Originally writing love stories, Benet wanted to write stories out of his own ideas, not guidelines given to him. Benet said “We have our own folk-gods and giants and figures of earth in this country, I wanted to write something about them” (Fenton 19). In “By the Waters of Babylon”, Benet incorporates pieces from modern culture into the story to make it seem like a folk-myth or a legend. Benet used American past and fantasy to create a science fiction story that could be read like literature. In many points of Benet’s career, he had little to no money because he couldn’t write any short stories, but eventually wrote multiple books and collections of short stories and poems to solve his monetary problems. Benet struggled with writing short stories since he was a prize winning poet, and had only written poetry since he was a child, but learned to write and become successful as a short story
Originally writing love stories, Benet wanted to write stories out of his own ideas, not guidelines given to him. Benet said “We have our own folk-gods and giants and figures of earth in this country, I wanted to write something about them” (Fenton 19). In “By the Waters of Babylon”, Benet incorporates pieces from modern culture into the story to make it seem like a folk-myth or a legend. Benet used American past and fantasy to create a science fiction story that could be read like literature. In many points of Benet’s career, he had little to no money because he couldn’t write any short stories, but eventually wrote multiple books and collections of short stories and poems to solve his monetary problems. Benet struggled with writing short stories since he was a prize winning poet, and had only written poetry since he was a child, but learned to write and become successful as a short story