Jan 21 2009
Influsion of Influence
Been reading some on the writing of Star Wars. I knew some of the history, but what is clear is that while Lucas had a general idea of a space epic in his head, he had precious little else until the mid 1970s.
So, according to one story, he crammed his head with stuff that gave him structure, visual iconography, and characters to riff off of. The influence are well known: Kurosawa's the Hidden Fortress, Flash Gordon serials, pulp SF and Jack Kirby comics of the 1970s (allegedly, the use of Campbell's work on myths came later), and Ralph McQuarie's drawings of the script in turn influenced the story (like Vader's outfit and all that jazz). Then draft after draft of the epic were made, finally winnowing down to what we know of as Star Wars.
I've batted around Lucas' approach with old Slow Train. He believes and I agree (up to a point) that there's a value in cramming yourself with your influences. That it can fuse things in wild ways. Maybe it's a key to innovation.
I think it's greatest value to me is recharging the batteries when you've been pounding the keys a lot and then feel like you're grinding gears.
Fast paced novels, comic books, and bad SF movies usually help when things are cramped.
How about you, amigos?
JSR
PS: Ok, Kaufmann, start with the geek comments . . .
3 responses so far
I’ve thought of this concept a lot regarding music, and to my ears the cramming of musical influences at least often leads to a new product where the pieces of the amalgamated influences to me are still visible, like big chunks of the original inspiring thing that didn’t get fully cooked into the stew or fully smoothly integrated into the new product.
I don’t know Flash Gordon or Kurosawa or Campbell well, but (as an adult at least) I do think I can feel big not-fully-amalgamated chunks of other things in Star Wars.
So I think the challenge would be to blend the influences really well, hopefully adding as much original take on it as possible. And/or to blend specific influences that few people have ever seen or heard before–it’s usually a big hit when someone cops new influences, like The Matrix did bringing Asian-style wire stunt work.
But I still think as much original flavor as possible is the best way to make your own stew unique.
I agree. Too many times in music, you’d find a band that could only be described as the sum of their influences and nothing more: they’re like the Pistols meets Hank Williams at the Opera! And that’s what it sounded like and that was it. Not a dose of original juice in the drink. Then there would be a band that would blend stuff in a way that made you take notice (Husker Du, The Meat Puppets, Mission of Burma, Cliff Burton era Metallica) and all of a sudden the influences pull you INTO the original material. Those bands were always more than the sum of their parts. And that original sense of identity was key.
Maybe “voice” is the equivalent in writing?
Then there would be a band that would blend stuff in a way that made you take notice….
Thinking of Metallica, it was equal parts their originality and influences that were totally unheard of in the US at that time (all the NWOBHM bands like Diamond Head). So Metallica = The Matrix! And both were huge.
Comparing with writing, I think it’s more than just voice. To me voice is like the sound of a band or a record–Iron Maiden’s high-pitched harmony guitars and clickitty bass guitar and waily vocals are their voice. In writing for me it’s a combination of voice and what the author is doing with it, whatever the writing equivalent of songwriting would be–not just plot but also character and theme, the overall package that the voice is being used to communicate.