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Which 3 authors would you like to have a beer with?

gonewiththewind

gonewiththewind

Member
Let's say it is a rainy Sunday afternoon. You are in the local bar striking up conversations with ease and in walk 3 well known authors ready for a beer and a chat. Which 3 authors would they be? What would you like to ask them about or talk about? Writing process? Moments from their lives? What were their thoughts when they wrote a particular scene...
 
Iain Banks, are you still an atheist? Alan Moore, will you sign my copy of Watchmen? H.P. Lovecraft, what does Yog-Sothoth really look like?
 
Maybe I'm weird but I don't have any questions like that. I'd expect the author to tell me "Bug off and use your imagination" if I asked about how a character was supposed to look or similar question and I'd expect them to tell me "what's in the book is what is in the book, interpret it how you want" if I asked about what something was supposed to mean. :) And as for their personal beliefs / lives / personal details - I don't want to know. It spoils the books for me. :(
 
Obviously to answer this question I would have to bring several writers back from the dead...I would love to talk to historian Shelby Foote, I'm a history buff and he spent most of his life researching the civil war. I would have a bottle of good brandy available and would just listen to his stories. Norman Mailer, I'd like to hear in his words what he was thinking during the writing process. James Baldwin, if he could be alive in the present day he'd be totally amazed. In his time a black man as POTUS and gay rights were unthinkable concepts...you know he would have so much to say...
 
I don't think I would want to talk about their books, but rather just talk about whatever topic came to mind. I would probably want to talk religion/philosophy but on a low enough level that I could actually follow what they'd be saying.
I find it harder to figure out which authors I'd want to talk to. Hermann Hesse is the first choice, Thoreau probably the second. Third one might be Kazuo Ishiguro but I'm not really sure.
 
Hunter S. Thompson, David Foster Wallace and Voltaire. I don't really have any specific questions for them though....
 
^ The first two in particular would definitely make for excellent drinking buddies.

hay82 said:
I don't think I would want to talk about their books, but rather just talk about whatever topic came to mind. I would probably want to talk religion/philosophy but on a low enough level that I could actually follow what they'd be saying.
I find it harder to figure out which authors I'd want to talk to. Hermann Hesse is the first choice, Thoreau probably the second. Third one might be Kazuo Ishiguro but I'm not really sure.
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Which of Hesse's work are you most partial to?
 
eclair said:
Which of Hesse's work are you most partial to?
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Demian. I've read it twice and I managed to identify with Emil's journey in thoughts at least, but at different places in the book. Reading it gives a feeling of a sort of progress.
 
^The central thought of finding one's own definitions rather than becoming influenced by other people's terms of good/evil/right/wrong was very strong.
 
Roy Anthony Shabla is an esteemed poet and writer with credits in both fiction and non-fiction on various subjects. His work is known for its humanity and its startling epiphanies on the reality of human nature, often with a humorous bent. He seems like someone I would certainly like to "have a beer with" over interesting, intelligent conversation.
 
I would totally love to come across Sidney Sheldon though he's dead. :( then there's Chetan Bhagat. Im in love with his style of writing. And well he's a totally frank guy and really friendly. Im pretty sure I would love if I ever get to get even a few tips on how to write so well. His books are just one of my prized possession
 
Three authors for a beer?

How about me, myself and I? That would be like, a lot of beer. All for myself. By the end, I'd be having conversations with whomever I felt like. Whether they were actually there or not.

Kidding aside, off the top of my head, it would be Jack Kerouac, Tom Clancy and Russell Blake. Some of my favorite writers, two already dead. Clancy'd be drinking beer, Blake doing shots of tequila and Kerouac would be smoking weed or meth in the bathroom. It would be a hell of a time. Probably get in a fight or two. Amongst each other. I'd be sitting there, nursing my soda water with a big 'ole grin on my face the entire time.

RC
 
Wow. That list could be pages long. I will go with the five that came to mind immediately:

Hemingway
Copernicus
King
Michener
Adams
 
Drambuie instead of beer, and for the moment, two would suffice. I'd love to see Nabokov and Banville compare notes.
Of course that's only the first session.
 
pontalba said:
Drambuie instead of beer, and for the moment, two would suffice. I'd love to see Nabokov and Banville compare notes.
Of course that's only the first session.
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Oh you scalawag! :D Just like when we try to buy just one book when we go into a bookstore. :rolleyes:
 
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