Last week VS Naipaul inflamed a fair bit of controversy when he declared that there was no female author whom he considered his equal. Setting aside the sheer stupidity of such a statement (and the question of his own mental state) I found it interesting that he felt that he could tell “within a paragraph or two” whether a piece was written by a woman. According to Naipaul women have a sentimental, narrow view of the world which comes across in her work as “feminine tosh” in his view (yes, my hackles are rising as I type this).
Now our very own Kathryn Lilley raised the issue of ‘gender detection’ in writing in a blog post a while back and, if memory serves me right, we all submitted a paragraph to a website (possibly gender genie) to have a computer program evaluate an author’s gender based on the words used. I also seem to recall that this so called assessment misdiagnosed a number of pieces – so I continue to wonder, can you really tell if a woman or a man wrote something??
For my part, I doubt I would be able to distinguish a thriller by our own Michelle Gagnon from those of her male colleagues (except that I obviously have read her work and know it). Indeed many female writers have been mistaken for being male writers (some deliberately choosing to adopt male pseudonyms as well) so you have to wonder what planet Naipaul is on. I wouldn’t know that PD James was a woman from reading her Adam Dalgliesh novels just as I wouldn’t have guessed that a mother and son were the mystery author ‘Charles Todd’. There are also just as many book written by men that, had I not known that, would have assumed were written by women (Snow falling on Cedars and Room with a View, to name just two). Even in the literary sphere has Naipaul not heard of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell or George Elliot??
But, rather than continuing to rant (VS Naipaul isn’t worth it), let’s focus on the nitty gritty – can you honestly tell if a novel is written by a man or a woman?
If it’s a thriller, I can usually tell the gender by the summary of the book. There are some elements that women almost always include that don’t turn up as often in men’s books, and when those elements do, they also tend to be done quite differently. (If you’re wondering, the element is romance.)
Oh, dear, Clare. I am going to regret this: The reason VS Naipaul can’t find a female author who is his equal is because only an ASS would make such foolish declarations! What female author would aspire to be like that???
Don’t care how good your writing is, humble pride makes your writing great. To say something as foolish as that, VS needs a good slice of humble pie!
PS: Not that it matters, but I can tell when a man writes something—and I usually love it!
I am 75k words into my 6th thriller–every book co-written with Lynn Sholes. I guess we have the best of both worlds because we rely on each other’s gender to insert the male/female elements when needed.
Over the years, there have been many instances where a fan approached us at a signing and stated they definately knew that Lynn wrote a particular passage because it could only have been written by a woman. I always smile and agree while secretly knowing I wrote it.
No. Not reliably.
can you honestly tell if a novel is written by a man or a woman?
I look at the author photo and take my best guess.
I can’t tell if its a female author all the time, but fairly often. But even without reading the writing, the woman on the cover is almost always a dead giveaway though yes, some of those books are written by men too. (not limiting to thriller genre).
BK Jackson (who for some reason can’t log in as herself on blogger)
I’ve had three novels of medical suspense published, all with a female protagonist, all with enough romance to keep female readers interested but not so much that men don’t enjoy it. (Linda, maybe I’m an exception to your rule).
I’m continually asked how I can write successfully from a female POV. The answer, of course, is that my wife is my first reader, and keeps me on track with what a female would say or do.
As for your final question, I’ll go with Jim Bell’s approach.
Nine times out of ten, I can tell. The devil’s always in the details. For example, I’ve yet to find a male writer who can believably relay the psychological effects of sexual trauma. And I’ve yet to find a female writer who can believably write a sex scene from a man’s perspective. And I’ve yet to meet a Trini (someone from Trinidad) who doesn’t think they are better than the rest of the world.
Until now I didn’t know PD James was a woman either, so I’m going to go with ‘no’ 🙂
I wrote a short story for my critique group and one guy said from the beginning that this threw him off a bit:
Lethal Injection by Diane Carlisle
Because when he started reading it and discovered that the protagonist was male.
I still don’t understand this concept. If I’m writing from a male character, he’s going to be who that character is, he’s not going to be ME.
It’s weird to me. I can’t tell the difference, nor do I care the sex of the author if they can write really great stories and convincing characters.
So we have a few who can and a few who can’t…and Jim who goes with the author photo:) Cheating! And I am with Kathleen, who would want to be an equal of Naipaul when he is so clearly deranged. I have only read one of his books and it was snoresville.
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Naipaul can’t even tell which sex he is himself.
I mean dresses one day, tight corsets the next, all.that but with man muscles….sick stuff
what?
He’s not?
OH!
Scratch that….
Ru Paul is apparently a different person …
My bad …
Couldn’t tell the difference.
You need to check out his author photo and there would be no disputing it.
Honestly, I don’t care. I just like a good, well written story. I’ve never really spent time thinking about it, I’m too busy reading.
But if you are interested in checking out the Gender Genie and the science and thought behind it, Savvy Authors had an article on it and it was very interesting: A Nifty Tool for Writing the Opposite Sex .
“can you honestly tell if a novel is written by a man or a woman?”
I look at the author photo and take my best guess.
Then you were confused by the picture of the guy who wrote BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. I thought it was a photo of Marlene Dietrich. And I think Nicholas Sparks books read like a woman writes them.
No…and yes. I never finished Lady Chatterly’s Lover. When I read the first passage that was allegedly sex from the woman’s POV (and how women, er, get off) I laughed hysterically. Clearly NOT written by a woman. I could never take the book seriously after that. It still cracks me up to think about it.
Wouldn’t it be a gas if at the next Booker Prize Winner’s Convention Margaret Atwood punched V.S. Naipul followed by a good loogy in the face from Anita Brookner? Wouldn’t you pay to see that?
I would indeed!
I’ve never even heard of this Naipaul fellow nor have I read his “argument” but I can tell already that he is correct. I am not his equal.
I’m far superior.
🙂