women have swordfights and fly spaceships and no one is sexually assaulted, and that's a horribly low bar but I will take it
Honestly, it's distressing how high a bar "no one is sexually assaulted" can be. It's an *important* bar.
Fire bad. Tree pretty.
Buffy ,'Chosen'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Jessica - Mar 25, 2021 7:42:36 am PDT #26565 of 28175
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
-t - Mar 25, 2021 7:54:09 am PDT #26566 of 28175
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I don't necessarily set that standard for what I read. I do find that I am reluctant to read something by an unknown-to-me male sounding author just in general.
sj - Mar 25, 2021 8:20:30 am PDT #26567 of 28175
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
I don't necessarily set that standard for what I read. I do find that I am reluctant to read something by an unknown-to-me male sounding author just in general.
-t is me.
amych - Mar 25, 2021 10:20:06 am PDT #26568 of 28175
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
A couple of years ago I set myself a challenge of not reading anything by white men for a year, and while it's no longer something I'm doing as a rule, I just ... don't, 90% of the time. And when I do, it's someone who I know to be not like the crappy-my-wife-writing run-of-the-mill dudes, and even then it's an imperfect filter.
-t - Mar 25, 2021 10:25:07 am PDT #26569 of 28175
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I think I followed your lead on that, amych, although I don't know that I did it for a year but I did consciously have that criteria for some period of time and then just having it in the back of my mind for a while broke the habit, I guess.
DavidS - Mar 25, 2021 11:43:05 am PDT #26570 of 28175
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Clearly my decision to write under a gender neutral pseudonym going forth is the right plan.
Toddson - Mar 25, 2021 12:15:22 pm PDT #26571 of 28175
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
I have adopted a standard of reading almost exclusively books written by women, unless it's by a male author whose work I know.
And, not quite as bad as the automatic sexual assault feature, although possibly worse because he seems to be for real, there's this guy writing about his paternity leave.
-t - Mar 25, 2021 12:16:58 pm PDT #26572 of 28175
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Perhaps I should admit that I dragged my feet over reading A Memory Called Empire for quite a long time because my grandmother's second husband was named Arkady and that association was enough to put me off. Don't be making marketing decisions based on how I'm going to respond, that way lies nothing good for anyone
amyparker - Mar 25, 2021 12:34:27 pm PDT #26573 of 28175
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.
I've just had a look at my bookshelves and with the exceptions of Tolkien and Adams (that copy of Redshirts is Jim's), all of the adult fiction is by women. The children's hardbacks are their own thing.
meara - Mar 25, 2021 12:39:25 pm PDT #26574 of 28175
Swords AND spaceships? Hmmm....tell me more.