Not a Book Review: More Thoughts on Elena Ferrante
Remember how I was reading Elena Ferrante and wondering what was up with her literary acceptance?
Well I'm about 4/5 done with her third book, and I think it's literary because it's about bad, unfulfilling sex and how marriage and children make women miserable. Which, full points for edginess there, I guess, but well, it bugs me that if you have a heroine with a happy relationship and orgasms, it's relegated to Romance or Chick Lit, and if not, it is ~Literature.~ Like, that's some regressive, Victorian issues there.
I feel like there's more to be said, but my brain isn't quite there yet. But I feel like there must be a connection between genre and sex positivity, and I'm wondering if any works has been done on that.
ETA: I actually finished book 3 tonight and got into the first few pages of book 4, and somehow things ended up being even MORE literarily trite and painful. Main character has an affair (and orgasms) with a douchecanoe, and it goes as well as you'd expect. Just. Why. WHY does women in literature apparently have to be middle-class heterosexual women having affairs that go badly? THAT IS SO CLICHE AND BORING. JFC.
Well I'm about 4/5 done with her third book, and I think it's literary because it's about bad, unfulfilling sex and how marriage and children make women miserable. Which, full points for edginess there, I guess, but well, it bugs me that if you have a heroine with a happy relationship and orgasms, it's relegated to Romance or Chick Lit, and if not, it is ~Literature.~ Like, that's some regressive, Victorian issues there.
I feel like there's more to be said, but my brain isn't quite there yet. But I feel like there must be a connection between genre and sex positivity, and I'm wondering if any works has been done on that.
ETA: I actually finished book 3 tonight and got into the first few pages of book 4, and somehow things ended up being even MORE literarily trite and painful. Main character has an affair (and orgasms) with a douchecanoe, and it goes as well as you'd expect. Just. Why. WHY does women in literature apparently have to be middle-class heterosexual women having affairs that go badly? THAT IS SO CLICHE AND BORING. JFC.