CRWR3000: Influence Map
In mapping a constellation of influence, I applied a two-step process whereby I began by mind mapping everything which might have been influential upon my development not just as a writer, but also as a person, and then attempting to find patterns and groupings within them. I began with broader categories such as music, movies, and games, but also expanded it out to more personal influences in teachers, people, and the events and places which I felt may have shaped me. In the space between these categories are specific artists and writers, those auteurs which over the course of their body of work have stuck with me and provided constant and consistent influence. Many of the influences I’ve been familiar with for a long time. I’m always loved the indie music which came out of the cold and grey of seventies and eighties Manchester, particularly the music of Factory Records, which also has a strong overlap with the graphic design of Peter Saville and eventually climaxes in living through nineties Britpop as a student in London. Movies of Empire and those which illuminate particular strands of Englishness are all here too. The films of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach intersecting with the highly influential works of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, fusing together for me in mid-Atlantic magical nightmare.
But it’s the people and places which have really held the most personal influence. Those who you meet in life who see you in a different way, or point out something which had always been there but never realized. Those who inspire you to be better. Those who believed in me, pushed me, and reminded me I could do it. This is especially acute in the influence of teachers, both academic but also in my professional life. Those who took me under their wing and gave me opportunity. Those who encouraged me to simply go for it. And those who made me realize that life is not a rehearsal. Like the music of Manchester, in their words I felt heard, and seen. They said things which made me feel the same way they did. Even today, many decades later, their words are a source of energy and motivation for me, both strong measurable metrics of influence. What they did still propels me forward, long after I have lost contact with them. In recent years I have been trying to re-establish these relationships, if only to tell them how meaningful what they did for me still is. A voice from the past thanking those in the present.
The second part of the process was to further consolidate these groupings into more synthesized thematic topics, and go beyond simply mapping a list of influences to get to the thematic events which continue to be influential. In this extraction, these mapped to eight different thematic areas:
Kindness is everything
The familiar anew
The music that heard me
Moments which made me believe in myself
When I saw myself differently
When I asked myself to change
The places that built me
Events which showed me things could be different
It’s these themes which, when I see them show up in movies, music, literature or the words of others, even in my own writing, provide a strong motivation to keep going. These are the reasons why I continue to be influenced by the music of Manchester, the films of Mike Leigh, or the teachers I still remember. And the more of these themes which show up inside of single events, the more compound and powerful they become. For example, I remember the highly influential moment I emigrated to America. It was a moment where I asked myself to change, where I forced myself to see myself differently, an event which showed me things could be different, and held the promise of the familiar anew in a foreign country which was soon to be home. And of course, it was all wrapped in what I was listening to at the time, a mixtape my best friend had made for me to listen to on the plane. In combination, it’s not just the immigrant’s journey which became influential, it’s that it combines multiple influences into a single event. The influence compounds the more of them are added together at once.
I find the best moments in my own writing have done the same. Those moments where I’ve gone that little bit further out into the water than I’m comfortable. Those places where I can no longer touch my feet on the ocean’s floor. These are the places which ask me to overcome and see myself on the other side. They take me to places I never thought reachable through events I thought impossible. They allow me not just to believe I can do it, but to make those aspirations possible, all to the soundtrack of dour, post-industrial Manchester which has always propelled the narrative forward. My journey at Penn has always operated like this. Four years ago I had no idea I could do any of this. I didn’t even know what a transcript was. Now I am on the cusp of graduation.
These moments have also been influential in overcoming life’s obstacles. My story of cancer survival is one where I truly learned the value of kindness, and on the other side of the disease, got me to a place where I have made permanent life adjustments. Importantly, these moments have also helped me get to a place where I’ve started to write down my stories for my teenage daughter to read one day. She doesn’t know I’m doing this but I plan to give all of this to her on her wedding day, whenever that might be. The stories of these influences. The stories which shaped me but also built her. The stories which will be handed down between father and daughter as I seek to provide a positive influence upon her and what happens next.
Note: Many of these stories are being gathered online at: https://www.anthologymatt.com/semi-truths-stories
