International Women's Day, take 2...

[fajrdrako]

Before the International Women's Day draws to a close and before I fall asleep (I'm dropping), I thought I'd write something I've been thinking about today, as an adjunct to my list earlier today of historical women: my favourite female writers. This time, I'll include the living, and the list is ad hoc, off the top of my head:

1. Charlotte Bronte


2. Lois McMaster Bujold


3. Dorothy Dunnett


4. Georgette Heyer


5. Diana Wynne Jones


6. Ellen Kushner


7. Margaret Laurence


8. Karin Lowachee


9. Susan Elizabeth Philips


10. Mary Renault


11. Mary Doria Russell


12. Megan Whalen Turner

Comments

[order_of_chaos]

I'll second 2,4, and 5. Verily, they are brilliant. Are you going to do one on favorite fictional females as well?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd like to do fictional females - maybe tomorrow, as a postscript to Women's Day!

[order_of_chaos]

Mmmm. If Cordelia's not on it, I'll sulk. Not that I'd want to influence you in any way, of course.

Cordelia: I went shopping. Want to see what I bought? *rolls head across table*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If Cordelia's not on it, I'll sulk

Fear not, Cordelia would have to be there, wouldn't she?

I went shopping. Want to see what I bought?

Great moments in literature. What really slays me is: "It cost too much." Which is untrue, of course - I think Cordelia would have paid more yet (by a long stot) for Miles' survival. But... that's a stunning scene.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

Yay, for Megan Whalen Turner! Eugenides is one of my favoritest characters ever! Though the first book is definitely the best. I dislike how in the last one, he proves himself a man/husband/king by beating people at sword fighting - I thought that was OOC. Or maybe it was supposed to be representative of his accepting his masculine kingly role and giving up his feminine sneaky thiefly one. Feh.

Also, yay Mary Renault and C Bronte and Bujold! And I'll have to read the others now, I guess : ) I did read _Howl's Moving Castle_, but I didn't enjoy it terribly much. And years ago, I started reading Christomancy (?), I think I liked that more. So many books ...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yay, for Megan Whalen Turner! Eugenides is one of my favoritest characters ever!

Egad, yes, isn't he just utterly wonderful?

Though the first book is definitely the best.

Yes, and the most full of those wonderful twists and surprises that Turner can do so well. After the first book, we're on to her tricks and learn to anticipate.

I liked the third book, including the sword fighting - okay, I'm a total sucker for a good sword fight. I don't think it had to do with masculine/feminine aspects, but - well, maybe I should reread it and be better able to articulate what I think. (What a hardship!)

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay, I forgot about this thread.

The first book left me hungry for more; the third didn't.

I'm not sure if Whalen Turner was *consciously* doing GenSex stuff, but that doesn't mean it's not there to be interpreted. And hey, we're both slashers, we know *all about* subtext. The way I developed that opinion of the ending sword fight is because a full-on sword fight is not a typical Eugenides trick; he's sly and not obvious and unguessable. A sword fight? Too damn obvious, and it's been so well-established that he *does not* want to be a soldier. It seems OOC.

And - this is where I GenSex it - Eugenides is male, but he refused the masculine soldier role of his father, to take on the thief role of his mother, a role that is not in and of itself feminine, but perhaps in the context of the story might be taken as the opposite of the frontal assault of a soldier; different tactics, and remember, Athena is the goddess of tactical warfare, whereas Ares is god of butchery; Eugenides is very much Odyssian (rather than like Achilles or Hercules), and I think it's valid to keep that intertextuality in mind, Athena the warrior *goddess*, in a landscape that is overtly based on Greece.

If the final sword fight implies some kind of growth, then I'm disappointed in Turner. It would be a greater triumph for Eugenides to win through with his wily tactics rather than crowning his magnificent wiles with an OOC fight scene.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting comments on Eugenides in the third book. I'll think about it when I reread; I didn't interpret it that way first time through, and was enchanted that she was doing something different from the norm. Not what I expected. I didn't interpret it as playing with gender roles or switching them - more like transcending or ignoring them.

If there was a disappointment to me, it was in the second book, where I thought it was so obvious from the beginning that Gen loved the Queen that I was frustrated by the pace and the camouflage.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

"I didn't interpret it as playing with gender roles or switching them - more like transcending or ignoring them."

Mmm, but I don't think you *can* transcend gender roles.

It just occurred to me, in the second two books he becomes the pursuing lover, while the Queen is the pursued love object ...

I remember being surprised about him loving the Queen, especially at his stalkerish-ness.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Have only read 1, 3 and 4, and wasn't impressed.
Most of my favourite novelists have tended to be male.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So who are your favourite novelists?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

They include Thomas Hardy, Thomas Mann and M John Harrison.
I find it hard to come up with a list, as different books appeal at different times. Also, to be honest, I don't read much fiction at all: most of my reading is research-oriented (which I also class as pleasure).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've read some Mann, intend to read Hardy, and don't know Harrison.

I love non-fiction too, but I do read a lot of fiction. Whenever I can.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Read 1-6 and 10. Yes, yes, yes yes. Just marvellous. Thank you for highlighting them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

[benbenberi.livejournal.com]

Great list. Mine would be very similar, except I would omit Mary Doria Russell (didn't like) and # 7, 9, and 12 (haven't read), and substitute C.J. Cherryh, P.D. James, Elizabeth Peters, and Sherwood Smith.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read C.J. Cherryh about twenty years ago; loved The Faded Sun series with a passion, and Wave Without a Shore and a few others, but came to a grinding halt with the series about Chanur and haven't read any of her books since. I keep planning to, but haven't.

P.D. James I like, but not as much as most people do. Ditto Elizabeth Peters, but I've only read one or maybe two of hers.

Sherwood Smith has been recommended to me before but I don't know anything about her or her books. Are they SF? Fantasy?

[benbenberi.livejournal.com]

Sherwood Smith co-wrote with Dave Trowbridge the Exordium series of space operas, which have been discussed occasionally on Dunnetwork. A very rich, intricate far-future, and a fine, Lymond-eque protagonist. (Alas, way out of print, and several of the 5 vols. are extremely hard to get hold of -- not enough were printed/distributed, and people hang onto their copies for dear life.)

She's written some fine YA fantasy, and last year published *Inda*, the first of a new fantasy series set in the same 'verse as the YA, but bigger and more mature/complex. It starts with the protag as a boy, but he's growing.

And swashing buckles.

Piratessss!! Yeah!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

the Exordium series of space operas, which have been discussed occasionally on Dunnetwork.

Some of the best book recs I've ever had were from Dunnetwork. Yes, I've tried to find her books in the library but I don't really know where to start. What's the name of the first book in the Exordium series?

a fine, Lymond-eque protagonist

My favourite thing.

The library does have Inda so I've requested it, under the foolish illusion that I might find time to read it in the next month or so. Hah!

And swashing buckles.

My other favourite thing.

[katesutton.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I just read The Sparrow and Children of God for the first time and was completely flattened by both. They could hardly have been better.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aren't they amazing? And A Thread of Grace hit me even harder, I think. Incredible books.

I wonder what her next book will be. I don't have time to read her website right now, but as soon as possible, I'm going to check.

[katesutton.livejournal.com]

A Thread of Grace is sitting on my desk, waiting for me to find time to read it. Her website says the following:

She is currently working on Dreamers of the Day, a novel about the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, when a handful of British diplomats, oil executives and military men invented the modern Middle East. As she says, "It's their world. We just live in it." Look for Dreamers of the Day in early 2008.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting! Not an event I know much about. I wonder what she'll make of it.

[filkferengi]

Great selection!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked them!