Random questions for fellow readers

[Yeshua-Knight]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?
2) Have you ever wondered about when some novels that are put out about the same time contain many similar themes
3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

just looking for some feedback on this 'cus lately with a couple of books i picked out at random they all sort of deal with the same sort of evil, if you read christian fiction, you just might already know what i'm talking about

thanks guys, lookin' forward to the responses i get

[Alice]

Well, I know two different christian fiction books I started to read ended up both having an evil-nazi-dude-with-german-name-like-Hans-is-alive-today-and-gonna-wreck-havoc plot. I wasn't in the mood, so I didn't finish either of them. At least not yet.

I don't think they have anything to do with real life; I think Germans just make good villains because people hate Nazis and German=Nazi, right?

It just seems overused to me. Though I admit I have a story plot involving evil Nazis that I never wrote.

Oh, and I have read that authors sometimes get ideas from the news, though I personally don't do it, and I can't think of any author I know about doing it.

[mitsuki lover]

No,but I do wonder why some people read some of the worst books out there.

Coincidence?Of course some genres it's hard not to have similiar themes,I mean how many Vampire novels can there be without having some similarity to Dracula?

Well it does happen all the time in Sci Fi.Or at least a lot of the time.

[Yeshua-Knight]

well, the thing is though, you see, that one of the main themes in the novels i keep finding is dealing with nephilim (or nephilim like creature) in an end times setting, not to mention the other night i clicked on the scifi channel and what do i find, but a movie in which the monsters were fallen angels and nephilim, very peculiar that now all of the sudden writers have looked to the bible to find some sort of monster for their scifi fodder

[Alice]

You do realize you have 666 posts.

[Fish and Chips]

Well, I can't speak for my favorite authors in specifc (would be a neat parlor trick if I could, though), but from personal experiance I can say I'm partially inspired by the authors I read, so I can assume it's along a similar vein for them in some respect.

[bigsleepj]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?

That's a hard question to answer well without examples. Some ideas are inspired by a person's personal experiences, another's vision and philosophy, another by the idea to write something people can read while laying on the beach (that is, for pleasure), but ultimately all books are written because the author wants to tell a story. Human beings like narratives. All good non-fiction books (even philosophy and history) has a structure reminiscent of a fictional work's (complete with a "pay-off" at the end).

2) Have you ever wondered about when some novels that are put out about the same time contain many similar themes

You can always tell in which decade a movie was made because, even if the story is set in a different time-period, the make-up and costumes and hair subtly mirror the present tastes. In a similar way the writing of a certain time can reflect the "zeitgeist" of that age, wether the author wants to or not. Authors tend to draw on their surroundings and sometimes they soak up the atmosphere of the time they wrote it in. Sometimes they do it on purpose too.

3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

Oooh, now you've opened Pandora's Box!!

There are two things that can make what you've read happen. One is when something you wrote happened a few years (or even a few centuries) later. Then there's the one when something fictional becomes true, which is different and which I'll tackle last.

Sometimes when a person write a book about something bad that is going to happen; that is for instance, he writes about a time when the United States comes under attack by terrorists becomes of various happenings and factors, and it happens a few years later, then the reason it happens is just because maybe he saw it as a logical thing to happen, even if he may doubted that it might when he wrote it. Although not entirely similar, a novel by Thomas Harris (the guy who created Hannibal Lector) called Black Sunday, for instance, had many eerie similarities with Timothy McVeigh's terrorist act (both McVeigh and the fictional terrorist were war veterans who turned on their own country, both were indifferent to civilians, etc). There are many BIG differences as well, but those things were just setting and plot devices. It's the small things that concur. So on a certain level these things can become true, but this is rare.

The second one is a tad more chilling: someone publishes, say, a normal work of fiction, like Bulwer-Lytton, a half-forgotten 19th century author who coined the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night". He wrote a book an early science fiction book called Vril: The Power of the Coming Race which told the story of a man who discovered a race of angel-like beings who live beneath the crust of the earth who were descendants of Atlantis. They use an ancient mystic force named Vril that is more powerful than anything modern humans can create. Despite being presented as fiction, many people of the 1870s believed the book to be based on fact (no, I'm not making this up). People (specifically occultists) began to take it seriously; many Victorians were interested in séances and contacting spirits and somehow many took the book as Gospel. Even some books published by the Theosophical Society spoke about Vril-power and Atlantis and even today people believe in occult writings inspired by the book (this is refered to as hypertextuality, I think). So in a sense Bulwer-Lytton's work became to be regarded as true, despite the fact that he never actually claimed it to be. It just hit the right nerves with many, much like The Da Vinci Code has today.

Sometimes a person can write a satire that is meant to be both provocative and funny, only to be found that the people he satirizes are taking it seriously. For instance, an American author from the late 1800s (whose name I've forgotten) once wrote a poem satirizing American's racist perceptions of Chinese Immigrants. Later he was horrified to find that his poem was hijacked by racists who used it to enforce those stereotypes.

Bulwer-Lytton and the author whose name I've forgotten, however, did not try to mislead people, but sometimes there are bogus works that try to mislead or stir-up people on purpose, and the prime example of this is the The Protocols of Zion's Elders, which is actually the origin of both the anti-semetic "myth" about Jews trying to take over the world (you must have heard some dumb variation on this at some point in your life) and conspiracy literature in general. It was written in the early 20th century by a man who worked for the Okhrana, the secret police of the Russian Czars, who wanted to stir up hate against the Jews. He borrowed liberally from many fictional sources which had nothing to do with anti-semetism. The largest section was copied from a short book callled "A Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu", but it also borrowed ideas from several other fictional sources, including a forgotten Alexandre Dumas novel about a conspiracy to overthrow the French Monarchy. The book appeared somewhere around the early 1900s and is still being used today, despite the fact that it has been continually exposed as a hoax in the 1920s. The Nazis used it, Al Queda uses it, the current Iran government uses it and even some sincere but very wrong-headed Christians use it because they think it's telling the truth (I hated typing that, but it's true). It was a malicious hoax intended for racist purposes and it's still doing it's job. So in a sense The Protocols became true for many only because they wished to believe it for whatever reason they have (maybe because sometimes it's good to have someone to blame for your own mistakes)

[mitsuki lover]

Well Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels got one thing wrong:they thought the Communist Revolution would take place in one of the Industrial Countries like
England or the U.S.

[Maledicte]

Well, I know two different christian fiction books I started to read ended up both having an evil-nazi-dude-with-german-name-like-Hans-is-alive-today-and-gonna-wreck-havoc plot. I wasn't in the mood, so I didn't finish either of them. At least not yet.

Was one of them by Ted Dekker by any chance?

(say, I'm reading a novel with a evil-nazi-dude-with-a-German-name-that-actually-IS-Hans-who-IS-alive-today. Who'da thunk it...

[bigsleepj]

But Evil Nazis are fun!

[Maledicte]

[Alice]

Nope, not Ted Dekker.

I don't remember the titles anymore. I can probably find them out later if you want to know.

*EDIT* I believe they were "Dark to Mortal Eyes," by Eric Wilson, and "A Ship Possessed," by Alton Gansky. They both looked good, but I wasn't in the mood for the whole "Nazi thing." I'll probably try them again later, especially "A Ship Possessed," which is about a long-missing WWII submarine showing up at a beach in modern days... sealed, and with tapping sounds coming from inside...

[Maledicte]

Nope, not Ted Dekker.

I don't remember the titles anymore. I can probably find them out later if you want to know.

*EDIT* I believe they were "Dark to Mortal Eyes," by Eric Wilson, and "A Ship Possessed," by Alton Gansky. They both looked good, but I wasn't in the mood for the whole "Nazi thing." I'll probably try them again later, especially "A Ship Possessed," which is about a long-missing WWII submarine showing up at a beach in modern days... sealed, and with tapping sounds coming from inside...

Oh, I've read "A Ship Possessed." Barely remember it, though. I vaguely recall it starting out pretty good then kinda going downhill.

[Alice]

Yeah. That's a shame. I'm sure I'll finish it anyway... someday.

What was the Ted Dekker title you were thinking of, if I may ask. o.o

[itch]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?

Stephenie Meyer said this about her first novel, Twilight: "I've always admired the ability of some authors to create situations of impossible fantasy, and then add characters that are so deeply human that their perspectives make the situation believable." She goes on to say that she hopes Twilight offers readers the same experience.

[Azier the Swordsman]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?

No, because I am a writer myself, and I "understand". XD

2) Have you ever wondered about when some novels that are put out about the same time contain many similar themes

The good ones are either coincidences or were inspired. Bad ones are rip-offs.

A good novel may have similar themes to another famous author, but a good author will take those themes and go somewhere nostalgic but add his own unique touch and make it original and interesting. A bad author will write a cheap imitation that is neither original nor exciting and will be blatantly obvious.

3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

Considering I stick generally to Sci-Fi, fantasy, suspense and horror as far as reading is concerned, it's not likely/I certainly hope not. XD

My writing itself, excepting certain fanfiction, generally has some sci-fi/fantasy overtone to it, so again it's very unlikely. Unless you count the angst oneshots I write for fun on occasion, and I would really never wish any of the torment I put the characters through on anyone in real life. XD

[Freezair]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?

Yes I do, and all the time! Like Azier the Swordsman, I "understand," but because I understand, it only makes me more curious! I know for a fact that my inspiration stems from such a huge variety of ecclectic sources, and I can only wonder what sort of sources other writers have. I based a villain in my hoped-for series on a single speech I saw in an old documentary I had to watch in 7th grade. I put a race of magical people into my HFS because of a few background tiles in a video game. One of my locations is based on a piece of chip music I enjoy. Just the other day, I got an idea for a children's fantasy. It'd be called The Island of Baba Yaga, and it'd be about an island of witches that drifts through the sea, trailing cruise ships looking for children to kidnap--and what becomes of one family that becomes stranded there. The idea came to me when I began to think about the Isle O' Hags from Banjo-Tooie.

2) Have you ever wondered about when some novels that are put out about the same time contain many similar themes

I have, but I seem more inclined to find connections in things that are many years apart. I'd attribute most of the ame-time similarities to a combination of zeitgeist and rip-offs, as has been already stated--but then I read the book The Hounds of the Morrigan, written in 1983, and notice that Macha and Bodhv are eeriely similar in appearance to Twinrova from OCarina of Time, released in 1997. YMMV.

3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

Depends on what aspects we're talking about. I definitely don't think I'm cut out to be the Chosen One who must Save the World from Utter Destruction at the hands of a Vicious Tyrannical Overlord, but I can't say I wouldn't love to become friends with a nice, kindly dragon. I'll give him/her some of my favorite rocks if he/she will give me one of his/her old shed scales/feathers!

[EricTheFred]

1) do you ever wonder what inspires some of the ideas behind various novels that are in publication?

As a writer (unpublished, but very active), I sometimes come up with guesses, but I have no idea if they are accurate. I walked out of the movie 'Ratatouille' and said to my brother (we had brought our children to it together) "I would be willing to bet that the entire script started with the writer reading a story about a restaurant being shut down for rats in the kitchen, and he imagined the scene with hundreds of rats hard at work cooking up the food. The rest of the script just fell together after that." I have no idea if it was accurate, but I sure have come up with a few stories on one momemtary thought like that.

2) Have you ever wondered about when some novels that are put out about the same time contain many similar themes

No, because I think I know why. All the writers are living in the same world, and it is a very interconnected world. The inspirations surround one can easily be similar to the inspirations surrounding another.

Away from writing, did you know that the electronic computer, the jet engine, and the television all had multiple inventors? Nearly at the same time, in different countries, these items occurred to separate people, who began work on them. (Actually, I think the TV was two Americans, just widely separated by distance.)

3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

Sure. Especially because of Tom Clancy's description of a jet plane crashing into the Capitol during a joint session of Congress, written well before 9-11-01. There was apparently also a story about an 'unsinkable' passenger liner striking an iceberg with great loss of life, wrtten years before the Titanic disaster. Things like this do make you think.

[Freezair]

As a writer (unpublished, but very active), I sometimes come up with guesses, but I have no idea if they are accurate. I walked out of the movie 'Ratatouille' and said to my brother (we had brought our children to it together) "I would be willing to be that the entire script started with the writer reading a story about a restaurant being shut down for rats in the kitchen, and he imagined the scene with hundreds of rats hard at work cooking up the food. The rest of the script just fell together after that." I have no idea if it was accurate, but I sure have come up with a few stories on one momemtary thought like that.

I have always thought that the Super Smash Bros. series of video games began with an office discussion at Nintendo along the lines of, "Link could SO take Mario in a fight! But Donkey Kong would beat them both!"

[JasonPratt]

3) (this one applies to fellow writers too) do you ever wonder that something you've read (or written) could one day happen in real life?

Actually, I'm sure I'll be haunted the rest of my natural life by people wanting to know if the spectacularly imploding tower at the end of my novel _Cry of Justice_ was written to parallel the World Trade Centers being skyrammed. (Uh, no, I invented the scene in April of 2001, several months before the Towers went down, and would have been leery about doing so afterward. Also the contexts are quite totally different, but I doubt that's going to stop people from supposing a connection. sigh.)


Also, the other day I was asked by two people whether the notion of people migrating inland after a catastrophe and starting to butt into one another, was supposed to reflect global warming. (Uh, no, the reasons are extremely different, and I don't think I had even heard of global warming in April 2001. Had anyone??)


That being said, the overarching story is about a forthcoming end-o-the-world; which we know is going to happen sooner or later, and not prettily. Granted, a lot of stories _threaten_ this (to be averted), but not so many go the distance. I tend to think it'll happen more like RevJohn than the way _I'm_ writing it, but still. {shudder} Yeah, one of these days it'll happen, and we'd better gut up for it.


Wow, that was more than a little depressing! {g} Um, good things (or at least non-terrible-and-good things)... Well, most of my characters get married sooner or later, and I'd like to be able to be with my wife, too; so there's that, I guess. {s}