Steve Erickson
Author of Zeroville
About the Author
Steve Erickson teaches writing at the California Institute of the Arts and is also the film critic for Los Angeles magazine.
Image credit: Photo by Steve Rhodes
Series
Works by Steve Erickson
Full-Blooded Fantasy 1 copy
Black Clock 11 — Editor — 1 copy
Black Clock #1 & #6 1 copy
Black Clock 5 1 copy
Black Clock 6 1 copy
Black Clock 7 1 copy
Black Clock 2 1 copy
Black Clock 8 1 copy
Black Clock 3 1 copy
Black Clock 13 1 copy
Associated Works
The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss (2000) — Contributor — 216 copies
Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow (2006) — Introduction — 188 copies
The Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad (2005) — Contributor — 159 copies
Bomb 20, Summer 1987 — interview — 1 copy
Years Between Stations: The Dream of America in Steve Erickson — Novel Excerpts — 1 copy
Rolling Stone Magazine #724/725, December 28 1995-January 11 1996 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Erickson, Stephen Michael
- Birthdate
- 1950-04-20
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Places of residence
- Los Angeles, California, USA (birthplace)
Topanga Canyon, California, USA - Education
- University of California, Los Angeles (BA|Film|1972)
University of California, Los Angeles (MA|Journalism|1973) - Occupations
- film critic
professor
novelist
essayist - Awards and honors
- Guggenheim Fellowship (2007)
Grantee, National Endowment for the Arts (1987)
Members
Discussions
Days Between Stations in The Clocks Have All Stopped (November 2016)
Why The Clocks Have All Stopped in The Clocks Have All Stopped (June 2014)
Rubicon Beach in The Clocks Have All Stopped (April 2012)
These Dreams of You in The Clocks Have All Stopped (March 2012)
Writers on Steve Erickson in The Clocks Have All Stopped (March 2012)
meat and meaning in The Clocks Have All Stopped (March 2012)
Reviews
Stunning. Having just re-read this a decade on from the first time, I was blown away once again by the visceral reactions that I had to Erickson's prose. His writing is beautiful and sublime and thought-provoking in the very same moments that he is describing horrors and tragedies.
The novel is an intricate and tremendously woven story for which I think the reader must be prepared to be open to. The storytelling is beautiful and there are full pages which I could read over and over for their elegance. There's no reason not to enjoy this novel on its surface... But try to walk into this novel without expectations and allow it to wash over you.… (more)
The novel is an intricate and tremendously woven story for which I think the reader must be prepared to be open to. The storytelling is beautiful and there are full pages which I could read over and over for their elegance. There's no reason not to enjoy this novel on its surface... But try to walk into this novel without expectations and allow it to wash over you.… (more)
Some guy wakes up nine years later and he's a completely different person? I can't.
I HAVE SEEN THE TERRIFYING FACE TO FACE. I DO NOT FLEE IN HORROR. BUT THOUGH I APPROACH WITH COURAGE, I KNOW VERY WELL IT IS NOT THE COURAGE OF FAITH.
-KIERKEGAARD
I'M A FOUNTAIN OF BLOOD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL.
-BJORK
In her off hours she writes her memoirs in a notebook, saying to herself, Well now Kristin, this is a little presumptuous, don't you think? To be writing your memoirs at age seventeen? But she concludes that, after all, the months since she left home have been interesting, and if she herself isn't worthy of a memoir, maybe they are.
- page 5
It is an amazing achievement to create one character, one thread of story that can take us away from ourselves, to ourselves. It is a wonder of the world to create one after the other as Erickson does here, life after interconnected life, each one a reconnection of our own selves to our own broken world. Not a single miss, not even with the characters introduced in the last chapters of the book. The writing is so beautiful, I think I highlighted half the book. And the story? (How's the story, right?) Have mercy. The story is perfect. And wrapped up in that perfect story? Memory and faith and death and chaos and God, and so many things in between, and still not a miss anywhere. I expect this will be my best book of the year. Right now I would just like to shout it from all the rooftops: You must read this!
It has to be some kind of sin that this was ever out of print. (And the people who wrote [b:1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die|452208|1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die|Peter Boxall|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320483996s/452208.jpg|814053] deserve a stern talking to for leaving this off.) And special thanks goes out to Karen for all the work she puts in championing good books for the rest of us; I might have left this on my TBR indefinitely without her recommendation.)
In any case, it is available now on both Kindle and Nook, and if you are a reader of dead trees do yourself a favor and track it down ASAP. (And if you have it, for the love of what is good in the world, drop whatever else you're doing and read it now. It's that good.)
As for myself, I will be off reading the sequel, [b:Our Ecstatic Days|184924|Our Ecstatic Days|Steve Erickson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348296065s/184924.jpg|178737], and all of the rest of Mr. Erickson's works.… (more)
-KIERKEGAARD
I'M A FOUNTAIN OF BLOOD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL.
-BJORK
In her off hours she writes her memoirs in a notebook, saying to herself, Well now Kristin, this is a little presumptuous, don't you think? To be writing your memoirs at age seventeen? But she concludes that, after all, the months since she left home have been interesting, and if she herself isn't worthy of a memoir, maybe they are.
- page 5
It is an amazing achievement to create one character, one thread of story that can take us away from ourselves, to ourselves. It is a wonder of the world to create one after the other as Erickson does here, life after interconnected life, each one a reconnection of our own selves to our own broken world. Not a single miss, not even with the characters introduced in the last chapters of the book. The writing is so beautiful, I think I highlighted half the book. And the story? (How's the story, right?) Have mercy. The story is perfect. And wrapped up in that perfect story? Memory and faith and death and chaos and God, and so many things in between, and still not a miss anywhere. I expect this will be my best book of the year. Right now I would just like to shout it from all the rooftops: You must read this!
It has to be some kind of sin that this was ever out of print. (And the people who wrote [b:1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die|452208|1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die|Peter Boxall|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320483996s/452208.jpg|814053] deserve a stern talking to for leaving this off.) And special thanks goes out to Karen for all the work she puts in championing good books for the rest of us; I might have left this on my TBR indefinitely without her recommendation.)
In any case, it is available now on both Kindle and Nook, and if you are a reader of dead trees do yourself a favor and track it down ASAP. (And if you have it, for the love of what is good in the world, drop whatever else you're doing and read it now. It's that good.)
As for myself, I will be off reading the sequel, [b:Our Ecstatic Days|184924|Our Ecstatic Days|Steve Erickson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348296065s/184924.jpg|178737], and all of the rest of Mr. Erickson's works.… (more)
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 37
- Also by
- 26
- Members
- 2,810
- Popularity
- #9,138
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 63
- ISBNs
- 99
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 24
We follow his journey beginning on the day that he arrives in LA in 1969 amid the background of hippies and surfers and the Manson murders through his becoming part of the studio system over the next decade and a half and watching him and his contemporaries navigate the turbulent years of Hollywood studios when everything was changing quickly.
This book is a veritable feast for any serious cinephile. It is overflowing with film references, Hollywood history, and thinly veiled characters. I absolutely love the movies but I don't consider myself anywhere near an expert and I enjoyed all the references and had fun figuring out who was who and what was what. I imagine that my many film savant friends would be in heaven with that part of it.
While the novel follows a standard timeline through the years, Erickson manages to make the sum of the parts feel diaphanous and perpetual much like the philosophy of Vikar in that "all the scenes of a movie are really happening at the same time. No scene really leads to the next, all scenes lead to each other. . . . 'Continuity' is one of the myths of film."
It wasn't my favourite Erickson novel but it still had that 'bit darker, bit deeper' quality which I can count on him for.… (more)