"Man Books" from Esquire

[kennyc]

'Fiction For Men' E-Books To Be Published By Esquire Magazine

The Huffington Post | By Emma Gray Posted: 05/25/2012 3:11 pm Updated: 05/25/2012 3:11 pm

Move over lady writers, “man fiction” is coming to town. Esquire magazine will begin publishing a series of “Fiction for Men” e-books in June, the New York Times reported this week.

Each volume will contain a series of short stories by male authors. The first one includes fiction by Aaron Gwyn, Luis Alberto Urrea and Jess Walter and will be released around the same time as Esquire’s June/July issue, which will also contain several pieces of fiction. Editor in chief of Esquire, David Granger, told the New York Times that the recession has meant that magazines have been skimping on their fiction. “Fiction begins to feel a little bit of a luxury,” he said.

Granger also specified that “men’s fiction” meant “plot-driven and exciting, where one thing happens after another. And also at the same time, dealing with passages in a man’s life that seem common,” he said. But, how new is “Fiction for Men” really? Doesn’t that just encompass many of the acclaimed -- and not so acclaimed -- novels already out there that are written by and about men? Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan poked fun at Esquire’s initiative:

Finally shedding the yoke of female dominance of the literary arts, the oft-ignored and long oppressed minority group known as "men" will finally have things to read made just for them.

Author Jennifer Weiner, who has argued that female fiction writers are undervalued and underrepresented in both media attention and awards, suggested that Esquire reach out to one of the “Bachelorette” suitors who wrote a particularly lengthy love letter on Monday night’s episode:

Jennifer Weiner @jenniferweiner

Dude complains that Ryan has written a novel. Editors of Esquire's new "fiction for men" e-books start Googling for his agent. #bachelorette
21 May 12



Only eight out of the Modern Library’s Top 100 Fiction Novels were penned by women, and only 12 women have won the Nobel Prize for Literature since 1909, Jezebel noted. In addition to being underrepresented in book awards, a survey conducted by VIDA, an organization dedicated to women in the literary arts, in March found that female authors are also vastly underrepresented in book reviews, and The Huffington Post discovered that this is also the case at large publishing houses. “Fiction for Men” is all around us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...tml?ref=topbar

[Rob Lister]

Sounds like formula-works. Decidedly metrosexual content.

As a youth (did you say Ute? What's a Ute?), I read more than a few for-guys formula-works. Series mostly. The Terminator. The Destroyer. The Penetrator.

Those weren't "Man Books". Those were "Real Man Books". Guaranteed a dozen or more grisly murders per read. Zero romance, zero metrosexual content.

[wizwor]

I think it's 'yoots', rob

[Dopedangel]

So they are trying to bring back pulp fiction under different brand

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Sounds like formula-works. Decidedly metrosexual content.

As a youth (did you say Ute? What's a Ute?), I read more than a few for-guys formula-works. Series mostly. The Terminator. The Destroyer. The Penetrator.

Those weren't "Man Books". Those were "Real Man Books". Guaranteed a dozen or more grisly murders per read. Zero romance, zero metrosexual content.

Ute are Native Americans and the name means Land of the Sun.
Apache

[teh603]

Fiction is becoming a luxury because editors need more and more space for advertisements, not because its becoming a luxury.

That having been said, if Esquire reads anything like Maxim, I doubt I'd be interested in anything they'd publish. The last issue of Maxim I read was so inanely stupid that I wanted to burn it.

[Ninjalawyer]

As a man, I can't thank Esquire enough. It's so hard to find fiction by and for males that reads like the screenplay of a Michael Bay movie.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by teh603

Fiction is becoming a luxury because editors need more and more space for advertisements, not because its becoming a luxury.

That having been said, if Esquire reads anything like Maxim, I doubt I'd be interested in anything they'd publish. The last issue of Maxim I read was so inanely stupid that I wanted to burn it.

to use other magazines as an example, esquire=playboy. maxim= hustler. one is decidedly more classy than the other. esquire is a cigar smoking, scotch sipping 'gentlemans' magazine. maxim is for high schoolers hopped up on red bull who just discovered girls.


as for 'mens' fiction, what is that? i'm a guy and 99% of the books i own involve guys doing hardcore, manly ****, everything from mack bolan:the executioner to the more realistic men in the novels of cormac mccarthy.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by wizwor

I think it's 'yoots', rob

I thought it was "yoof" - or yoofs, naturally....

[Ntsimp]

It's pretty insulting a lot of the stuff they say is supposed to appeal to men. Well, I'm not that kind of man.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Ntsimp

It's pretty insulting a lot of the stuff they say is supposed to appeal to men. Well, I'm not that kind of man.

i guess they want to ferret out the "real" men. whatever that is.

[Ravensknight]

I thought Baen already published Men's Fiction, or does John Ringo's military scifi, etc, not count?

[silasgreenback]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

to use other magazines as an example, esquire=playboy. maxim= hustler.

Either = too ashamed to buy the real thing.

I'm willing to bet that Chuck Klosterman and other overrated authors will be thrown in for geek chic's sake.

Klosterman: Talks about football too so you can seem like an intellectual, not be a pansy and stay true to the manly stereotype you're working so hard to cultivate.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

I thought Baen already published Men's Fiction, or does John Ringo's military scifi, etc, not count?

Non-contemporary setting = for nerds and weirdos. Real men want to imagine they themselves could walk out the front door one day, strap on guns in an array of sizes ranging from fist to Buick, and liberate a plane full of beer commercial models from terrorists. It's all about realism.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Non-contemporary setting = for nerds and weirdos. Real men want to imagine they themselves could walk out the front door one day, strap on guns in an array of sizes ranging from fist to Buick, and liberate a plane full of beer commercial models from terrorists. It's all about realism.

As a realist, I know that some of them would probably be cheerleaders...in nighties...having a pillow fight.