Influence

Inspirational song: Storybook Love (Mark Knopfler and Willy DeVille)

"True love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops." -- William Goldman

I don't often devote my column inches to other writers, but today is a special occasion. A solemn one, as well. The author of one of my favorite books of all time (as well as several other stories that made for fantastic movies) has passed away. I'm not shocked by the news, as he was 87, but I do note his passing with a note of respect and gratitude for the gifts that he shared with us all.

I was between seventh and eighth grades when I came across The Princess Bride for the first time. I was spending part of the summer with my dad, and he had a paperback copy on his guest room bookshelf. I have always had a hard time falling asleep on time, so I stayed up late a couple nights to read it. I was instantly enchanted by the story. It was the first book book I ever laughed out loud reading, and it was so unusual at the time that I made note of it and never forgot. (It was at the part where Fezzik's father demands that six year old Fezzik learn to fight back against bullies, and makes him hit his father for practice. It goes something like: "'You're very strong Fezzik,' he said. Actually what he said was 'Zzz'zz zzzz zzzzz, Zzzzzz,' because his jaw had been broken and wired back together.") I reread it some years later, when I heard they were making it into a movie. I was working at one of my very first jobs, as a receptionist for the Classics department at CU, and the man in black was hanging by his fists on the Cliffs of Insanity, and had just begun to climb, when the phone rang, and I was startled to discover that I was actually sitting at a desk in a college office, and not actually suspended next to the cliffs, watching the pursuit of Buttercup and her kidnappers.

As much as I loved the movie, like 95% of the American population, I loved the book more. It heavily influenced how I approach my own writing. Throughout the book, he pulls back the curtain and speaks directly to the readers in parenthetical phrases. I do that all the time, compulsively. (I think one of my other favorite writers, Julia Quinn, must have been similarly influenced.) He took his comedy very seriously in that story, and I have always aspired to do the same. I owe it to myself to ready more of his novels. I've seen several of the movies, but his true brilliance was in his words.