Who are the five writers who made you?
Oh please, that is such a limited way of looking at things. There are works (or a singular work) by a great many authors that have really spoken to me, caused me to stop and think deeply, reconsider and/or totally expand on my beliefs. There are also myriad books that transport me — whether it’s due to the incredible way the author wields words or the heights of creativity they’ve attained.
But to ask or assume that an author or any artist “made” me — as though they’re some grand Poobah of a cult leader — is just wicked odd. Sounds like we're getting into Scientology, Mormon or MAGA territory here. I’d like to get the questioner’s definition/explanation of what they mean by “made.” Possibly they meant to say "influenced" or "greatly inspired?"
What are five books that have made me think a LOT? So much so that I come back and reread them ... maybe even get something new out of them too.
- Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity
- Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
- Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- John Scalzi, Old Man’s War
- Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Virginia Woolf, Orlando
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-five
• Catherynne M. Valente, Space Opera
• Philip K. Dick, Man in the High Castle
• George Orwell, 1984
to name just half a dozen.
That’s not even touching on Shakespeare, fer fuck’s sake!
Do you get the same thing out of, fer instance, the B side of Abby Road or The Downward Spiral every time you listen to it? Or, at different times does it hit you in a fresh way? I kept discovering new things on repeat Aladdin Sane listenings — at least I did until my hearing went kaput. Same with David Byrne's The Forest.
How about a Klimt, Kandinsky or a Kokoschka painting. Do you see the exact same things when you come back and look at them 10, 20 or 30 years after first seeing them? Do they tell you something new? These are three painters, amongst many, who spoke deeply to me. My own work looks nothing like theirs but still they talked to me as did Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Ernst, etc.
“Who made you” is a rookie question. I’m in the back end of life — there aren’t five writers, five artists, five composers/musicians, five anyTHING that made me who I am today. More like 5,000,000 plus me.
What makes anyone is a wickedly complex mixture not unlike the intensely complicated chemistry that goes into making a pot come out of a kiln a certain way.
It depends on:
- The clay body – the minerals in the clay can interact with the glaze layered over top.
- The base chemistry of the glaze plus the colorants and opacifiers.
- The firing method – just to start, the oxygen levels inside the kiln.
- The firing temperature.
- The pot’s placement in the kiln.
- The glazes that are on the pots that are next to your pot. Depending on the chemical compositions of each, the firing temperature, the kiln atmosphere, the glaze used on one pot can flash/interact with the glaze on another. This can be really awesome or … you know … not, depending on your needs and expectations.
- How fast or slow the kiln was fired and left to cool down.
And this is putting it incredibly simply.
So, like yeah. Who we are, what “makes” each of us who we are can’t be reduced to a list of five people, events or things, let alone authors. That’s just abso-fucking-ridiculous.
If we’re gonna be all blindingly reductive, well, let's fucking go! The five big-ass events/people, outside of my immediate family, that “made” me who I am today, are:
- Martin Luther King’s assassination on April 4, 1968 (so I guess I should send James Earl Ray a, wut, note of acknowledgement? He's been dead for 28 years. I'm a little late.)
- RFK’s assassination on June 5, 1968 (same for Sirhan Sirhan? Dude's 82-years old and in a state prison in San Diego. I guess he'll die there.)
- The 1973 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement (AIM).
- The humor of Jonathan Winters, George Carlin, and the Smothers Brothers.
- Paul Simon, The Beatles, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and Led Zeppelin.
And that’s my short list. Of fucking course.



































