Well said. I only realised in the last year or two that I really love George Michael. It really wasn’t the done thing for a straight boy in the 80s to approve of him but now I just hear a heavenly voice.
I wonder how many of our 'guilty pleasures' are guilty because they have been deemed so by others? My gran was a voracious reader of romances: she particularly liked hospital romances, but hey, any old romance would do, even historical, at a pinch (not a Heyer fan, my gran). She read an average of one a day, all from the library (there wasn't a book in the house other than library books). When I got old enough to read 'her' books, I got hell for it. You shouldn't be reading this rubbish, you should be reading Good Books. She went on and on and on about it, for years. To the point where, when I could buy my own books, I couldn't bring myself to buy what she called 'rubbish'. I still struggle with it, and I'm now in my early sixties, gran long gone. It's not my own judgement, though, it's hers.
Just did the George Saunders grid and a few things popped into mind I'd forgotten about. But I think, writing SF, one's not allowed to be precious about influences (even if I had read a few classics (thank, Mum)) so I've been happy to admit to my first crush (Marine Boy, aged 4) and then the very mixed influences of a bookish mother, eccentric dogrel-performing father, and punk college years - plus science, travel, ecology... composting Dickens with Murderbot and Monbiot. It's fun now it's occurred to me that absolutely no one else will have quite the same decay ecology in their mind.
Guilty pleasures always reminds me of the Tim Minchin sketch where he's unsure what to say when someone asks him but realises it shouldn't be something like 'watching Nazi porn dressed as Iggle Piggle' and opts for 'cheese' (which is my least favourite of his songs). I've taken to Strictly this season, for the sheer escapism. Also I like escaping people (much as I love them) and I love disco and pop music (because I did loads of aerobics in my 20s and that was the backing we used. Patti Labelle's New Attitude is just brilliant.) I love John Newman's Love me Again and the Kungs, and Lily Wood and, shh, James Blunt. I know. My father must be spinning in his grave (I wasn't allowed pop/rock music till I'd done O'levels).
Well said. I only realised in the last year or two that I really love George Michael. It really wasn’t the done thing for a straight boy in the 80s to approve of him but now I just hear a heavenly voice.
I wonder how many of our 'guilty pleasures' are guilty because they have been deemed so by others? My gran was a voracious reader of romances: she particularly liked hospital romances, but hey, any old romance would do, even historical, at a pinch (not a Heyer fan, my gran). She read an average of one a day, all from the library (there wasn't a book in the house other than library books). When I got old enough to read 'her' books, I got hell for it. You shouldn't be reading this rubbish, you should be reading Good Books. She went on and on and on about it, for years. To the point where, when I could buy my own books, I couldn't bring myself to buy what she called 'rubbish'. I still struggle with it, and I'm now in my early sixties, gran long gone. It's not my own judgement, though, it's hers.
Just did the George Saunders grid and a few things popped into mind I'd forgotten about. But I think, writing SF, one's not allowed to be precious about influences (even if I had read a few classics (thank, Mum)) so I've been happy to admit to my first crush (Marine Boy, aged 4) and then the very mixed influences of a bookish mother, eccentric dogrel-performing father, and punk college years - plus science, travel, ecology... composting Dickens with Murderbot and Monbiot. It's fun now it's occurred to me that absolutely no one else will have quite the same decay ecology in their mind.
Guilty pleasures always reminds me of the Tim Minchin sketch where he's unsure what to say when someone asks him but realises it shouldn't be something like 'watching Nazi porn dressed as Iggle Piggle' and opts for 'cheese' (which is my least favourite of his songs). I've taken to Strictly this season, for the sheer escapism. Also I like escaping people (much as I love them) and I love disco and pop music (because I did loads of aerobics in my 20s and that was the backing we used. Patti Labelle's New Attitude is just brilliant.) I love John Newman's Love me Again and the Kungs, and Lily Wood and, shh, James Blunt. I know. My father must be spinning in his grave (I wasn't allowed pop/rock music till I'd done O'levels).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF45J4PFWy0&list=RDHF45J4PFWy0&start_radio=1