Is this real?
4th October 2009I wrote some straight up non-fiction. It’s up on Reflective Dog. I’m kind of embarrassed about it. I don’t know. Like the thought of someone reading it makes me want to grab the ruffled hem of my sundress and bury my face in the fabric while inadvertently flashing everyone.
Here. Listen to a great old punky song instead:
4th October 2009 at 1:58 pm
I’m dead impressed that a ‘little lady’ such as yourself could write that all on her own, complete with long words and stuff. Bravo.
[I am going to die, aren’t I?]
4th October 2009 at 8:53 pm
Too late. I already read it. Plus, I’m looking forward to seeing you inadvertently flash us. *Wonders if Ani wears undies with her sundress*. :)
5th October 2009 at 10:00 am
A lot of good points in this article. I was talking about this only recently on another blog I visit where I brought up the area of classical music: just how many female composers can you name? I go out of my way to collect them but compared to the males in my collection there are hardly any and I’d actually be lucky if I could name a dozen from memory. I could name more than a dozen female writers but the male writers in my collection vastly outnumber the females which is odd because I consider myself a very pro-female reader.
5th October 2009 at 11:10 am
I find I have it the other way around: I seem to like more female authors than I do male. I figure it’s an empathy thing.
Amelie Nothomb’s kind of subtly kickass, if you’ve ever tried her, btw.
5th October 2009 at 12:08 pm
Good piece. I enjoyed it, and the points you make need to be made. But it made me think of the great numbers of women genre writers in, e.g. crime and romance. And then again the way that mainstream publishing is dominated by women agents, editors, publicists, etc, etc.
I know this is not your area of concern, just saying.
5th October 2009 at 7:59 pm
AUW: You sir, are a bicycle.
Ellie: Unless there is an occasion, I do not go commando nor wear thongs. I am entirely horny enough as it is, thank you, no need to go aggravating the situation.
Jim: There are certainly disparities everywhere, but seems some fields have caught up quicker, or at least, been made to seem accepted sooner.
Roberta: I’m really interested in how that happened for you. From what I know, you certainly sound more well-read than me. How do you find stuff? Do you have reader friends, did you go to school for writing? I am curious. I shall make a note of Nothomb, recommend me a starting point. I am excited by you, we must talk more.
John Baker: Hello and welcome, John. It’s true there seems to be more women in genre and editing/pr, etc. I wonder why that is? Some of the stuff I touched about women seeming soft to me would explain romance for example, but crime? Interesting thinks.
5th October 2009 at 8:03 pm
P.S. Yellow polka dot [string] bikini.
Oh come on, you know you were wondering.
5th October 2009 at 11:04 pm
Hi, I liked this piece a lot, as I did your interview with Mike Young, which is how I found your blog here.
Um, female language artists. Does Gertrude Stein count? The one I really want to recommend, though, is Eileen Myles.
6th October 2009 at 12:43 am
Hi Alan, glad you followed the cookie crumbs. Eileen Myles - duly noted! I think I heard the name somewhere but I forgot.
6th October 2009 at 6:46 pm
I’m not sure? I studied lit & writing, but that seems almost neither here nor there in terms of what I read. As in, I really liked a few things we studied, and things I had suggested to me, and so I read more. A lot of stuff that gets taken as canon doesn’t always excite me that much.
I find people recommend me stuff. (Then I forget the recommendations.)
Mostly I just keep reading and reading until I find things I love.
With Nothomb? I don’t necessarily read her and feel like she’s the very best author in the world. But I read her and like her attitude, and appreciate that she comes at us from this slightly off-centre perspective. She has this quietly evil sense of humour. She just blends reality with whatever the hell she feels like saying. So she’ll just throw into her writing how she was a three year old alcoholic. (Or whatever.)
I like her ‘memoirs’ best of all. I remember liking ‘Loving Sabotage’ and ‘The Life of Hunger.’
By ‘memoirs’ I don’t mean standard autobio…
6th October 2009 at 11:29 pm
I just keep reading too, in fact, I used to do it without any thought to who or what or whatever. Might should go back to that.
I wikipee’d her (Nothomb) - she sounds like a crooked line to something good.
I find things recommended from trusted sources best. Thanks, Roberta!