What are the fictional stories that have impacted you?

[aceattorney]

Fiction can be in many ways, more powerful than the truth at impacting our minds and lives. I'm not just talking about being a fan - I'm referring to a deep, perhaps philosophical impact that has challenged or changed your perspective of life.

What are the stories that have had the biggest impact in your thoughts?

 

[Plainview]

Ikiru. It didn't change much in reality, but it made me think a whole lot. I need to re-watch it to get the introspective feels again.

 

[Oblong]

Interesting topic.

I used to read a lot when I was younger but just don't make time for it anymore and the books I start get put down for a week or more and then it's over for me. When I read it has to be a nightly devotion until complete or I'm just not going to finish.

So looking back all these years I have a few books that come to mind as things which not only stood out back then but also are still incorporated into my life today.

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) - A startling book which ever reminds me how important it is in society to protect our rights as individuals.

The Stand (Stephen King) - Just an epic story of good vs. evil. I was fully immersed in this huge story and was able to paint a complete picture in my mind thanks to both the writing and my previous familiarity with King's work.

The Cask Of Amontillado (Edgar Allen Poe) - I could have chosen any number of his works but this was one that has stuck with me more than any. Not only a sinisterly brilliant work but Poe made me appreciate the actual art of writing.

Island at the Top of the World (Ian Cameron) - Who? What? Ok, this was made into a Disney movie back in the 70's and it actually is a great yarn worth a read by anyone. This was the book that made me a reader and I'd be remiss to not include it on my list.

And no, this isn't my list of the greatest books ever, just as the OP suggests, ones that I feel have impacted me. I'm sure there are others which don't come to mind at the moment, but isn't it usually the 1st you think of the ones which really do belong?

 

[aceattorney]

I suppose it would be remiss of me to not chime in. Here are some of the more recent works that have done a number on me:

Interstellar: the love a father and his daughter share knows no bounds. I loved the way relative time was portrayed, and it was done so in such a traumatic way. This movie caused me to gasp at the wonder of both time and love.

Three-Body Problem trilogy: this series of books are so magnificent in scale, it made me feel so inadequate with my imagination and my ability to communicate. I hope to expand my imagination like this one day.

Crisis on Infinite Earths: I've only seen the animated film, but I was shocked at how profound the premise was. It didn't deal with the Butterfly Effect - rather, that there are infinite universes where we all make different decisions on every aspect in our lives. I think back in my life, at the simple and crucial decisions I've made, and wonder what things would look like with the infinite variations that could have taken place. Makes me feel insignificant and yet important.

 

[Videodrome]

Concrete: Strange Armor (The Origin of Concrete)

This character has what could be kind of a superhero origin, but he's not really a superhero. He was a political speech writer and kind of creative guy before him and his friend were abducted by aliens and experimented on by having their brains swapped into rocky alien bodies. His friend went mad and was killed by the aliens.

He tries to adapt to this strange situation, even trying to write again while fumbling and breaking pens and pencils. He feels frustrated by this ridiculous condition as well as being robbed of his human identity.

A small but major point of the book is when he's sulking while walking in the woods and comes across a cabin with happy people while he's outside feeling like a freak. He then sees a person glide away from the table instead of getting up because they're in a wheel chair. He deeply reconsiders whether this is curse or a gift as he has the ability leap across a ravine.

Skipping ahead, he starts pulling his s*** together and decides to use his rocky body's strength and resilience to climb Mt. Everest.

 

[The Wolf King]

A Song of Ice and Fire

Always on my guard at weddings thanks to these books.

 

[Videodrome]

I really think this is one of the best movies done by Nicolas Cage. It's just something I think often when I observe the clusterfuk that is the Middle East and especially now Syria.

 

[Videodrome]

COSMOPOLIS

Thinking of this movie and considering buying the original novel.

It's hard to explain the appeal of this movie because it doesn't have much of a plot. It's more of a meditation on the world economy, the frustration with it, and the motives of people in it. Some aspects of the movies street riots make me think of a mix of recent real life riots and the Occupy Wall Street movement as well as a combination of the 90s dot.com bust and the later Recession.

I think in some way, the young billionaire investor Eric Packer is generally aloof about the frustration of lower class people, but starts to feel perplexed as well over time in his own way about a system he's come to dominate. As if he's trying understand the wealth and power he has at such a young age and if it's a great thing or if he's now so wealthy it's an absurdity.

The Impact part of this movie is it does make me ponder things like Capitalism and Competition and how it brings us great innovations but also seems to be hugely wasteful in many ways. Especially since a person like Eric Packer seems to just skim the world economy creating vast wealth without ever producing real products; hence why this story regularly uses the term Cyber Capital.

 

[Videodrome]

Now to the most obvious, the film VIDEODROME.

My first so-called dumb career was running a TV station control room broadcasting syndicated garbage from a switch board at a FOX affiliate. Some shows were actually okay like Seinfeld reruns or syndicated South Park, but most were terrible and I was really annoyed by the televangelist morning shows.

So I'm doing this dumb job and to my amusement one day I start seeing trailers for The RING. Of course and saw that and enjoyed it, but afterward while reading reviews I saw mention of another killer video tape movie called Videodrome.

I eventually rented the poor quality DVD copy available at the time(of course I now own the very nice CRITERION version) and found it really interesting as well as ahead of it's time. I thought in many ways, it was a weird crude take on the current rise of home CableTV with violent content at the time it came out in the 80s, but also looked ahead to Virtual Reality.

It also explored Censorship of all of this with the character Barry Convex who is such a zealot he is weaponizing TV with the Videodrome signal to kill consumers of violence or porn so he can stop social decay from people watch it. Cronenberg loathes censorship and I think this was an ironic way to portray one committing real violence to stop the consumption of fictional violence.




After reading other articles about this movie, I learned that the film characters Brian O'Blivion was loosely inspired by real life professor Marshall Mcluhan who I think influenced David Cronenberg a little bit. I have since looked into his views as well and found his thoughts on broadcast media very interesting as well.

All these ideas are packaged in Cronenberg's 'Body Horror' style and surrealism as many strange scenes were Videodrome triggered hallucinations.

 

[Videodrome]

Ikiru. It didn't change much in reality, but it made me think a whole lot. I need to re-watch it to get the introspective feels again.

How about There Will Be Blood?

 

[Plainview]

How about There Will Be Blood?

Not much, if at all.

I can say Desperado, the movie. Made me get into screenwriting.

 

[Registered User 1]

Beaches: I just have to hear that song and it ruins me. Awhile ago it came on over the Supermarket speakers and I started sobbing like a betch.

Milo and Otis: It traumatised me after I found out how many animals they killed making it. ~_~

 

[rankandfile]

Hermen Hesse is one of my favorite authors.
With that said, Siddhartha changed my life in a very good way.
The story itself didn't really change my life, but The Hobbit started a 5 year long reading frenzy.
and Robot Dreams (a volume of short storys) by Isaac Asimov

 

[aceattorney]

You guys really need to read the Three Body Problem trilogy.

 

[Andy]

Three novels that changed my life:

Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke - confirmed me in my atheism at age 13. Don't get me wrong, I was already questioning my faith and knew that the platitudes I was being handed didn't wash, but the book reinforced it and crystallized the decision: "there is no God, it's all a fairy tale." I re-read it recently and saw how shallow the book was, but at the time, it put a cap on things.

On the downside, I spent the next 20 years an atheist. On the upside, I rejected the lame/3rd grade version of God most people get, and I had to find my way back by myself. I ended up much stronger for it, although it was a difficult trip.

The Stranger, by Albert Camus. It wasn't so much this story, which I didn't really identify with, but the fact that it led me to other books by Camus, who soon became my favorite writer and had an enormous impact on the way I saw the world. He was the first guy who felt like a kindred soul, to me. Everyone around me seemed to be just acting out superficial social scripts, but he was talking about what really mattered. He opened me up to the love of nature, women, art, and beauty.

Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Fredrich Nietzsche. I was bowled over by this novel. I remember reading it in a trance. Nietzsche was another writer who was very influential in my early life. He taught me about writing and post-modern philosophy (that was his non-fiction). He showed me what an exciting adventure the life of ideas could be, and how much courage and independence was required. He formed my concept of "greatness," reinforced my atheism, and made me a big old narcissist. I've since "overcome" (Nietzsche joke) all of that.

Non-fiction has been a hundred times more influential in my life than fiction, but those are the novels that came to mind.

 

[Videodrome]

I will say I'm a major fan of Philip K. Dick and in general his science fiction is good and making you think about perspective or sometimes ethics or I suppose the human condition.

One example I like a lot is The Minority Report, though it was much more complicated than the film and Anderton never gives up trying to save Pre-Crime. Despite the ethical quandary, he justifies it with a proven track record of eliminating murder. Even after he himself is convicted, he still believes in the system.

I thought about starting a PKD thread just because another Blade Runner is coming out and the original was based on his work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.