My fictional influences
I’ve identified as a bookworm for a very long time. Throughout primary school and high school I read voraciously, primarily science fiction and fantasy. But given how much time I’ve spent reading fiction, it’s surprisingly difficult to pin down how it’s influenced me. (This was also tricky to do for nonfiction, actually - see my attempt in this post .) Thinking back to the fiction I’ve enjoyed the most, two themes emerge: atmosphere, and cleverness. The atmosphere that really engages me in fiction is one that says: the world is huge; there’s so much to explore; and there’s a vastness of potential. But one that’s also a little melancholy - because you can’t possibly experience all of it, and time always flows onwards. I was particularly struck by the ending of The Lord of the Rings , when Frodo leaves all of Middle-Earth behind; by His Dark Materials , when Lyra gains, and loses, uncountable worlds; by the Malazan saga, occurring against a fictional backdrop of hundreds of thousands o