Do you read books by authors of your own gender?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nguirado

An excellent Sci-fi book by a female author is "Children of Men." I don't mind a little bit of a message as long as I agree with it.

I have not read the book. But I did see the movie and I didn't really care much for the movie. Is the book that much better then the movie?

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

No, I'm sure that he is doing it just so that you'll say yes to undress.

(Okay, I've never heard of "Say Yes to the Dress" I just couldn't pass that by.)

My husband watches Project Runway and I'm not even home when it's on.

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Is it me, or is there a slight feminist tinge to the novels of Margaret Atwood?

I don't go for writers with an unsubtle political agenda, and I think some female 'literary' authors lay it on a bit thick (Fay Weldon, A. S, Byatt et al). That's not to say men don't do it too, e.g. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and 'His Dark Materials' both suffer from heavy-handed pontificating.
But I feel many women writers, perhaps from a justified sense of grievance, can't resist delivering a 'message' of some sort or other; and it is seldom acheived without harming the book.

I'm baffled by the final sentence of this comment.

Don't ALL writers (male and female) have a "message" to deliver? Why are we reading books if the authors aren't communicating messages to us? If you're using message to refer specifically to a feminist message, well, I personally strongly disagree with the suggestion that many women writers are proselyting a feminist agenda to the point that "harms the book".

As for Margaret Atwood, "The Robber Bride" and "The Handmaiden's Tale" are two of my favorite books. I re-read both at least two or three times a year. I've also read "The Blind Assassin". One of the things I love most about these books is that the men are reasonably irrelevant. The focus of her books is on women and their relationships with each other, maternal, sororal, and oppositional. Men show up to be foils for the female characters, and then are shoved back into whatever cupboard they hide in when their scenes are over. I don't find it "feminist"...just a reflection of what women are really like. I *don't* actually spend every moment of my day thinking about the men in my life, and my most influential relationships are female. It's nice to have a writer who understands this and tells interesting stories from a similar mindset.

I don't know if you're male or female (I didn't bother to check ), but I know a few men who have read the books and not liked the irrelevance of the male characters.

[PhishStyx]

I'm afraid that this question has never occurred to me to ask of myself, so I cannot answer it. When I read a book, I care about the writing in the book, not the gender of the author.

Now it is true I suppose that my favorite authors (Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Neal Stephenson, Hal Duncan and a few others) are male, but so far as I can determine, that's purely coincidental. I'm just as happy reading Ellen Kushner or Jane Yolen as I am Charles de Lint or Jim Butcher.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

Don't ALL writers (male and female) have a "message" to deliver? Why are we reading books if the authors aren't communicating messages to us? If you're using message to refer specifically to a feminist message, well, I personally strongly disagree with the suggestion that many women writers are proselyting a feminist agenda to the point that "harms the book".

A message is not the same thing as a story. There are many things that can be transmitted with writing, and the best are not necessarily messages. Really good books are about ambiguity, questions suggested rather than answered. A "message" is the exact opposite of these things.

I don't like an author trying to force their opinions on me, whether I agree with them or not. Of course it's worse if I don't agree. When I get the feeling the authors has a "message" to deliver, it means they are trying to force their political opinions into the story, regardless of whether they fit or not, and without subtlety. Suggesting is one thing, voicing an opinion once in a while is OK, but not if it's taking over the story.

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

As for Margaret Atwood, "The Robber Bride" and "The Handmaiden's Tale" are two of my favorite books. I re-read both at least two or three times a year. I've also read "The Blind Assassin". One of the things I love most about these books is that the men are reasonably irrelevant. The focus of her books is on women and their relationships with each other, maternal, sororal, and oppositional. Men show up to be foils for the female characters, and then are shoved back into whatever cupboard they hide in when their scenes are over. I don't find it "feminist"...just a reflection of what women are really like. I *don't* actually spend every moment of my day thinking about the men in my life, and my most influential relationships are female. It's nice to have a writer who understands this and tells interesting stories from a similar mindset.

I don't know if you're male or female (I didn't bother to check ), but I know a few men who have read the books and not liked the irrelevance of the male characters.

That's a great analysis about Atwood! I hadn't consciously realized that but it's very true about the role of men in her books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I don't like an author trying to force their opinions on me, whether I agree with them or not. Of course it's worse if I don't agree. When I get the feeling the authors has a "message" to deliver, it means they are is trying to force their political opinions into the story, regardless of whether they fit or not, and without subtlety. Suggesting is one thing, voicing an opinion once in a while is OK, but not if it's taking over the story.

I entirely agree. John Ringo is the worst culprit I know of for doing this. His recent works read more like extra right-wing political propaganda than novels.

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

A message is not the same thing as a story. There are many things that can be transmitted with writing, and the best are not necessarily messages. Really good books are about ambiguity, questions suggested rather than answered. A "message" is the exact opposite of these things.

I don't like an author trying to force their opinions on me, whether I agree with them or not. Of course it's worse if I don't agree. When I get the feeling the authors has a "message" to deliver, it means they are is trying to force their political opinions into the story, regardless of whether they fit or not, and without subtlety. Suggesting is one thing, voicing an opinion once in a while is OK, but not if it's taking over the story.

Yeah, I do understand that the two are different. I don't know, maybe I'm not mentally defining message the right way?

For example, wouldn't a romance novel's message be: no matter how independent (or not) a woman may be, marrying some guy and having his babies is the only way to true fulfillment? I guess I should add something about being "in love" in there, but really the books aren't about love. They're about sex and marital harmony.

I think every fiction book has a message.

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

That's a great analysis about Atwood! I hadn't consciously realized that but it's very true about the role of men in her books.

It doesn't mention books anywhere in it, but, a while ago I read this really great essay online about male and female gamers (people who play roleplaying games) and it helped me crystallize a lot of thoughts knocking around in my head that related to male/female-conflicts in roleplay.

It also happens to relate really well to this topic (probably because both books and roleplay are story-driven). The original article seems to have gone missing, but here's a tiny link to my Google Document archive of it in PDF: http://tinyurl.com/2ebdgbr

I think it would be really constructive if a female writer would read it over and possibly write a sister essay on how to design effective female characters in fiction. The roleplay article is more than a little heavy-handed in the delivery, but the fundamental points are spot-on.

Getting back to Margaret Atwood, I find her (close to) unique in how strongly she writes in a feminine (rather than feminist) voice. The only other writer I've found is Ann-Marie McDonald (also Canadian).

I think in some sense all readers have gotten used to the idea that female characters can be subordinate to male characters (not in a relationship sense, but in how they shape the development of the story). It's not "shocking" for anyone to read books where female characters are props for the male characters. But it's incredibly rare to switch the roles and have the males as peripheral characters while the entire story revolves around the social and sexual politics of the females.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

For example, wouldn't a romance novel's message be: no matter how independent (or not) a woman may be, marrying some guy and having his babies is the only way to true fulfillment? I guess I should add something about being "in love" in there, but really the books aren't about love. They're about sex and marital harmony.

Well no, to me this is not a message, although in most cases I agree it's sort of the foundation on which the book is built. The author is not trying to brain-wash her readers into thinking they are nothing without a male relationship. She is responding to what she, and her editor, believe her readers expect in this kind of book. Of course, it certainly has a reinforcing effect on what the readers believe and expect, with the interesting result that within a mostly female world (writer and reader at least, though I don't know about the editors and publishers), there is a feedback loop reinforcing male-centered stereotypes. But hey, this is the world we live in.

A very, very interesting study on this feedback loop is Susan Faludi's book Backlash. It's old but still extremely relevant I think.

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

I think every fiction book has a message.

I guess we'll never agree on this, since we don't have the same definition of a message

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

I think in some sense all readers have gotten used to the idea that female characters can be subordinate to male characters (not in a relationship sense, but in how they shape the development of the story). It's not "shocking" for anyone to read books where female characters are props for the male characters. But it's incredibly rare to switch the roles and have the males as peripheral characters while the entire story revolves around the social and sexual politics of the females.

[simonroyle]

I usually read male authors mainly because of genre, however lately more female.
Recently I read an autobiography, "Cherry" by Sara Wheeler. Great book.

I like thrillers, future, present and past are all fine by me. Historical fiction, mystery, crime and non-fiction. I also liked Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire.

I'm looking for more.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is the question you are asking and the way the poll questions are phrased do not mesh. You ask about the bias we have about the authors we read and the sex of the authors and then in the poll questions you ask what we prefer. So what we have here is really a question that doesn't fit the poll. Really, the poll should be started over in order to get proper answers. I would answer differently if the poll matched your question. I am male and I read mostly male authors. But, it's not that I prefer to do so. It just turns out that way. So the bias here is towards male authors. But I do not "prefer" male authors to female authors. So really if the poll question was something like "I am male and I read mostly male authors", I would have voted for it. But when you say that I am male and prefer male authors, that's just wrong for the way it is.

Yes - as many others have pointed out as well the questions have been phrased in a way that doesn't reflect what I was really asking about. Unfortunately English is only my second language. I've more or less given up on this poll now.

[FlorenceArt]

Well, the discussion was (and is) interesting. Forum polls don't mean a thing anyway, as far as statistics go

[Ea]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Well, the discussion was (and is) interesting. Forum polls don't mean a thing anyway, as far as statistics go

No, they certainly don't

I just got a tad tired of having it pointed out repeatedly Plus, I don't think it helps the discussion.

[JSWolf]

I do think the discussion is interesting. But as I pointed out earlier, the genre you read will dictate the chances of most authors being male or female.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Ea

Yes - as many others have pointed out as well the questions have been phrased in a way that doesn't reflect what I was really asking about. Unfortunately English is only my second language. I've more or less given up on this poll now.

It's OK, Ea. The only well done poll I've seen on MR is my Pet Poll.

Seriously, the poll question, "Do you general prefer to read books by authors of you own gender?" was fine. This isn't a classroom, and some leeway can easily be given.

Designing a poll here is not easy. There is, apparently, no means of editing a poll. You create it and there it is. No changes possible.

You english is fine. Much better than the English!


To your question.

I don't "prefer" one or the other. The author that started me reading for pleasure was Andre Norton. Ann Rice was my favorite for a while. Elizabeth Moon was another author who helped to fill my book shelves.

But I no longer care for fantasy, and never could read more than a page or two of "Romance". And what ever the total percentage of female writers there are, I'm willing to bet that a very large number of them write to those two genres. And probably "Paranormal Romance", which I avoid like the plague. Another genre I rarely read any more is Detective/Mystery. That too, probably has a fair number of women authors.



So in the end, it's not that I prefer one, or the other. It's the fact that fewer women write in the genres I now prefer. Just as JSWolf said.

[mish]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So really, the sex of the author can depend on a lot on the genres you like to read. Pick a genre and you can see the chances of reading a male or female author vary.

Exactly. This is why I didn't answer the poll. It is not that I *prefer* female authors, it is just that they tend to dominate the genre I read -- paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Though as you move more toward urban fantasy, you will find more male authors. Men just don't do romance or don't do it that well. Even m/m romance is mostly written by women.