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shadowkatI know people vary on this point, or I suspect that they do, but I'm always more interested in the why than the what or the how or the which or the when, mostly because I believe the why governs everything. If you don't ask why questions as a writer - I believe that you are leaving out 90% of the story. Stories that ignore the why are forgettable, and feel rather flat, stories that focus on the why...stay with me long after they are done. Why is also, often, the question we don't know or want to know the answer to, which is why we don't ask it.
There was a list recently online somewhere for the 75 Greatest Living Women Writers, which I did not agree with...and was wondering if anyone would like to throw out names of female writers that while not "greatest" are at least "notable" and "memorable". Writers that you would read a second time - and whose books or novels or writing made you think, moved you, or inspired you?
The meme?
* List 5 to 10 women writers whose novels or writing made you think, inspired or moved you.
* Beside each list the book, novel, or piece of writing that made you list the writer as inspiration or memorable or notable
* Explain why
* I think they should still be alive, if at all possible, makes it harder (in other words, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Dunnett, and Octavia Butler - are disqualified because they are dead.)
Here's 10 of mine, because seriously 75 would take me forever. But I'm not ranking them, so order isn't important:
1. Alice Walker - The Color Purple, told in diary format, read it in high school never forgot it. Haven't read anything else by her though. What hit about the book was it focused on female relationships - that had zip to do with men. It was about a young gal who was different, and managed to have the courage to fight back against those who enslaved her.
2. Toni Morrison - Beloved - a haunting ghost story told in stream-of-conscious poetic prose, and partially in the perspective of the ghost. It's a book about the resilency of the human spirit. About how women handled slavery and how the ghosts of slavery continue to haunt you. It's also about rising above and fighting back, without violence, and without silence.
3. Sherri Tepper - Grass - a science fiction novel about gender, religion, tradition, and relating to something completely foreign. It's a mystery and a horror tale - about a family who journey's to a distant planet to determine the cause of a plague that is rapidly killing everyone on their home world. And what is happening to the settlers on this planet, who appear to be sort of mindless. But it is more of a why tale than a what - because it asks questions regarding human relationships, and why we feel the need to enforce our own culture on others. The aliens are particularly fascinating in this novel - for the young fear metamphorizing into the next stage...and see the next stage of their development as foreign and twisted.
4. Maria Doria Russell - The Sparrow and its sequel, The Children of God, this is story about a group of people, including a priest, sanctioned by the Catholic Church, to journey to a distant world - and do a cultural exchange. It explores the arrogance of this endeavor, the nature of faith, how we view god and why, and all the cultural misunderstandings that can occur and why knowing the language of another culture isn't enough, you have to understand the meaning as well. She's also written a novel on Doc Holiday.
5. Donna Tartt - The Secret History - it's a murder mystery, but we know the killer at the beginning of the novel and we know the victim, what we don't know is why. Or more to the point, why the narrator agreed to cover it up and continue his relationship with the murderers. It's about a religious ritual gone wrong, and the arrogance of scholarship.
6. Minette Walters - The Ice House - about a murder and why it happened. The murderers are common place, ordinary women, and the victim...well complicated. They actually made this one into a film. Also The Sculptress - a story about a woman convicted of a heinous crime, the question is why she did it - and it slowly breaks it down.
7. Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire - which weirdly enough turned the vampire trope on-to its head and may well have created the urban fantasy genre. In Rice's novel, the vampires are the protagonists. It's in some respects an allegorical and lyrical tale about death - and the desire to avoid it at all costs. To preserve one's loved ones - even if by doing so, you destroy them. Lestate creates Louis, falling for him and needing him to aid him with his mortal father. Louis and Lestate create a child vampire - hoping for a family...which becomes twisted. Rice delves deeper into the mythos with The Vampire Lestate and Queen of the Damned - exploring Egyptian myths and ancient goddess mythology and how the twisting of the "goddess mythos" by "the god" followers created vampires.
8. Ellen Kushner - Privilege of the Sword and Swordspoint - comments on the historical romance and swashbuckler tale, creating a fantasy world where swordsman are like guns for hire, fighting duels for the rich. In Privilege, an eccentric uncle agrees to give his sister her inheritance in exchange for teaching her daughter to become a swordsman, and in Swordspoint, a swordsman falls for a young male scholar...who acts like a damsel, but eventually saves him with witty political maneuvers.
9. Margaret Atwood - the short story "Rape Fantasies", The Robber Bride, and the Blind Assassin - in Rape Fantasies, the protagonist discusses the various rape fantasies women have and how women view rape - at the end we realize who she is telling the story to, a man in a bar who she fears may want to rape her. In the Robber Bride - told through a series of flashbacks, three women friends reflect on how their long dead classmate, Zenia, robbed them of a series of beaux. It's based on the fairy tale the Robber Bride. The Blind Assassin which I'm reading now is about two sisters, one who dies at the beginning of the book and whose novel, the Blind Assassin we read throughout. It's a story within a story within a story. Like a series of chinese dolls nested within each other.
10. JK Rowling - Harry Potter - creator of a rather innovative and often darkly witty series of stories of a Boy Wizard who fights and ultimately defeats the evil Wizard who destroyed his family. But that's not what it is really about - or the main focus, the main focus is a coming of age tale, about school politics, leadership, friendship, and why and how the decisions we make influence everyone and everything around us. Within the book, Rowling takes a rather biting look at British classism and imperialism, not to mention xenophobia. But she does it with a light and witty tone. Her later book, A Casual Vacancy, I've heard is much darker.
There was a list recently online somewhere for the 75 Greatest Living Women Writers, which I did not agree with...and was wondering if anyone would like to throw out names of female writers that while not "greatest" are at least "notable" and "memorable". Writers that you would read a second time - and whose books or novels or writing made you think, moved you, or inspired you?
The meme?
* List 5 to 10 women writers whose novels or writing made you think, inspired or moved you.
* Beside each list the book, novel, or piece of writing that made you list the writer as inspiration or memorable or notable
* Explain why
* I think they should still be alive, if at all possible, makes it harder (in other words, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Dunnett, and Octavia Butler - are disqualified because they are dead.)
Here's 10 of mine, because seriously 75 would take me forever. But I'm not ranking them, so order isn't important:
1. Alice Walker - The Color Purple, told in diary format, read it in high school never forgot it. Haven't read anything else by her though. What hit about the book was it focused on female relationships - that had zip to do with men. It was about a young gal who was different, and managed to have the courage to fight back against those who enslaved her.
2. Toni Morrison - Beloved - a haunting ghost story told in stream-of-conscious poetic prose, and partially in the perspective of the ghost. It's a book about the resilency of the human spirit. About how women handled slavery and how the ghosts of slavery continue to haunt you. It's also about rising above and fighting back, without violence, and without silence.
3. Sherri Tepper - Grass - a science fiction novel about gender, religion, tradition, and relating to something completely foreign. It's a mystery and a horror tale - about a family who journey's to a distant planet to determine the cause of a plague that is rapidly killing everyone on their home world. And what is happening to the settlers on this planet, who appear to be sort of mindless. But it is more of a why tale than a what - because it asks questions regarding human relationships, and why we feel the need to enforce our own culture on others. The aliens are particularly fascinating in this novel - for the young fear metamphorizing into the next stage...and see the next stage of their development as foreign and twisted.
4. Maria Doria Russell - The Sparrow and its sequel, The Children of God, this is story about a group of people, including a priest, sanctioned by the Catholic Church, to journey to a distant world - and do a cultural exchange. It explores the arrogance of this endeavor, the nature of faith, how we view god and why, and all the cultural misunderstandings that can occur and why knowing the language of another culture isn't enough, you have to understand the meaning as well. She's also written a novel on Doc Holiday.
5. Donna Tartt - The Secret History - it's a murder mystery, but we know the killer at the beginning of the novel and we know the victim, what we don't know is why. Or more to the point, why the narrator agreed to cover it up and continue his relationship with the murderers. It's about a religious ritual gone wrong, and the arrogance of scholarship.
6. Minette Walters - The Ice House - about a murder and why it happened. The murderers are common place, ordinary women, and the victim...well complicated. They actually made this one into a film. Also The Sculptress - a story about a woman convicted of a heinous crime, the question is why she did it - and it slowly breaks it down.
7. Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire - which weirdly enough turned the vampire trope on-to its head and may well have created the urban fantasy genre. In Rice's novel, the vampires are the protagonists. It's in some respects an allegorical and lyrical tale about death - and the desire to avoid it at all costs. To preserve one's loved ones - even if by doing so, you destroy them. Lestate creates Louis, falling for him and needing him to aid him with his mortal father. Louis and Lestate create a child vampire - hoping for a family...which becomes twisted. Rice delves deeper into the mythos with The Vampire Lestate and Queen of the Damned - exploring Egyptian myths and ancient goddess mythology and how the twisting of the "goddess mythos" by "the god" followers created vampires.
8. Ellen Kushner - Privilege of the Sword and Swordspoint - comments on the historical romance and swashbuckler tale, creating a fantasy world where swordsman are like guns for hire, fighting duels for the rich. In Privilege, an eccentric uncle agrees to give his sister her inheritance in exchange for teaching her daughter to become a swordsman, and in Swordspoint, a swordsman falls for a young male scholar...who acts like a damsel, but eventually saves him with witty political maneuvers.
9. Margaret Atwood - the short story "Rape Fantasies", The Robber Bride, and the Blind Assassin - in Rape Fantasies, the protagonist discusses the various rape fantasies women have and how women view rape - at the end we realize who she is telling the story to, a man in a bar who she fears may want to rape her. In the Robber Bride - told through a series of flashbacks, three women friends reflect on how their long dead classmate, Zenia, robbed them of a series of beaux. It's based on the fairy tale the Robber Bride. The Blind Assassin which I'm reading now is about two sisters, one who dies at the beginning of the book and whose novel, the Blind Assassin we read throughout. It's a story within a story within a story. Like a series of chinese dolls nested within each other.
10. JK Rowling - Harry Potter - creator of a rather innovative and often darkly witty series of stories of a Boy Wizard who fights and ultimately defeats the evil Wizard who destroyed his family. But that's not what it is really about - or the main focus, the main focus is a coming of age tale, about school politics, leadership, friendship, and why and how the decisions we make influence everyone and everything around us. Within the book, Rowling takes a rather biting look at British classism and imperialism, not to mention xenophobia. But she does it with a light and witty tone. Her later book, A Casual Vacancy, I've heard is much darker.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-21 07:37 pm (UTC)I know you read a lot of Buffy fanfic at one time. Do you read HP fanfic?
*She's a bit too enamored/reliant on the cackling villain who spends so much time explaining his nefarious yet brilliant scheme that the hero has time to escape. Also, I'm not sold at all on the epilogue, nor on the Hermione/Ron pairing.
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Date: 2014-01-21 11:35 pm (UTC)I agree with your critique of Rowlings and I'd have to add to that she overuses adverbs and overwrites.
But, I listed her - because she manages to do two things few others have accomplished in this genre: 1) create a complex and realistic world, complete with a new sport (Quidditch) and rules regarding it. 2) lightly satirize her own culture in the process, not to mention British politics, classism, and racism. She really attacks her culture, but does it in such a light and subtle way that I'm not sure they figured it out.
CS Lewis never came close to either...nor did Tolkien. And to be fair, her villains are no less interesting than theirs - actually I'd say that her's are far better drawn.
She also reminded me a bit of Ronald Dahl, except not as cranky and bit lighter and subtler in tone. Dahl often went over-the-top, Rowlings pulls it back a notch.
Consider the details of that world she created? The candies, the jokes, the magical curses, the animals, the mythology, and the Quidditch game...that's a feat.
It's admittedly an odd series - because when you start reading, you think, gee, happy books - there's not much to these. Then later, you start thinking, wait...there is. And even though you forget the plot and some of the character bits - other things stay with you. They are that are children's novels written for adults and children.
I know you read a lot of Buffy fanfic at one time. Do you read HP fanfic?
Nope. Never felt compelled to for some reason. I've admittedly only read fanfic for a few things - and those were for stories that left big gaps or unanswered questions that I wanted or needed explored and the writer never got around to it. In short, tv shows and books that aren't as well written - tend to lead me to fanfic and meta - LOL!!
Because I need to fill in those gaps!
The Hunger Games - read quite a bit for it.
Doctor Who - a few
Buffy
Angel
Farscape
Star Wars
Again, the frigging gaps!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 12:00 am (UTC)Agreed on the satire in Rowling. She gets the school atmosphere down so well you have to wonder why anyone would go to one. :)
no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 12:12 am (UTC)Rowlings is not very good at romantic relationships - she's obviously not comfortable in the romance genre.
I would have liked more on Potter, Snape, and the others...the back story was quite interesting.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 12:21 am (UTC)And I'd have to agree - she did a good job with the teenage flaky romances, but the permanent ones...didn't quite work.