#INFLUENCES

[soulinkpoetry]

It DOES matter who we choose to interact with.

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[fionaapplerocks]

A wee list of musicians who are on record with their love for Fiona Apple / influence by her music:

Adia Victoria Aimee Mann Amanda Palmer Anoushka Lucas Annie Clark (St Vincent) Ariana Grande BANKS Billy Howerdel (A Perfect Circle) Caroline Polachek Christine and the Queens Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney) Dave Grohl Ben Weinman (Dillinger Escape Plan) Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) Emilee Petersmark (The Crane Wives) Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) Gabriel Kahane (composer)

Halsey Hayley Kiyoko Hayley Williams (Paramore) Ingrid Laubrock (jazz saxophone) Jack Antonoff Janelle Monae Jason Isbell Jay-Z Jenny Lewis John Legend Julia Michaels Kanye West Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) Katy Perry Kenny Mason Lady Gaga Lars Ulrich (Metallica) Lauren Mayberry (Chvrches) Lil Nas X Lin-Manuel Miranda Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) Lorde Madison Cunningham Magdalena Bay MARINA Maya Hawke Melanie Martinez Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) Natalie Maines (The Chicks) Olivia Rodrigo Mike Hadeas (Perfume Genius) Phoebe Bridgers Rina Sawayama Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes) Samia Sara Bareilles ('Little Voice' book) Shirley Manson (Garbage ) Sky Ferreira Solange Knowles Sondre Lerche Sophie Allison (Soccer Mommy) St. Vincent Tegan and Sarah Vanessa Carlton Yuna Zoe Kravitz

[sarahreesbrennan]

Quick Evil Note

To all my wicked darlings, I have now received rather a lot of messages asking me about the influences of Long Live Evil. And I wish to get messages about LLE and truly appreciate the ones I do get! And I wish to answer them. But answers about influences are tricky.

The book has been out in the US for a little over two weeks, and it’s going so well so far, I couldn’t be more delighted and appreciative about its reception.

But also I’ve been informed (not asked) that two of my characters are obviously somehow both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy of Harry Potter, and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. (Very puzzling as I don’t think these pairings - and one isn’t a pair - have much in common with each other or with mine. Vague hostility against a vaguely academic backdrop for a bit? For the record… in the book everyone is an adult and I don’t even have any academic backdrops to be vaguely hostile in front of…) This hasn’t happened to me in a long time, because I haven’t had an original novel out in a long time due to illness, and it is upsetting to always be discussed differently than writers who didn’t openly link their real names to their fan identity.

I have very different feelings and new appreciation for fandom than I once had. It’s been amazing to see and meet people who have stuck with me for decades. People are generally way more open and affectionate to and within fandom than they once were. Love matters to me a good deal more than hate. But getting death threats in your early 20s for excitedly telling your Internet friends you were going to publish a book does mark the psyche, and so does having your characters dismissed as other people’s characters.

And we can say there is nothing wrong with fanfiction or writing fanfiction and there isn’t! Fanfiction is great and can be genius. Terry Pratchett wrote Jane Austen fanfiction, and didn’t (and shouldn’t) have people saying Captain Wentworth = Captain Vimes. Still, when a TV show is discussed as ‘like fanfiction’ or when Diana Gabaldon said she didn’t like fanfiction and many said ‘YOU write fanfiction’ it isn’t intended in any kind spirit, even when it’s fannish folk saying it. And it’s just generally odd to have everyone call your apple a tomato, and has had professional consequences for me in the past.

However! All the asks I’ve received have been very kind, and I do want to answer them. I do want to talk about my influences because they are manifold and because I actually think it’s important to always talk about influences. I don’t believe stories exist in isolation - we tell tales in a rich tradition, and also a story doesn’t come alive to me all the way until it’s heard or read.

Long Live Evil is a love letter to fandom: it’s chock full of references to many many stories I’ve loved, to fairytales, myths and legend and Internet memes and epic fantasy and meta. My acknowledgements are endless partly for this reason. I do owe a great debt to many portal fantasies and archetypes and musicals and jokes about genre and plays through the ages, though I do think of my characters as themselves and nobody else.

I was frankly tempted to go ‘Yes I stole EVERYTHING! Bwhahaha!’ But while I am thoroughly enjoying and finding great freedom in my villain era, I do want to talk sincerely to you all as well, especially when asked sincerely interested questions.

But I’m a little scared to do so and have people say ‘AHA! Now we know what it’s fanfiction of’ (it’s happened before) or ignore me and go ‘we know the truth!’ (it’s happened before) and to feel like I’ve injured my book. Long Live Evil means more to me than any other and I really want to get talking about it right, and make sure it has the best reception I can give it.

So. Questions on all Evil topics very very welcome but answers to influence questions may come slowly. Bear with me. I am working on this!

[sleepyhollowtimburton]

Disney's Sleepy Hollow (1949) influences are clearly seen in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999). The pumpkin horse chase scene was also a complete tribute to the Disney version according to Tim Burton.

[junkdrawerbrain]

The K Chronicles by Keith Knight: “Everything in This Strip I Took from Somewhere Else (a confession!!)”

[durnesque-esque]

Hey folks - direct from the Union, here are guidelines for influencers & cosplayers during the strike.

[askmalal]

“One did not look upon the Immortal Emperor as a mere man.

Here was Alexander, Napoleon, Saladin. Here was Mithra, aye, and the brother of Yeshua too.

Here was a ‘man’ who had strode the Hydaspes, Austerlitz, Adrianople. A man who’d stood multiple sieges of Jerusalem, seen the carnage at Salamis, witnessed the assassination of Caesar, opposed but unable to stop it.

One did not look into the eyes of a man who had seen four thousand years; one could not. One could grovel, one could show respect, one could kneel, one could stand. But one could not merely but endure that glance without tearing one’s eyes away.

One did not look upon the Immortal Emperor as a mere man. And , Sandor suspected, that included most of his sons. “

- “Stars Asunder,” August Richter (1936)

[jeremiasdorap]

Granmamare (グランママレ), Goddess of Mercy and the Queen of the ocean in Ponyo (2008)

Iemanjá (Yèyé omo ejá), african godness, Queen of the waters in Candomblé and Umbanda

[creatediana]

Ruba'i by the Sufi poet Mahsati (1098–1185), translated by Paul Smith

After nearly 900 years, Mahsati is highly respected for her courageous poetry that condemned religious fanaticism and prejudices, hypocrisy and dogmas. In the city of Ganjeh in Azerbaijan, a street and a school, an academic institution, a museum and others have been named after her.

[wordsoftheheartandsoul]

You will heal, but first you will hurt. That's the irony of life. As you grow, you will also outgrow. You will begin to accept the past and present as you begin to understand that there is mourning that comes with that type of moving on. There is grief in letting go of who you once were and your life plan. There is also grief in letting go of people, influences, and environments you always believed you'd have with you forever.

Morgan Richard Olivier - One Still Whisper

[abstractica-official]

ABSTRACTICA #3: Smoke Sesh'

"Weed brain be like that..."

[mj-says-hey]

i am no dickinson

[marejadilla]

Francis Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928), "Romeo And Juliet", 1884, oil on canvas. Southampton City Art Gallery. (1853 - 1928), English Victorian painter and illustrator known for his paintings of dramatic and historical literature, legends, and women portraits.

[howifeltabouthim]

He didn't know why he spoke like that sometimes. It was stupid. Old-fashioned books and comics in his childhood, he supposed.

Kate Atkinson, from Death at the Sign of the Rook

[possumcollege]

Writing about drawing influences yesterday got me thinking about Cam Kennedy again. No one ever made Boba Fett look better. His surface textures, his sharp, slashy clothing folds, angular figures, and the sense of weight he hangs on characters are just lovely. I have a real soft spot for artists who seem to draw everyone in clothes that no longer fit them, or were made with somone bigger in mind.

I rant on characters who always seem buried in layers of gear but Kennedy's often wear it desperately, like carrying it isn't a choice and very little of it looks like it was made with the carrier's comfort or anatomy in mind. Everyone looks so worn-in, klunky, and used. His machines look like they're barely holding together, undersized, his space ships aren't made to feel gravity, nothing in his environments are squared up, the way he draws smoke trails, steam, impact debris- I love it!