JAMES TIPTREE: The obvious one. I picked up a book of tiptree stories having been told that Tiptree was a woman, and read it specifically through that filter. I definitely got different perceptions reading such stories as "The Screwfly Solution" and "Houston do you Read", knowing a woman wrote them. the fact that Tiptree was considered macho by people who didn't know indicates she got men right.
S.E. HINTON: Got it right. she's also known to surprise people who think The Outsiders must have been written by a man.
DAVID WEBER: His Honor Harrington character may be what you call a "chick who kicks ass". I take her at face value 'cause I tend to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but several (male) friends feel like Weber pretty much grafted boobs on a male action hero.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE: Seems to me, Heathcliff is more a malevolent force of nature than a real person, male or otherwise.
GEORGE ELLIOT: Comes to mind because she wrote under a male pseudonym. Middlemarch is one of
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Re: BrontëqueenmomcatSeptember 4 2011, 21:55:19 UTC
(soothingly) You're right, even if you did get the authors wrong. (If it's any comfort, I still have trouble keeping them straight and I was an English major/love English literature of that period/am a librarian.
But...but...the first book had a perfectly done female narrator, and there's so much emotional writing about their *relationship*...what, do they think she had an operation between books?
I have no idea. She wrote a post about it a few months ago, about the odd things people have assumed about her or accused her of. She didn't explain.
I think they might have read George as a "guy with boobs" type of character, and assumed the pen name was for a guy. Or, they concluded that, because it was good science fiction and girls don't write science fiction, then she was really a dude.
I can't say for sure, because I was reading her changeling stuff before I picked up Newsflesh. While Toby isn't quite feminine, she's definitely female, in a way that I could only see a woman writing.
Also, I got to meet her at Arisia last year. Definitely as advertised.
JAMES TIPTREE: The obvious one. I picked up a book of tiptree stories having been told that Tiptree was a woman, and read it specifically through that filter. I definitely got different perceptions reading such stories as "The Screwfly Solution" and "Houston do you Read", knowing a woman wrote them. the fact that Tiptree was considered macho by people who didn't know indicates she got men right.
S.E. HINTON: Got it right. she's also known to surprise people who think The Outsiders must have been written by a man.
DAVID WEBER: His Honor Harrington character may be what you call a "chick who kicks ass". I take her at face value 'cause I tend to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but several (male) friends feel like Weber pretty much grafted boobs on a male action hero.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE: Seems to me, Heathcliff is more a malevolent force of nature than a real person, male or otherwise.
GEORGE ELLIOT: Comes to mind because she wrote under a male pseudonym. Middlemarch is one of ( ... )
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That was Emily, yo.
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DAMMIT. Of course it was. Fixing.
DAMMIT. Won't let me edit. All right, Rochester then.
DAMMIT. That doesn't make sense....
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But...but...the first book had a perfectly done female narrator, and there's so much emotional writing about their *relationship*...what, do they think she had an operation between books?
Reply
I think they might have read George as a "guy with boobs" type of character, and assumed the pen name was for a guy. Or, they concluded that, because it was good science fiction and girls don't write science fiction, then she was really a dude.
I can't say for sure, because I was reading her changeling stuff before I picked up Newsflesh. While Toby isn't quite feminine, she's definitely female, in a way that I could only see a woman writing.
Also, I got to meet her at Arisia last year. Definitely as advertised.
Reply
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