In a post on Lit Reactor, Richard Thomas examines how various media have changed him as a writer and how we can use them for our own continuing education.
- Television. Thomas acknowledges being entertained and influenced by many programs, but singles out Black Mirror as having a profound effect. “What Black Mirror did for me was to get darker, to be weirder, to use science and technology in ways that didn’t make me feel like I was stupid, and so I absorbed it, and looked for ways to put that into my writing,” he explains.
- Movies. Rather than a single film, Thomas identifies an influential production company: A24, makers of Hereditary, Ex Machina, A Ghost Story, Midsommar, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and more. “They taught me to take chances—by delaying the plot, via a slow burn, eating pie for five minutes in real time,” Thomas writes. “They taught me how to use the world around me to build claustrophobic settings—with cults, and religious fervor, and artificial intelligence.”
- Short stories. Various annual “best of” anthologies receive appreciation here. “These are my contemporaries, my peers, my idols, and my friends,” Thomas says. “And what they have done for me is to show me what might be possible, to push me to be original, to educate me on how complex this storytelling really is, if you want to publish in the elite magazines and anthologies.”
- Novels. Thomas names China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station, Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, and Sara Gran’s Come Closer as original and inspiring.
- Music. Thomas really like Radiohead. “The stories they tell, their videos, the lyrics, and the range of emotion has taken me on some epic journeys over the years, leading to sadness, catharsis, loss, inspiration, grief, and hope,” he says.
