No, it's not some deadly disease but it is not to be messed with. Authors suffer from this "anxiety of influence" more than most. To sum it up, it's the pressure you feel when trying to create something new and different, separate from those who came before you. Harold Bloom is the mastermind behind this concept and the reason why some day or another, you'll hear it brought up in your English class. Want to be ahead of the game? Watch this video to get your feet wet:
Anxiety of Influence Video
Pretty fantastic acting, huh? Feel free to contact my agent.
In my last blog post I talked about making an impactful and memorable presentation. Yes, this is the video I shared with my class that was remembered so well. After the video was showed and explained a little, my group and I got the class engaged on a deeper level. We put them in a situation where they would experience the pressures of anxiety of influence (and still have fun!). We started by baking three giant sugar cookies (the size of your standard cake) and showing them this picture:
We then proceeded to divide the class into three relatively equal groups and explained to them their challenge. Using the giant sugar cookie as their starting point and a bag of supplies, they were to create Frankenstein's creature and try to make it better than the ones pictured above. Each group was supplied with green frosting, black icing, and M&M's. Then we gave each group an item that no other group got; one received pretzel sticks, another white chocolate chips, and the other raisins. I'll let you decide if they were successful.
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