Quote:
Originally Posted by anamardoll
Even things like The Illiad and The Odyssey is written from the POV of the god-children and heroes and generals. Not so much from the POV of the cannon-fodders. Or, for that matter, from the POV of the women other than a handful of queens and princesses.  |
POV does not subsist in the writer so much as it is in what is written.
I think that the real issue with POV has more to do with lack of opportunity than anything intrinsic to a particular status. Mark Twain covered this in Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.
For those who have not followed MT beyond Huck Finn, the idea is that the Captain's guide shows him around heaven. At one point, the Captain sees the great generals of history clustered around some old guy in a rocking chair, identified by the guide as the greatest general ever - and the Captain (nor you or I) have ever heard of him. Turns out it was because the general had the misfortune to have lived in a time of peace, so he never got a chance to show his stuff. (eBook is on Gutenberg. Good Twain in his theological mode.)
Basically, I think that the fundamental talent of a great writer lies not merely in using words, but in the ability to occupy someone else's POV. So I don't see that the writer's sex, or economic status, or anything much other than opportunity and talent, matter.