links for 2010-09-15

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Rachel

    There was an interesting discussion about the issue in your first link, on Jezebel. Seems like popular opinion in the comments there was that it’s a valid and true argument — just one not best made by Jodi Picoult or Jennifer Weiner, whose writing is not that great. They (Jez commenters) hold up examples like Barbara Kingsolver, A.S. Byatt, Margaret Atwood, Jhumpa Lahiri, Toni Morrison, and the like as superior writers who may be better positioned as front-line warriors for this fight. Here’s the link: http://jezebel.com/5622582/why-books-by-women-arent-serious

  2. HFM

    Yeah, that’s why I thought the article was important – it quantifies it by looking at the statistics and takes a bit of the subjectivity out of it. I think Picoult and Weiner are both fine writers, actually, but not they’re not literary heavyweights so it’s easy to discount their work and discount the charge they’re making as a result, although their point is born out both by examples of high-quality female writers and by statistics. They others that you mention certainly could make the case on the merits of their literary skill.

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