September 11, 2011
99 Inspirations for The Only Ones
For the last three months on Twitter I’ve been counting down to the release of The Only Ones by listing 99 novels, movies, songs, people, places and miscellany that have inspired the book. It has been a way to honor influences and start conversations, but mostly it has been a way for me to figure out where all of this came from. These aren’t necessarily my favorite works of art (some are), but they’re the ones that gave the story its shape. So, without further ado:
- 99: The Mainland by Jamie Wyeth
- 98: Moon Palace by Paul Auster
- 97: Marvin the Martian
- 96: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
- 95: The Navigator, a Medieval Odyssey directed by Vincent Ward
- 94: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- 93: 12 Monkeys directed by Terry Gilliam
- 92: Imitosis by Andrew Bird
- 91: The Lonely Ones by William Steig
- 90: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
- 89: The hilariously batty catalog for Adventures Unlimited Press
- 88: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
- 87: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- 86: Village of the Damned 1960 Version
- 85: Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
- 84: Re: Stacks by Bon Iver
- 83: The cape from George Washington directed by David Gordon Green
- 82: Our Gang (aka The Little Rascals)
- 81: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- 80: Truckasaurus!
- 79: It’s a Good Life Episode of The Twilight Zone
- 78: The Popol Vuh
- 77: The Swiss Family Robinson by J.D. Wyss
- 76: You Don’t Know Jesus by Mogwai
- 75: Our Town by Thornton Wilder
- 74: City of Lost Children directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- 73: Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake
- 72: The Lonely Ones Ray Bradbury
- 71: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- 70: Gossip Girl?
- 69: Being There directed by Hal Ashby
- 68: The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
- 67: Lost
- 66: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- 65: The Old Testament
- 64: The Fly Vincent Price version
- 63: The Day After TV Movie
- 62: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
- 61: Rube Goldberg
- 60: The myth of Icarus
- 59: Nobody Knows directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
- 58: Children of the Corn short story by Stephen King
- 57: Twin Peaks directed by David Lynch
- 56: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
- 55: George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl
- 54: Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan
- 53: Wile E. Coyote
- 52: Another Girl, Another Planet by The Only Ones
- 51: Drifter by Rockwell Kent
- 50: Brattleboro, VT
- 49: The myth of Pandora
- 48: The Brother from Another Planet directed by John Sayles
- 47: The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
- 46: The Wild Child (L’enfant sauvage) directed by Francois Truffaut
- 45: Session 9 directed by Brad Anderson
- 44: The New Testament
- 43: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- 42: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
- 41: Explorers directed by Joe Dante
- 40: Apollo 1
- 39: Port Clyde, ME
- 38: Monkey (Saiyuki)
- 37: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
- 36: Space City by Drive-by Truckers
- 35: The Omega Man based on Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend
- 34: The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
- 33: The myth of Pan
- 32: Forests & Sands by Camera Obscura
- 31: La Jetee directed by Chris Marker
- 30: That man from Nantucket
- 29: The Shawshank Redemption tree
- 28: All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein
- 27: Lost Horizon directed by Frank Capra
- 26: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- 25: Hanover, NH
- 24: Flight of the Navigator directed by Randal Kleiser
- 23: Close Encounters of the Third Kind directed by Steven Spielberg
- 22: This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
- 21: The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
- 20: Gilmore Girls
- 19: The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
- 18: The Beach by Alex Garland
- 17: The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
- 16: The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick
- 15: The Outer Limits
- 14: Hugo Gernsback
- 13: The Man Who Fell to Earth directed by Nicholas Roeg
- 12: The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
- 11: Blueback by Tim Winton
- 10: James Bond!
- 9: Kilgore Trout
- 8: Green Lakes State Park
- 7: Picnic at Hanging Rock directed by Peter Weir
- 6: The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfield
- 5: Bear by The Antlers
- 4: Breaking Bad
- 3: Suburban Legends
- 2: These crazy people
- 1: My friends, my family, my beautiful wife Cate.
[...] how would you finish this sentence? The Only Ones is for fans of _______. You’ve been doing a list of 99 inspirations on Twitter, maybe one or two of those come into [...]
September 12, 2011 07:17am
[...] In July 2009, a painting called The Mainland by Jamie Wyeth sparked my first ideas for the book. In the year and a half of writing and editing that followed, there were countless other inspirations, 99 of which I’ve cataloged on Twitter via a #99inspirations hashtag. You can see them all here. [...]
September 13, 2011 07:30am
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