Women's Fiction. When I read that in the article, " Speak Out On Franzen Feud: 08/26/201" I had to stop and think for a moment. Since when was "Women's Fiction" a thing? It was interesting to see that it was a way to describe a genre of books.
When, in the article, it talks about popular fiction being over looked, critically, Weiner basically says that women writing is typically romance or "a beach book" meaning that stereotypically they can't write other genres. That's probably why JK Rowling went by that name because she believed that people wouldn't view her work.
Picot says that "...there are a lot of readers who would like to see reviews that belong in the range of commercial fiction rather than making it the blanket assumption that all commercial fiction is unworthy." And to be honest, I agree with her. Having a wide variety and dispersion catches the eyes of all kinds of readers and not just certain ones, making things unfair.
Not only does it effect the authors it affects the reader's going to these websites to get their information on what books to read. For me, I try to see all types of book genres before I make a decision on the book or the genre I want to read. "It's not universal. The Washington Post...used to do the widest reviews..." Why can't they continue to do wider reviews instead of narrowing it down to certain genres or authors.
As literary critic Sarah Seltzer says, "writing across gender may be harder, require more research and humility. We may fail or get 'called out' for letting our biases show, or being ignorant. But the attempt at understanding, empathy, and inhabiting the soul of someone whose life experience is not ours, helps us grow as writers, and people too." But we must respect and give support to those authors who can pull it off or try to. Female authors writing with a male perspective seem to do far better than them writing from a male perspective. Take JK Rowling for example. Being a female author of fantasy and those novels she accomplished more with the Harry Potter series and the Cormoran Strike trilogy than Stephanie Meyer with Twilight or Veronica Roth with Divergent.
No comments:
Post a Comment