About the Author: Further Research

By further researching the authors on the list, I am trying to narrow down the authors that I really want to focus on.

Italo Calvino’s short stories sound interesting, and from reading more about him I have found out that he is a strong supporter of communism. He lived through the Second World War and much of his work is based on his experiences from this time. Later in his life he wrote fairytales which I think would be more fun to illustrate, but I think I would prefer to focus on a different author to this one.

Kafka was someone that I was really interested in exploring during this project. I’ve learnt that a lot of his work revolves around the theme of a father-son conflict, and there are heavy themes of existentialism within his work. I wanted to read one of Kafka’s books because of their significance in literature, but I’m not sure if his work is what I want to use for this project.

I am a big fan of science fiction and dystopian novels. Aldous Huxley interested me because of his dystopian novel Brave New World. He has also written several short stories. I am keen on learning about Aldous Huxley and his work so as I am narrowing down the authors I am interested in I will read some of his work and see if I enjoy it.

I like the sound of Cormac McCarthy’s work for the same reason, as he has written a few post-apocalypse novels. However, I’m not very interested in the gothic or western stories so maybe I should focus on an author who’s work I am more likely to enjoy as a whole.

George Orwell is someone who’s work I am really interested in. I have read some of Animal Farm and I love the way the animals are used as a metaphor for society and the subtle themes within the book. I have also wanted to read 1984 for a long time, so although I think a lot of people will probably choose Orwell for their project I think his work could be really good to explore because I know I’ll enjoy reading it.

William Burroughs’ work appeals to me because of all the experiences that he has had in his life, such as travelling around, addiction, legal problems etc. His book Naked Lunch was written in a non-linear style which I think would be fun to explore visually, especially since narrative would play less of a role in this case. He has also written short stories, so exploring William Burroughs’ work would be good because there is so much variety.

I think I’m definitely going to read some of Ray Bradbury’s work. Fahrenheit 451 is about a future society where books are outlawed, and sounds quite dystopian. The Martian Chronicles are short stories about the colonization of Mars. Both of these genres really appeal to me and I like the variety of subjects within Ray Bradbury’s work.

Ursula LeGuin’s work is also within the science fiction genre, which is why I was initially interested. However, I wanted the three authors that I chose to research further to all be in different genres so I think I would pick Ray Bradbury’s work over LeGuin’s if I was choosing a science-fiction authors work.

The authors I think I am going to continue to research are Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, William Burroughs and Ray Bradbury. Once I have read some of their work and researched their lives more I will be able to choose which author I want to base this project on.