Women Writers

[poliphilo]

Some Canadian academic has caused an international furore by saying he doesn't like women writers so he isn't going to teach them.

Fair enough. I wouldn't want to be taught by anyone who hated their subject.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to be taught by him at all. He'd set my teeth on edge.

It made me think about my own reading habits. Right now I'm majoring on female authors. My favourite classic is Charlotte Bronte and the modern novels I'm reading are mostly by women. I particularly like A.S. Byatt, Hilary Mantel, Sarah Waters and Kate Atkinson. I'm halfway through a book by Ali Smith and I've got something by Rose Tremain lined up.  Ailz says women authors are better at getting into their characters' heads. That's a bit sweeping, but I think women on the whole (there are always exceptions) are better at getting inside men's heads than men are at getting inside women's. Too many male authors don't look much beyond their female characters' chest measurements.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

How stupid would we women look if we said we never read anything by a man? Well, that's how stupid Gilmour looks. His Amazon reviews are getting systematically trolled, I'm loving it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's a fool.

I wonder if he anticipated the storm he's raised.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

women on the whole (there are always exceptions) are better at getting inside men's heads than men are at getting inside women's.

If one accepts this, the question then becomes why. Is it a) because women are "naturally" more empathetic, or b) because (living in a patriarchy) they have to observe, understand and anticipate male behaviour more expertly than men are obliged to observe women, or c) because (this being a patriarchy) men's motivations and experience are much more widely aired and discussed. Or some mixture of the above?

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Oh I think I'll plump for a big helping of (b) and (c) please! And can we do a demolition job on the "women are better multitaskers" old saw, too? It's only to justify heaping more parenthood-related yucky tasks on our shoulders because we can have a conference call AND change a nappy or something. (So can men - they've just managed to game the system to force us into doing it instead.)

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

and on topic, David Gilmour is a pillock, and a misogynist, naturally.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

But of course.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Naturally.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think b and c are certs. a is controversial, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Both - and social conditioning / expectation that we will anticipate and provide for their needs, and just that most of the POVs we hear in life are male ones so we tend to know how they think.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how this man is any worse than the female academics in the 1990s who made a big deal out of elevating female writers and denigrating males. I don't care if a writer is male or female - you either can write, or you can't.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

Though the feminist critics had a real grievance. The canon was- and still is- dominated by men. It's not unusual, for example to come across discussions of (say) the modern novel in which only male authors are named.

Just dropped by to say:

[katherine annon (from livejournal.com)]

a) Hello and Love to you, Tony and Ailz. It's K.A. from the USA. Pushkin sends a headbutt, and my little pouch with Skoda's contribution is still kept in my dresser.
b) A.S. Byatt and Susan Hill were on this week's reading list
and
c) Did this man get the attention he wanted? An academic troll is still a troll.

Re: Just dropped by to say:

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hi K.A.

I'm not that keen on Hill- though The Woman in Black is a cracking ghost story.

Who knows what he wanted? If it was 15 minutes of fame he's had it.

Love to Push!

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

well said, sir.
And thank you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

There's a lovely bit in Bob Dylan's 'Highlands' that always comes to mind when this issue arises:

"She said, you don't read women authors do you? At least that's what I think I heard her say
I said how would you know and what would it matter anyway?

She said, you just don't seem like you do. I said, you're way wrong.
She said which ones have you read then? Said, read Erica Jong"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good old Bob. What a tease!