Steve Erickson on Writers

On David Foster Wallace

"In Wallace’s fiction, every shard of existence seemed to be a thing of wonder; but that wonder clearly could not sustain an existence wracked by whatever it was that wracked his. It is the psychosis of writers to be most alive when they’re at work on something that matters to them. Not at work, writers are beset by the lethality of their own lostness; no time is more dangerous for a novelist than that between novels."

"The exhilaration of such a novel is nearly beyond calculation. If a new literature is at hand then it might as well begin here." - Steve Erickson on The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich. Erickson wrote the introduction to this novel.

And c&p'ed from the wrong thread where I mis-posted it...

Erickson's "Favorite" authors, via his FB page...

Jorge Luis Borges

William Faulkner

Emily Bronte

Henry Miller

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

Baudelaire

Franz Kafka

James M. Cain

Theodore Sturgeon

Jim Thompson

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Kafka

Philip K. Dick

Pablo Neruda

Paul Bowles

Thomas Pynchon

Carson McCullers

Jean Toomer

With a "like" on Kit Rachlis's author page.

Tanizaki is a new one by me (as is Rachlis), but everyone else I have at least a passing familiarity with.

Me too on the Tanizaki & Rachlis. Had The Key sitting around unread forever.

In this LITQUAKE piece, Erickson answers ever so briefly on Henry Miller and Faulkner.

Interesting list. As I careen to the ending, I find I'm more interested in his musical influences.

"The novel has secrets from its author." I like that.

Glad you mentioned the music in the book, thea. There's music (and perhaps even more so movies, but maybe not as much in These Dreams of You) in his books dating to the very beginning. I'd like to get threads running on both those topics eventually.

I like that line a lot too, Peter.

On Henry Miller, with "no excuses".

Interview at Litreactor. Pretty short, but...

Erickson's homage to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

worthy reading

Steve Erickson on Steve Erickson

on five great contemporary novels about L.A.

three are new to me:

The Death of Speedy by Jaime Hernandez
The Zoo Where You're Fed to God by Michael Ventura
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block