5 writers who defied conventions and came up with their own genre
Truman Capote – In Cold Blood, 1966. Capote took a real-life murder case and expanded it into a full-length book that reads like a novel. The line is blurred between what actually happened and what the writer made up but it makes for one hell of a story and birthed the whole genre of creative nonfiction.
Writers we’ve got thanks to Capote: Hunter Thompson, Michael Herr, Tom Wolfe, Sebastian Junger.
Hunter S. Thompson – He took Capote’s idea and ran with it into the crazy acid-fuelled world of Gonzo where real events are twisted and tarnished by the writer’s sick and depraved mind. This is story time, remember, said Thompson, and it’s supposed to be fun.
Writers we’ve got cause of Thompson: Matt Taibbi, Jon Ronson, Louis Theroux, Shane Smith.
Herman Melville – Moby Dick is like nothing else out there. Part epic revenge, part encyclopaedia, this book is like someone was tasked to write down everything they could find out about whales. It’s like a trip to a natural history museum and Hollywood blockbuster all rolled into one. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is, other than the fact it’s awesome.
Writers we owe to Melville: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and in a weird way John Steinbeck.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe – This is one of the first novels. Before that, no one had written stories a couple hundred pages long, following a protagonist on a hero’s journey. It doesn’t make the greatest of reads these days, but you gotta give credit where credit is due.
Books we owe to Defoe: All novels ever written.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – She came up with the sci-fi/horror genre as we know it and it’s still one of the best metaphors we’ve got about man’s overreach and hubris.
Writers we’ve got thanks to Shelley: Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood.
Most of these people were writing in revolutionary times. Writers and artists are tasked with looking ahead, seeing what’s coming and providing the reader with a friendly guide for the future.
To understand the present, look to the past. To understand the past, fuckin read fiction.
Read hard. Read wide. Read free.