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Book News
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Spare us your misery, Orange prize judge tells authorsDaisy Goodwin says reading the 129 entries to this year's competition sometimes drove her to despair Daisy Goodwin: ‘There’s a lot of grimness out there … pleasure seems to have become a rather neglected element.’ Photograph: Frank Baron To book lovers, it might appear to be a delicious, if demanding, treat – the opportunity to devour more than 100 novels by women writers and award one of them the prestigious Orange prize. View complete news itemBut the chair of this year's judging panel has launched a stinging criticism of the current "grim" crop of women's fiction – complaining that female authors appear to have suffered a collective sense of humour failure. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/17/misery-orange-prize-judge-authors
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Joe 90
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Quote: Book News, Saturday, 20 Mar 2010 12:01Spare us your misery, Orange prize judge tells authorsDaisy Goodwin says reading the 129 entries to this year's competition sometimes drove her to despair Daisy Goodwin: ‘There’s a lot of grimness out there … pleasure seems to have become a rather neglected element.’ Photograph: Frank Baron To book lovers, it might appear to be a delicious, if demanding, treat – the opportunity to devour more than 100 novels by women writers and award one of them the prestigious Orange prize. View complete news itemBut the chair of this year's judging panel has launched a stinging criticism of the current "grim" crop of women's fiction – complaining that female authors appear to have suffered a collective sense of humour failure. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/17/misery-orange-prize-judge-authors At last! Someone else who shares my feelings about the wrist-slashing material on offer lately. Not only in books, but recently my favourite point of listening on Radio 4, the afternoon play so often seems to rehash the same old material - stories of deprivation, rape, abuse, drug-addiction; okay thse things are out there and I'm not turning a blind eye to them, but do story-writers have to concentrate on these things as the only settings for human interest? It is possible to write scintillating material with a positive theme. In fact, I find the tendency to use grim subjects, unless approached with sensitivity, counterproductive. I feel that the writer has gone for an easy emotional fix. It is possible to set a good drama somewhere other than Iraq or Northern Ireland.
This post was last edited by Joe 90, 20 Mar 2010, 12:48
my website
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datahog
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Thanks for the link. Grimness is much easier to write than joy IMO.
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dancingsue
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Quote: datahog, Saturday, 20 Mar 2010 12:42Thanks for the link. Grimness is much easier to write than joy IMO. By coincidence, I've just started writing a story called Joy. Needless to say... 
the long and the short of itTriclops: a collection of forty short stories by Avery Mathers, Susan Howe and Lee Williams.
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sophiemp
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Quote: Joe 90, Saturday, 20 Mar 2010 12:37At last! Someone else who shares my feelings about the wrist-slashing material on offer lately. Not only in books, but recently my favourite point of listening on Radio 4, the afternoon play so often seems to rehash the same old material - stories of deprivation, rape, abuse, drug-addiction; okay thse things are out there and I'm not turning a blind eye to them, but do story-writers have to concentrate on these things as the only settings for human interest? It is possible to write scintillating material with a positive theme. How many can you name? Tell you what, Joe90--when women stop being raped, we'll stop writing about it. Some people read for escapism, and some people read so they can learn how others experience the world. Fiction can be entertaining, but it can also teach you to be a more compassionate person.
This post was last edited by sophiemp, 21 Mar 2010, 08:51
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demolinero
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Steady on with the collective 'we' - you're not speaking for all women writers. Although I agree with you in principle, there have been so many books on the subject there is a danger of diluting the message to the extent the crime becomes almost commonplace and even 'acceptable' through being sensationalised in so many books.
Elizabeth Jasper Find me at at http://www.elizabethjasper.com
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Nestat
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Quote: sophiemp, Sunday, 21 Mar 2010 08:40Tell you what, Joe90--when women stop being raped, we'll stop writing about it. sophie, only the judge was complaining about women's literature, Joe was talking in general terms. And I think his point was very similar to demolinero's. There's also a very unpleasant inference in your statement - do you believe that bad things only happen to women, and only happen because they are done by men? Men can be raped by women too, and there is far less support for them (at least in the UK).
This post was last edited by Nestat, 21 Mar 2010, 10:56
Writing for yourself is writing for others: "My book could very well end up being reconstituted as a trestle table in a home for battered women." - Alan Partridge
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dancingsue
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There is a lot of true-life angst, but it seems to be what some people want to read. I pass the bookstand on my way out of the supermarket and it looks as though half the fiction titles are about childhood abuse. These are 'popular' not 'literary' works. It's an important subject and one that needs writing about, and I suspect a lot of people read them because it strikes a chord with them. I'd like to see a more varied diet available but if that's what sells... It's hardly out of the news and the pope isn't helping. (notice I gave him a small p).
the long and the short of itTriclops: a collection of forty short stories by Avery Mathers, Susan Howe and Lee Williams.
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sophiemp
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Quote: Nestat, Sunday, 21 Mar 2010 10:54Quote: sophiemp, Sunday, 21 Mar 2010 08:40Tell you what, Joe90--when women stop being raped, we'll stop writing about it. sophie, only the judge was complaining about women's literature, Joe was talking in general terms. And I think his point was very similar to demolinero's. There's also a very unpleasant inference in your statement - do you believe that bad things only happen to women, and only happen because they are done by men? Men can be raped by women too, and there is far less support for them (at least in the UK). I'm not suggesting that at all, Nestat, but the original complaint was about women writers in particular. I don't think any of us should stop writing about deprivation, poverty, abuse, or any other injustice. demolinero, I don't mean to speak for the collective 'we,' I just mean to say, give us a world without rape, and maybe you won't find so many people writing about it. The crime IS commonplace, and it's not literature that makes it acceptable.
This post was last edited by sophiemp, 21 Mar 2010, 11:10
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eileenmac
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Having run out of reading matter and unable to get to the library, I borrowed two books from my daughter-in-law. Both were written by women about child abuse; one sexual, the other physical. Halfway through the sexual one I had to give up because I couldn't read any more of it without being sick. The other, written by a woman about her childhood, was so violent that I found it hard to believe her story. Had she really experienced that amount of violence from her father, she would not be alive today to tell the tale. Despite constant beatings, being thrown down stairs, etc., she never went to hospital and there was no mention of brokien bones. And I think her father is dead so cannot refute her allegations.
A few days ago, I went into the basement in my local Smiths. One complete wall was taken up by books telling stories of sexual and physical abuse against children. All were supposed to be true. I'm sorry to be so cynical but I do wonder just how many of these books actually told the truth.
Child abuse in any form is abhorrent and is all around us but it seems that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and it's hard to decide how much is truth and how much in the imagination of the writer.
Personally, I would never spend my money on this stuff.
Eileen
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'Spare us your misery' book judge tells authors
20 Mar 2010, 12:01
