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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?
“Scientists meddled in the affairs of gods, or something, they should stop that!”)
Oh, yes, Peter graves knows.
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.
my son loves those books.
For what it is worth, three of the last ten Nobel prize winning literature authors have been women. And four of the last ten fiction Pulitzer prizes have been to women.
the explanation for WHY the world’s gone mad is “Uh…computers! Yeah, that’s it, computers!
Also, HAL is at the door and would like a word with you.
Oh, and you’re entirely correct on Tucker Max. A woman writing about the pursuit of sex, beer and being an asshole to her lovers would be roundly condemned instead of praised. I recommend the blog Hyperbole and a Half instead – written by a woman and utterly hilarious!
“I recommend the blog Hyperbole and a Half instead – written by a woman and utterly hilarious!”
And she’s publishing a book! So she should totally be on that list of must-reads.
Fun fact that’s actually true: It’s now believed that some of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories, mostly the later ones, were written by Zelda. They were both published authors, but F. Scott was the more famous one, obviously, and apparently at some point they figured out they could get more money for stories with F. Scott’s name on them.
And they needed that money for sweet, sweet booze.
For those who have read McMasters Bujold, am I a bad feminist for feeling bad about Sargent Bathori’s death?
“I recommend the blog Hyperbole and a Half instead – written by a woman and utterly hilarious!”
I am glad she only does cartoons occasionally, because it invariably reduces me to helpless teary laughter.
Also, check out the Bloggess for totally warped humor. BUT IGNORE ALL HER ADVICE ON SURVIVING THE ZOMBOCALYPSE.
Clancy? L. Ron Hubbard? Glenn Beck? The guy who wrote the Iron Man books? JOHN GRAY?!?!
Actually, they just appeal to idiots, which is a strategy that will seldom result in an empty bank account, IME.
A while back I was at one of those record/DVD/random media stores and saw Tucker Max’s book on a shelf next to Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. Talk about opposite poles of human thought and accomplishment. I hope Tucker Max sees something like that and feels embarrassed to be himself, but probably not.
I do plan to read more LeGuin in the future, but I have a research project going on that’s already taking up a lot of my headspace in the 1970s sci-fi department. I need the nonfiction and the Margaret Atwood to balance it out.
On Stephen King: the vast majority of his female characters are stereotypes, and his books are chock full of racism. Mother Abigal is the mammy stereotype to a T. While there are parts of King’s writing that are otherwise good, he does a shit job on race and gender.
On Robert Jordan: MRAL, I really have no idea where you are coming from there. Jordan stereotypes women as weak, man-crazy, obsessed with clothes, back stabbing and petty in politics and in general, manipulative, etc. He takes every possible opportunity to humiliate and demote any female character with power or personality. Even the rare female character of his that starts out with potential-like Nynaeve or Min-quickly becomes a submissive worshipful wife character. Jordan would have been a far better writer if he made Matt the central character, and made Nynaeve the primary female character, but axed her relationship with Lan and completely re-did her character development for about the last two thirds of the series.
<i“I recommend the blog Hyperbole and a Half instead – written by a woman and utterly hilarious!”
I am glad she only does cartoons occasionally, because it invariably reduces me to helpless teary laughter.
I find it amazing that her blog consistently breaks 1,000 comments. The first post of hers I read was “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and I was completely sold when the first picture I saw was an MS Paint image of someone trying to run away from lava in swim fins. I wish she posted more, but I’ll definitely buy her book when it comes out!
On Stephen King: the vast majority of his female characters are stereotypes, and his books are chock full of racism. Mother Abigal is the mammy stereotype to a T. While there are parts of King’s writing that are otherwise good, he does a shit job on race and gender.
See, that has been my suspicion; but as a non-female, non-minority zombie, my frame of reference was insufficient to make the determination.
I think he tries, but it’s a white guy kind of trying.
Also, his zombie content sucks. It’s like he’s never met a zombie.
Lady VVS fails at html, because SHE’S A LADY WITH A LADY-BRAIN!
:: hangs head in shame, takes off her shoes and returns to the kitchen ::
Can I be redeemed if the sandwiches I make whilst barefoot and enkitchened all involve creative applications of bacon?
…with branes?
OTOH, I fail at html because I FOUGHT THE MAMMOTH!
Lady VVS: A woman writing about the pursuit of sex, beer and being an asshole to her lovers would be roundly condemned instead of praised.
Well, there is the always awful Chelsea Handler. Who … I haven’t paid as much attention to as perhaps she would like me to have, so I’m not sure exactly what it is she writes about — but I think it’s about the pursuit of sex and booze. She actually strikes me as a different side of the Tucker Max coin, frankly — someone who was published because she’s an “acceptably raunchy” woman, hubba hubba! That’s more rare than the Tucker Max configuration, but it exists, apparently.
And I LOVE Hyperbole and a Half! ALOT!
CB: Actually, they just appeal to idiots, which is a strategy that will seldom result in an empty bank account, IME.
Yeah, I think Glenn Beck, in particular, was published not simply because he’s a man, but because he’s a right-wing conspiracy shithead man. Then again, I haven’t paid as much attention to him as he would like either, so it’s possible that’s not exactly true.
. . . and the mammoth won.
Ann Coulter is proof that you don’t have to be a man to get your shitty right-wing book published.
Beth: I don’t think so. The thing Lois did was to make him not a cartoon. He reminds me, in some ways, of “Wee Wullie” from George MacDonald Fraser’s vignettes à clef McAuslan stories.
I’ve known people like him (in that they had done evil, and horrible things) and still been inside the pale of human company. Bathori isn’t someone most people would want to know, but inside his limits he was a decent person.
It helps that she gave us an emotional out so that we could ascribe some lack of agency to some aspects of his person.
Johnny Pez: First, that’s Regnery Press (see above about not being in it for the money), and second I’d argue she gets published because she’s a woman. Again, see Regnery Press.
I do recall when she was flogging her “Treason” and William F. Buckley had her on Crossfire. He gutted her. Took apart her arguments like jelly donuts at a precinct house.
That was a moment to savor.