I've written about gender roles on this blog before. Here are a couple of examples:
Women in History and Fantasy
The Rules of Fantasy Fiction for Men and Women
Sexism in Fantasy
The second one, in particular, outlines my opinion fairly well.
Now, I used to be anonymous here on this blog, until my identity got revealed in kind of a big way. (Not that anyone cares who I am, but the secret's out.) One thing I've noticed, though, is that people who read my writing often assume I'm male, unless I tell them otherwise.
Actually, I think that's great. It means the way I express myself in writing is independent of my sex/gender. It means that perhaps there will not be that particular bias from potential readers approaching my work, if I should ever happen to get published. For what it's worth, I also have a first name that is gender neutral. (However, my picture is a dead giveaway.)
I read a lot of fantasy by both men and women. While more of my favorite writers are men, there are definitely some women whose work I enjoy (Carol Berg, Robin Hobb, N.K. Jemisin, J.V. Jones, Octavia Butler, Ursula K. LeGuin, Juliet McKenna, Kate Elliott, C.S. Friedman, and others). There are also some women whose writing I hate (Mercedes Lackey is the name that jumps into mind first). The same could be said for male writers, though. There actually may be more male writers whose work I don't care for than there are women I can say the same of, if only because there are more well-known male fantasy writers. I think.
Anyway, whatever my original point was, has been lost. I didn't get much sleep last night because I was sick, and I am feeling it today. I think it (my point) had something to do with people assuming I'm male, from my writing. (If you hadn't figured it out already from the text of this post, I'm female.)
At any rate, I don't let an author's name bias me when I select books. I'd encourage you to look beyond the male/female divide, as well. Expand your horizons. Men write some great stuff, and some terrible stuff, and the same can be said for women, but neither gender has the corner on either market. And now I must go work on my own manuscript -- hopefully I am not too sleepy to do so. (The wine probably isn't helping...)
Since nobody has commented I thought I would wander over from the harriet trenches and say hello.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your gender arguement, but it is not helped by the publishers (especially in the US). For some reason the US tends to publish female fantasy authors in covers designed to attract female readers, not males. And the male authors get all the epic hero covers. There are some female fantasy authors I have read over here in the Old Empire that I would not have gone anywhere near based on the US cover...
Skimmed through your review list, have you not tried Rothfuss, Abercrombie or Lynch yet?
cheers
Nick
US covers are horrendous compared to the rest of the world. (I participate in a forum about fantasy literature where we recently did some comparisons. UK/Australia/NZ won, hands down.)
DeleteI have read both volumes Rothfuss has out, though before I started writing reviews. I have decided not to go back and fill in the blanks because it's been too long and I just don't have the time to refresh my memory. I liked them both, though found the second had some diversions I didn't care for so much.
I'm behind with my Abercrombie; I did read the First Law trilogy around the time of release, and I've read Best Served Cold. I liked all of that. I have The Heroes sitting on my shelf, although now that Red Country is out, I'm even further behind.
For Lynch, I've only read Lies of Locke Lamora. Liked it a lot, but again -- behind (both on funds and on time).
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I do enjoy stumbling across comments on older Klausner reviews from those of you who have been in the trenches for much longer!