Never Mind About Those Cowboys
Monday, May 31, 2010
Today: the Rejectionist very publicly breaks up with Cormac McCarthy over at Tiger Beatdown! That's way more exciting than some old barbecue.
Today: the Rejectionist very publicly breaks up with Cormac McCarthy over at Tiger Beatdown! That's way more exciting than some old barbecue.
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But he writes so purdy.
I don't know how this escaped me for so long. I've never pinpointed the reason so much manfic feels like an echo chamber no matter how well written it might be.
But you are right on the money, the womenz are all Virgin Marys or Temptress Eves. If they are represented at all. Calls to mind a two dimensional medieval tapestry with beautiful color and craftmanship but no perspective.
Le R, you are a genius. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
You speak my mind so clearly, Le R. I felt this way strongly in high school when forced to read Conrad, Golding, Hemmingway and Steinbeck (the latter in more than one grade). I can't think of a single novel I read in high school with decent women characters (never mind protagonists). I harangued my poor teachers about this, peppering my essays with snarky comments about misogyny, and refusing to see anything good in any of these authors.
Something changed in university, though, and I stopped noticing the monolithic void of real women in literature. I could accept the Wife of Bath or Kate in "Taming of the Shrew" as "strong female characters" and live with that.
But you know, I was right back in high school. And not only am I tired of manlit, I'm tired of boylit too. Sure Hermione Granger is the smartest character, but Harry's still the lead. And why? Because boys won't read books about girls, but girls will read books about boys.
Hollywood is even worse. Tim Burton took a perfectly good book (Coraline) that had a perfectly good standalone girl protagonist, and went and added a stupid fucking boy to the equation. I screamed at the television stopped watching at that point.
Thanks for refueling my ire on this issue. It's something about which I don't ever want to become complacent.
Sheer brilliance. Oh, I read all that d**k lit too. For years. Until I discovered women's fiction--books about people who resemble actual humans. But 60 years after the feminist revolution, books about women (especially if they're not moms) are dismissed as "chick lit" and male fantasies are "literature."
Yikes, Joe, we love you, but those jokes totally stressed us out. The rest of that comment was awesome though.
Dearest Ink, no argument there; Cormac McCarthy is one of the most brilliant people currently writing in English, for reals. But there are not a lot of options for the ladies there. And there are a whole lot of other brilliant people (ladies AND gentlemen) who, at this point in our life, we would much rather read.
Gah! I am shamed...
Apologies. Removed before I could think better and delete it. I should have listened to the side of my brain that said it was a bad idea.
In any event, I do believe the problems with the way women are portrayed by many male writers in modern literature can be traced back to Robert E. Howard.
But I still liked The Road.
(Did I mention apologies?) :(
Apology accepted, dear Joe.
ah, Le R. that entry just about broke my heart.
truer words, my friend.
were never spoken.
The Rejectionist at Tiger Beatdown? A conjunction of two of my favorite blogs on the entire web!? Whoa! Off to read it post-haste.
Oh, this ranks right up there with "A Reader's Manifesto" on "muscular prose." You've got McCarthy, er, nailed. Might one request an exposition on phallic symbolism in Man Lit?
Le R.,
That's why you read Ann Patchett right after you read McCarthy! Truth and Beauty will save you from any and all over-dickishness. Problem solved.
And can I write a companion piece on the gloriously bad representation of men in books by women? :)
"Oh my God, I just read Twilight!" said Joe Bob. "Edward Cullen is just like me! For reals! I sparkle just like that! It's like that Meyers person saw right into me!"
oh, Ink.
THIS IS WHY WE ADORE YOU.
I was 27 and my friend Ken and I went to see a movie together. We were sitting side-by-side and two other guys came and sat in the row in front of us. They put their coats in the chair between them. I asked Ken what they were doing. I had never seen anyone do that before. He said that was their "I'm not gay" seat. I asked how they were going to talk to each other. He said they weren't going to talk to each other. I asked why they came to the movies together. He shrugged.
It was, and still is, very weird to me.
YOU TALKED SHIT ON BUKOWSKI! YAYYYY!
I hoping for some smack-talking about Chuck Palahniuk, too. He does have female protagonists, sometimes, but their characterization is just vomit-inducing.
I have to say I like a lot of what could be classified as "manfiction," at least when the author in question has something else to offer, prose-wise, that distracts me from his gender-related failings. But that doesn't mean I don't hate their approach to ladies. As you note, women aren't mysterious forest elves or some shit, and writing that characterizes us as such is obnoxious. I don't mind a lack of female characters in these cases, because if you're so flustered by women maybe you shouldn't write about us at all. I don't have a problem liking/relating to dude characters (though that may be in part due to a pretty tomboyish past and my general existence in very male-dominated cultural spaces), but when it's all dudes, all the time in all the novels by respected dude authors, it does become tiresome.
Man write good. No show feeling. Hunt bear and lasses with hand tied behind back...UGA BUGAA!
Great post maam
Dear Helen, here is where the Rejectionist freely admits to never having read, and having no interest in reading, Chuck Palahniuk SORRY CKHB SORRY.
And yes TOTALLY, what qualifies as "manfiction to reject" and "manfiction to appreciate aesthetically while lamenting its total dearth of valid lady-representation" is extremely subjective and 100% we did not mean to say that C-Macs is, like, bad (Atonement is another story altogether; that's one of the dumbest books ever written. Also dumb: Bukowski). But overall we are just kind of over it. We feel pretty well-versed in the inner workings of the white man and would like to, you know, read some other stuff now.
Dear Ink, only if your companion piece compares Cormac to Stephenie.
Thanks for all the nice things said above, Author-friends!
What if Cormac is reclusive because in real life he's really sparkly...? Hmmmmm? Yes?
I mean, isn't there always some old wrinkly Daddy Vamp? Right? I know my shit. I watched me some Lost Boys.
Do you need a spoiler warning for something that is several years old and has been on Oprah and made into a movie? And are you seriously rushing out to read The Road after reading Le R's essay? Really? Well, if you're going to be like that about it: SPOILER WARNING
---
Don[apostrophe omitted]t be silly, Le R, The Road was full of ladies!
There was the Mom Who Killed Herself, the Mom Who Ate Her Own Baby, and the Adoptive Mom And Sister/Who-Are-We-Kidding-Here Breeding Partner Who Were Prizes For The Boy At The End. Also I think there may have been some Women Held Prisoner By Cannibals And Rape Gangs.
All-in-all, a fairly complete picture of womanh-- y'know, I can't even make myself finish this sentence when I'm being sarcastic.
As one who fondly remembers her John Updike and Philip Roth Break-ups in the 70s (ugly) her John Irving Break-up in the 80s (painful),and her Paul Auster Breakup of the 90s (necessary),may I say that it is possible to find happiness with male authors now and then.
Ladies, I give you Tom Perrotta. (But you must return him promptly!)
JUST DON'T MAKE US BREAK UP WITH ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE IT'S OKAY BECAUSE SHERLOCK HOLMES IS SOOOOOOO GAY
Dear triceratophat, you are so right, how could we forget all the ladies that get raped and eaten. Probably because we related to them so hard, that's why we forgot about them. We were just so excited that the entirety of our post-apocalyptic options are die, die, get raped, get eaten, die, breed the future of the human race, eat a baby, die.
I loved that post. I finally put my All the Pretty Horses in my TO DONATE pile.
wooo hoo! 'The Road' was too long and winding
awesome post. awesome.
OMG. Ha, I loved your post.
I have to say that I've never realized - until recently - just how bad, er.. how strong the sentiment was that women were so poorly represented in fiction.
I read male and female authors in sf/f and usually, male writers under write the females, and vice versa.
But my view is narrow, it seems. No matter, Rejectionist. I promise you that I can, will (and am currently) writing female characters with depth. And because it's funny, male characters who are trope-ish.
Why? Because women, in general, are much more comfortable expressing their emotions, and acting upon them, and that is (to me) easier to write. (We show, don't tell, yes?)
And when that happens, it makes men stupid (yay, built in scene conflict)! I understand the sentiment you note, and respect it - it drives me, reminds me - but I don't really understand how or why it's gotten to this point.
Ah well, sorry for rambling. In a greedy way, I hope the trend continues until I am finished with the WIP, so that I have a slightly better than my one in a bazillion chance of getting published. :-p
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