So Esquire magazine recently posted a list of “The 75 Books Every Man Should Read” on their website. Esquire being Esquire – that is to say, a men’s magazine that had its glory days in the era of Mad Men and that seems to be aimed mostly at old farts (and aspiring old farts) — only one book of the 75 was written by a woman. (That’s 98.67% male, for those of you with lady brains who can’t do the math.)
The internet being the internet, some people noticed that the list was a wee bit heavy on the dudes, even for a men’s magazine, and pointed this out. The bloggers at the Joyland Publishing blog suggested that while the books on Esquire’s list were “mostly fantastic,” it might behoove men to pick up a book or two written by a woman once in a while. And so, with the help of some of their readers, the two assembled a list of “250 Books By Women All Men Should Read.” (Why 250 and not, say, 75? Because they got a lot of suggestions.)
Here’s a little one-question quiz for you all: What title did W. F. Price at The Spearhead give his post on the controversy?
A) “Some Great Suggestions for Books by Women You Guys Might Want to Read.”
B) “Did You Know There Are Female Authors Besides The Chick That Wrote Harry Potter?”
C) “Feminist Publishers: Force Men to Read Women’s Lit”
Yep, the correct answer is C, of course. Apparently a couple of bloggers suggesting some books by women that men “should” read is some kind of Gestapo-like imposition upon men by “Feminist Publishers.” Price grouses:
[I]it strikes me as rather mean-spirited of females in the publishing industry to denounce even ineffectual efforts to introduce men to literature. By all accounts, publishing has come to be dominated by women, and men are reading far fewer books than women these days. Given this state of affairs, you’d think that the women in the industry might be a bit gracious and let the boys pick and choose which titles interest them.
But of course that won’t do, because feminists must find fault with any and everything men are involved in. …
The implication [of the Joyland Publishing blog post] is that men should be forced by political pressure to read female writers (sometimes these feminists come off as whiny, annoying girlfriends complaining that “he just won’t listen to me!”).
Or, you know, it might just be that the writers of the blog post, and those who wrote in with suggestions, really enjoyed the books in question and thought that dudes might just enjoy them too. Sort of like when a friend tells you that you should totally watch the movie Dogtooth, because it is so fascinating and creepy and awesome. Or when I tell you right now that you should go watch Jane Austen’s Fight Club on Funny or Die.
Naturally, the comments from Spearheaders were even more ignorant and obtuse than Price’s post. The basic theme: Bitches can’t write for shit (as far as I know).
In case you think I am offering an unfair characterization of the, er, debate, here’s one Spearheader’s contribution to the discussion:
when a man says “no, I won’t read your literature”, you have to respect that, bitch.
And another’s:
I basically do not read anything a wimminz has written, not even in my favourite genre of science fiction, because every single time I have tried they have been unmitigated fucking crap full of feminazi girl power bullshit and emotional baggage and basically very little hard SF…
And still another’s:
I never read anything written by women unless it happens to be instructional and related to work. Pretty much all the fiction I’ve ever read is by and for males. If I read some non-fiction for fun it’s always got a male author. I realized a while back that my cd collection is about 98% male. When I was a kid I never thought about it, it just came naturally. Now that I’m older I intentionally avoid anything by women.
It’s always,er, instructive to see what some random guy who apparently reads mostly instructional manuals has to say about the literary controversies of the day.
There were, of course, more thoughtful analyses, like this earnest comment from the excitable, exclamation-point-happy David K. Meller:
Women write for an audience of their own level–to wit themselves! Most men are simply too intelligent to be interested in what passes for literature scribbled by women! …
Correct me if I am wrong, but is most woman’s “literature” one more kvetch klatsch of women–or girls–getting together to complain about, to defeat, or to evade the workings of us evil, letcherous, abusive, horrible M-E-N! There is no point in men reading such drivel …
There may be better days coming; when women are once again taught the arts of pleasing men, in their creating a comfortable environment for the chosen man in their lives, and when they again will use their ability to read to discover new and better ways to do this, and their ability to write to communicate these truths to others of their sex! Until that happens, literacy for women, much less dominance in authorship, editing, and publishing has been, and is, a BLOODY MESS for everyone, especially men!!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller
Yes, women should really only be allowed to read and write if they are reading or writing instructional manuals on how to cook and give better blow jobs, possibly at the same time.
PEACE AND FREEDOM!! to you too, good sir.
Speaking of which — the blowjob bit, not the PEACE AND FREEDOM!! — the commenter calling himself dragnet suggested that young men such as himself were simply too busy to read much of anything. They have other priorities:
The vast majority of my reading is for work, research, and classes. …
Frankly, I’d rather be getting laid than reading a novel after a grueling work week. The three or four hours I sometimes have free on the weekend when I’m not working or working out or sleeping or eating, I’d rather be out with my friends or getting serviced by whatever girl I’m with at the time.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a penis, must be in want of some girl to service it.
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!1!!
Anyway, ladies and manginas, any good lady books you want to suggest for the dudes of the world?
Zombie: But we know that’s not it, because the wymmminnsez don’t read the books by men, and they just buy books by other wymmmmmennsesz because they weren’t written by men.
Its the misandry inherent in the system. Men just can’t get a break.
wymmmmmennsesz
Gesundheit.
But we know that’s not it, because the wymmminnsez don’t read the books by men,
don’t be silly. Women only get hysterics if they learn how to read.
Seanan McGuire is also another urban fantasy writer I enjoy, and has written a book entitled ‘Feed’ under the name Mira Grant, which is a fantastic novel set 20 years after the zombie apocalypse.
Eeee! Seanan’s a friend of mine and she is awesome.
Right now I’m reading Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride and Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates. Just finished The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin, after meaning to get around to her novels for ages.
I occasionally read books by men if they’re as good as books by women, who are obviously all geniuses at writing, but I refuse to be pressured into reading inferior books by myn authors to be politically correct. By “myn authors,” I mean those writers who whine all the time about their penises and their midlife crises and only get published because they’re male. There’s only so many hours in the day, you know?
MRAL, what female authors are you thinking about
I suspect teh Furious Googling resulted.
Just finished The Lathe of Heaven
LIKE.
Also, if you want to investigate moving pictures versions, find the Public TV version done quite some time ago, not the recent big-budget travesty.
You make jokes about how only wywmyn read books written by wymym, but it’s true! The only reason someone like Franzen Ferdinand gets published is because there are a few editors out there who are willing to risk publishing a book by a man.
Shaenon, also check out The Dispossessed.
I don’t think my link worked up there. Here it is again. It explains how privileged women authors are often overlooked for the major writing prizes.
Mr. Al: You may have disagreed with everything in my comment (and please, feel free to take issue with the list of my favorite women writers; but know that “disagreeing” with a fact like fewer women writers get big literary prizes is … pointless at best), but my point was that when one reads the phrase “a big man in a suit” and says, Ah ha! That is heightist! that’s not as good of a reading as recognizing what the author is talking about is sizeism, misogyny, and classism. Just trying to make the very small (no pun intended) point, actually, that your taste in books(and your confusion in the world) may be informed by either your prejudices or your poor comprehension.
@Zombie to @Shaenon Agreed with suggestion! I just picked that up a year or so ago, it’s a great book. And Left Hand Of Darkness is generally considered her best, though I think I prefer dispossesed myself.
Also, have you checked out her short stories? Because I strongly recommend ‘Changing Planes’ to anyone who hasn’t read it.
The Dispossessed is just so… relevant to the current times, you know?
Oooh, an author published because he was male came to me while I was out: William Faulkner. Seriously, can you imagine someone publishing The Sound and the Fury by Wilhelmina Faulkner?
as to Seannen: in addition to last year’s Campbell Award, she was just nominated [well, a month ago] for a Hugo this year
I hope she wins, she’s an amazing writer!! If you like Seanan, I recommend Lilith Saintcrow as well.
I must check out some of these, especially the zombie stories. I do love a good post-apocalyptic and/or dystopia story. I like Stephen King, too, and although I agree that Cell was not as good as some of his other stuff (The Stand! The Gunslinger books!), it did give me the heebie-jeebies big time. For like a week every time I thought of calling someone I had a brief moment of “No! The phone is bad!…Wait, that’s pretend.”
Just finished McMaster Bujold’s whole Vorkosigan series, and I really liked that too. And I’ll second ‘Changing Planes,’ too.
For like a week every time I thought of calling someone I had a brief moment of “No! The phone is bad!…Wait, that’s pretend.”
me too!
But when a made-up story makes you do that, how can you describe it as “not so good”?
But; cell phone zombies. Kind of contrived.
You make jokes
It is how I deal with modern post-life.
It also tends to keep away the trolls.
Joanne Rowling was published as JK Rowling because her publishers didn’t want to risk having a female name on the jacket. Is that recent enough for you MRAL?
Now it’s true that female writers do have an advantage in some parts of publishing– men who want to write romance or chick lit generally assume a female name–but male authors are still doing quite well for themselves.
It is kind of interesting that neither lists (and the comments above from what I have seen) mention AYN RAND.
I am not a big fan of Rand but her books are very popular. And, a lot of them appeal to men.
What I did not like about the responsive list is that it was not as clear why I should read them. At least, the Esquire list gave me some idea why I would find it interesting. I have read some of the books on the alternate list, but, of the ones with which I was unfamiliar, I had no idea why I should read it.
-Jut
Lady VVS: I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that about Faulkner. LOVE him. “As I Lay Dying?” Brilliant.
But seriously, male writers who were published because they were male … I’ve gotta say that calls to mind bad writers who write like they’re kicking a post. Hemingway, DeLillo, Roth … fucking Tucker Max, people.
I also find that jokes tend to keep the trolls away. In fact, ZRM, you’re one of the people* who taught me that.
* For certain values of post-breathing personhood.
well, Pez, that actually made my day.
My days are pretty boring.
Because as great as the world-building at the beginning was (and I thought it was! I kept imagining just how it could play out if the cell phone zombie signal came at various times when I was going about my daily business), I found the ending disappointing. I find it difficult to continue enjoying a world-gone-mad story when the explanation for WHY the world’s gone mad is “Uh…computers! Yeah, that’s it, computers! *jazz hands*” (See also: “The plants hate us!” and “Scientists meddled in the affairs of gods, or something, they should stop that!”)
But seriously, male writers who were published because they were male
Clancy? L. Ron Hubbard? Glenn Beck? The guy who wrote the Iron Man books? JOHN GRAY?!?!
the explanation for WHY the world’s gone mad is … *jazz hands*”
see, the way I fixed that MAKES TOTAL SENSE.
I would totally see that movie.
Lady VVS: I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that about Faulkner. LOVE him. “As I Lay Dying?” Brilliant.
I have to confess that I am not a fan of Faulkner, mostly because I find the stream-of-consciousness style to be more irritating than genius. My larger point, though, was that a woman certainly could NOT have written Faulkner’s book and published them without even more scandal than they already enjoyed. When Faulkner wrote about sibling incest, it was controversial and edgy. If a woman wrote about the exact same themes, in the exact same settings, she’d have been pilloried even more than Faulkner was.
I actually do read mostly male authors and buy music with mostly male vocalists. But I certainly don’t use that as a filter – that just happens to be the stuff I like. But I have a few.
Diane Duane is pretty awesome. Her Young Wizards series starts out for a very young audience but it grows up quickly (reading the first book as an adult I found it somewhat difficult to get through because it is SO young)
Also, a great young adult series about feral cats called the Warriors Series is actually by a team of 3 female authors who go by the name Erin Hunter.
I liked Ann McCaffrey a lot in high school but later on I got kinda tired of all the happy endings. A lot of her stuff just wraps up too neatly. Her son has taken over the Dragonriders series and some of his stuff has gotten back to the original, where people actually DIE once in a while 😛