Ms. Lajeunesse's Writer's Lineage by Aimee Lajeunesse

1. The VHS Tape of Dark Wonder

aimee_lajeuness — 2024-09-05 15:10:10 UTC

When I was about 6 or 7 my Uncle made a VHS tape that had four movies recorded on it. The movies included: The Last Unicorn, The Secret of Nimh, The Little Prince, and Pippi Longstocking. I watched the movies over and over marvelling about the storytelling in them. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how dark these movies all were. For example, In The Last Unicorn, a woman is eaten by a harpy and a man traps all the unicorns in the world in the ocean by creating a flaming bull that chases them all into the ocean for an eternity. These movies are part of my writer's lineage because the dark, sinister nature of them became deeply embedded in how I see the world and the types of stories that I like. These films created my preference for dark and dangerous books later on and for horror and the macabre. As a result, so much of what I read had a darkness lurking in it and, in turn, my writing reflects those aspects. They were also movies that had elevated and sophisticated vocabulary in them which developed my writing style also.

2. Stephen King books

aimee_lajeuness — 2024-09-05 15:15:31 UTC

I think I started reading Stephen King books around grade 4. This really should not have been allowed to happen because the books were way too mature and horrific for my age- alas my parents didn't bother to censor my reading habits. From then on, I devoured every King book I could get my hands on. Stephen King is part of my textual lineage because I have read over 50 of his books and when I first began to write he was the writer I most often mimicked in terms of the types of stories I wanted to write and the types of characters I would create. The throughline of being a reader who loves the macabre, dark themes, and inspiring fear was a core part of my early writing.

3. The Core Poets

aimee_lajeuness — 2024-09-05 15:20:48 UTC

Throughout my entire writing life, my mainstay has been poetry. Something about the beautiful simplicity of language and rhythm and how easily words can be sharp or beautiful...Anyway, it began with a love of William Carlos Williams because Stephen King had interspersed his poetry from the collection "Patterson" into the chapter divisions in his book "It". I memorized those poems and used many of the lines to begin my own writing. Later this led to a love of Sylvia Plath, Anne Michaels, Michael Ondaatje and other poets whose style of poetry I mimicked in my own writing. Later on I went on to study with Simon Ortiz and Karen Connelly (also poets) in University because of the love I developed for this form of writing that began with William Carlos Williams.