Thursday, July 19, 2007

Feminize-my made of word of the day

While Mandy and I are the world's biggest Harry Potter fans, Jeff is only lukewarm. He hasn't read the books and that may be why. He feels that Harry is a bit on the sensitive-girlie-man-weak side. I tell him this is due to the fact that the movies don't do a very good job of capturing Harry, not as good a job as the movies. But, I wonder...

I have noticed that I have a very hard time identifying with female characters in novels written by men. Even my beloved Anna Karenina one of my all time favorite books, I did not identify with any of the women in the book. In fact I very much disliked all the women. However, I loved each of the men, even though they were all flawed, they still came across as people with whom I could identify. Curious.

I can remember from a couple of years ago when I was taking a Fiction, Poetry and Drama course -my first college course, three months after Lily was born after more than 10 years away from the books. We were discussing The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck you can read it here, if you are so inclined, and I just couldn't get into the discussion. I really did not care for the woman in the story Elisa. My teacher patiently explained to me, a lover of biographies of feminists, that life was different for women back then and that Elisa didn't have choices. I was thinking that the women I have met and read about from this era were fabulous, I had so much sympathy and only kind thoughts, but Elisa just rubbed me the wrong way. Could it be because this character was created by a man? This is what I have always thought, pretty sexist of me I know.

What about you, have you ever been able to identify with a female character from a book written by a man? Movies don't count because the female actress has a chance to feminize the character.

5 comments:

Lorelei said...

If a book is written in narrator format (i.e. not first person) it doesn't bother me so much when I meet a character of the opposite sex from the author. I am definitely much more critical of female characters in male-authored books, probably because I am prejudiced that there's no way he can do a good job so I look for flaws whereas I probably wouldn't otherwise.

Lorelei said...

I just read the little story. First of all, I love Steinbeck so I feel ashamed that I had never even heard of this little tale. But as per usual when I read anything of late, I was just confused. What thing "was done"? Did she do something to the wagon as they drove by? Maybe it's the unfamiliar language, but I don't get it.

Dixie said...

I think Wally Lamb did a brilliant job of writing a female main character in She's Come Undone. He did such a good job that I was certain he was a woman writing under a pseudonym until I saw him on TV.

Anonymous said...

Some of my favorite female characters have been written by men - Wally Lamb is an excellent example. But I do find a problem in the reverse: in finding credible, meaningful, heartrending male characters written by women.

Marshamlow said...

Lorelei, You are very insightful, perhaps I am being overly critical of men. I haven't read the story in a long time, I don't remember what was done, I never really got it either. I always thought the reason was because Steinbeck didn't do a great job on Elisa, but it could just be that I am not bright enough to get it.

Dixie, thanks for the recommendation I am going to put this book on my list.

Jennifer, That is very interesting that you see it in the reverse.