1. Reading Douglas Adams with my daughter—the first time I've opened these books in decades—is a refresher course in my own life.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
2. In elementary school I read all kinds of writers, from Lovecraft to Doyle to Walt Kelly, but my favorite books tended to be high fantasy.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
3. From the 7th grade onward, suddenly it was different. Still reading all kinds of stuff, but my favorites were kinda po-mo/slipstream.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
4. Indeed, after a few years I had pretty much run out of all patience with high fantasy as a genre.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
5. 6th grade my favorite writer was Tolkien, a year later it was Vonnegut. Quite a jump.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
6. In both mainstream & genre fiction, I was most drawn to stories that were absurdist, paranoid, or ideally both. Again, quite a shift.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
7. Now I realize Adams was the bridge. Some friends pushed him on me when I was 11, and after that I was ready for Vonnegut and Heller.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
8. And by high school, for Pynchon, Burroughs, and Dick. Propelled in that direction by these funny British novels & radio shows.
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Replying to @notjessewalker
9. Rereading his books now, I see problems I missed as a boy. ("Hey—he just told the same joke twice in one paragraph!")
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Replying to @notjessewalker
10. But at the same time, I recognize that these were formative texts for me. Much more than I had realized.
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@notjessewalker I often wonder if Adams owed something to 1950s slapstick sci-fi (Scheckly, etc.) which also informed Vonnegut.
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