Inspirations

[The Black Jester]

What books, songs, speeches, movies, tv shows or other recorded media have had the greatest impact on your life, if any, and in what ways have they done so?  Have any become sources of inspiration regarding "meaning" in your life, and if so, what meanings/lessons did you garner from these sources?

[Davin]

Dr. Seuss and The Twilight Zone, all the morals you'll ever need to learn. Everything else I like is for aesthetics and/or coolness.

[Tom62]

Monty Python. I learned from them that sometimes you have to act a bit crazy, because otherwise you become crazy.

[Tank]

Star Trek, Dr Who, Babylon 5, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (new series not the 70's crap). They make my think outside the box.
Any and all nature programmes particularly those involving David Attenborough. Increase my appreciation of the natural world and how it is shaped by evolution.
The discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, they hold a mirror up to the stupidity of humanity and making me smile when I didn't feel like it.
Asimov, Clark, Alastair Reynolds and many other SiFi authors. Challenging me to see the world in a bigger context
Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and AC Greyling. A/Theistic thought.
Universe by Roger Freedman and William J Kaufmann III. Now in 8th editiion. This is an absolute MUST read for anyone who wants to really understand the Universe we live in, how it was formed and just how truly magnificent it is. I can not recommend it highly enough.
Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Madness,Depeche Mode and Hooberstank!
Mr Bell my Biology teacher who more than anybody helped me understand the natural world and Mr Creaser my Religious Education teacher who so ably demonstrated the close mindedness of some religious people.

[The Black Jester]

Star Trek, Dr Who, Babylon 5, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (new series not the 70's crap). They make my think outside the box.
Any and all nature programmes particularly those involving David Attenborough. Increase my appreciation of the natural world and how it is shaped by evolution.
The discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, they hold a mirror up to the stupidity of humanity and making me smile when I didn't feel like it.
Asimov, Clark, Alastair Reynolds and many other SiFi authors. Challenging me to see the world in a bigger context
Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and AC Greyling. A/Theistic thought.
Universe by Roger Freedman and William J Kaufmann III. Now in 8th editiion. This is an absolute MUST read for anyone who wants to really understand the Universe we live in, how it was formed and just how truly magnificent it is. I can not recommend it highly enough.
Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Madness,Depeche Mode and Hooberstank!
Mr Bell my Biology teacher who more than anybody helped me understand the natural world and Mr Creaser my Religious Education teacher who so ably demonstrated the close mindedness of some religious people.

Love Farscape!  Love BG (both versions, I have to admit).  Love, LOVE Terry Pratchett!  Thanks for the recommendation of Universe, I will definitely get it.

Have you read Consciousness Explained, by Dennett?  What did you think, if so?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Frank Herbert's Dune was big for helping me understand many different issues -- politics, religion, ecology.  Rush's early body of work (74 - 81) influenced both my guitar playing and my philosophical outlook.  Stephen King, as well as Dr Jim Merrill, amongst others, influenced my writing style.

Mom and Dad were always my biggest influences.

[Tank]

Love Farscape!  Love BG (both versions, I have to admit).  Love, LOVE Terry Pratchett!

I met him in 2005. I went to one of his 'Fan weekends'    Nice guy and a great weekend. It was themed on Monsterous Regiment. I've read all the discworld novels at least 3 time from The Colour of Magic all the way through.  Multiple readings of Guards Guards! Samuel Vimes is my alter ego, I'd love to be that cynical! I also like Going Postal, Moist Von Lipwig is just such a human character. Not overly fond of the Witches but of course I would love to meet DEATH when I die!

 

Thanks for the recommendation of Universe, I will definitely get it.

Not cheap and it's a serious academic work, worth every cent and every minute you spend on it!!

Have you read Consciousness Explained, by Dennett?  What did you think, if so?

No not that one of his. But Breaking the Spell is well worth a read.

[curiosityandthecat]

Influences: Monty Python, like Tom, and other British comedies have had a huge impact on my life. Good memories, too. Used to watch Are You Being Served? as a family just after dinner. Then it was NOVA. British comedy and a science show; doesn't get much better than that. Video games, too, especially games like Crysalis (NES), Final Fantasy (NES), FF II (SNES), FF III (SNES), FFVII (PSX, that one especially). Got me into a red-hot Ph.D field, so there's that. Pink Floyd (like Tank), so much so that I have two Floyd tattoos. Nine Inch Nails (that whole teenage angst thing; I was 14 when The Downward Spiral came out). Douglas Adams and Carl Sagan as writers. Joel-Peter Witkin as an artist.

As for actual inspiration, four things come to mind.

First, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. ("Desiderata" is actually Latin for "desired things.")

[spoiler:31g85qn7]

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

[/spoiler:31g85qn7]

Second, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

[spoiler:31g85qn7]

(A short excerpt from "On Freedom")

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

[/spoiler:31g85qn7]

Third, "On My Own" by Philip Levine.
[spoiler:31g85qn7]

Yes, I only got here on my own.
Nothing miraculous. An old woman
opened her door expecting the milk,
and there I was, seven years old, with
a bulging suitcase of wet cardboard
and my hair plastered down and stiff
in the cold. She didn't say, "Come in,"
she didn't say anything. Her luck
has always been bad, so she stood
to one side and let me pass, trailing
the unmistakable aroma of badger
which she mistook for my underwear,
and so she looked upward, not
to heaven but to the cracked ceiling
her husband had promised to mend,
and she sighed for the first time
in my life that sigh which would tell
me what was for dinner. I found my room
and spread my things on the sagging bed:
and bright ties and candy striped shirts,
the knife to cut bread, the stuffed weasel
to guard the window, the silver spoon
to turn my tea, the pack of cigarettes
for the life ahead, and at last
the little collection of worn-out books
from which I would choose my only nameâ€"
Morgan the Pirate, Jack Dempsey, the Prince
of Wales. I chose Abraham Plain
and went off to school wearing a cap
that said "Ford" in the right script.
The teachers were soft-spoken women
smelling like washed babies and the students
fierce as lost dogs, but they all hushed
in wonder when I named the 400 angels
of death, the planets sighted and unsighted,
the moment at which creation would turn
to burned feathers and blow every which way
in the winds of shock. I sat down
and the room grew quiet and warm. My eyes
asked me to close them. I did, and so
I discovered the beauty of sleep and that
to get ahead I need only say I was there,
and everything would open as the darkness
in my silent head opened onto seascapes
at the other end of the world, waves
breaking into mountains of froth, the sand
running back to become salt savor
of the infinite. Mrs. Tarbox woke me
for lunchâ€"a tiny container of milk
and chocolate cookies in the shape of Michigan.
Of course I went home at 3:30, with
the bells ringing behind me and four stars
in my notebook and drinking companions
on each arm. If you had been there
in your yellow harness and bright hat
directing traffic you would never
have noticed meâ€"my clothes shabby
and my eyes brightâ€"; to you I'd have been
just an ordinary kid. Sure, now you
know, it's obvious, what with the light
of the Lord streaming through the nine
windows of my soul and the music of rain
following in my wake and the ordinary air
on fire every blessed day I waken the world.

[/spoiler:31g85qn7]

Fourth, "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" by James Wright.

[spoiler:31g85qn7]

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

[/spoiler:31g85qn7]

[Tank]

How did I forget Douglas Adams

[Cecilie]

Music (no specific), my mom who taught me have a sense of humour, my dad who taught me pretty much everything else, my sister who's the kindest person I've ever met and my two brothers who I love spending time with (sadly it doesn't happen too often).

EDIT: Sorry, didn't read the post carefully. Decided to include everything that inspires me instead of only media. Hope you don't mind.  

[KDbeads]

Steven King, Issac Asimov,  Monty Python, Star Trek......

How many 14 year olds get a copy of 'It' and "The Stand" for their birthday?

[i_am_i]

What books, songs, speeches, movies, tv shows or other recorded media have had the greatest impact on your life, if any, and in what ways have they done so?  Have any become sources of inspiration regarding "meaning" in your life, and if so, what meanings/lessons did you garner from these sources?

I was a musician before I ever played an intrument, and music, specifically jazz music, has defined my entire life since I began working professionaly when I was eighteen years old, almost forty years ago.

The compositions of Thelonious Monk have had the greatest impact on me as composer, and as just a jazz-lover. I consider him to be the greatest jazz musician who ever lived. I consider him to be the Beethoven of jazz.

I think the last two films made by David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive" and "Inland Empire," are very great films and I could watch either of them again and again. They are both true works of art.

Dostoevsky is my favorite author, if for no other reason than just his total mastery of the craft of writing fiction. To me nobody has ever touched him. I would love to able to read him in Russian.

Television is shit. There's absolutely nothing there, nothing in the least bit inspiring unless you're looking for a reason to hate western culture.

I don't think that meaning really figures into it, though, because I don't see how life necessarily means anything. And that's one of the things I love so much about jazz. It doesn't mean anything, it's just music. That's what draws me to abstract expressionist art, it doesn't mean anything, it's just painting. I don't look for meaning in books or architecture or paintings or films. What I see, when I see something that seems truly great to me, is human achievement. What does human achievement mean, how can it be measured according to any standard?

Inspiring, yes. Giving meaning to my life? Not at all.

I felt exactly the same way this afternoon when the appliance repairman came by to fix my washing machine. I felt admiration for the man, I was impressed, I was inspired by his skill and by his obvious enjoyment of the work he did, just as I always am when I witness a human being doing work that he enjoys, but I don't think it meant anything and I didn't get the impression that he did either.

[Ellainix]

Gossip Girl and Skins

[TheJackel]

Band Camp  

[Tom62]

Fantasy:
Frank L. Baum (The Wizard of Oz),  Greg Bear (Songs of Earth and Power), Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass), Stephen Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever I and II) H.P Lovecraft (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), Stephen King (Night Shift and other stories), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels), Roger Zelazny (the Amber series)

Science Fiction:
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide), Isaac Asimov (the original Foundation Trilogy), Iain M. Banks (Consider Phlebas),  Barrington Bayley (The Garments of Caean),  Philip K. Dick (Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said), Joe Haldeman (The Forever War), Harry Harrison (The Deathworld Trilogy and the Stainless Steel Rat serie), George Orwell (1984 and Animal Farm) Larry Niven (Neutron Star and Ringworld), Rober Silverberg (Hawksbill Station and Chronos), Clifford D. Simak (The Cosmic Engineer) Dan Simmons (Hyperion), Walter Tevis (Mockingbird and The Man Who Fell to Earth), A.E. van Vogt (The Null-A Trilogy), Roger Zelazny (Frost and Fire).

"Normal" Fiction:
Iain Banks (The Crow Road), John Irving (The World According to Garp), Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Love in Time of Cholera)