols. I just have to keep putting work out into the
world that is good and maybe one day they’ll pick it up and they’ll like it and
someday I’ll be able to tell them that I was able to write that because of
them.