for the lady's...female vs male writers

[rlefebvr]

I have been reading The Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice. This is my third attempt with Rice and the first I really like.

The main characters in these books are  basically male and I have find her writing distinctively female.
I am always going, a man would not act in such a way or a man would think of such things in this manner.
In the end it feels wrong and I come away very dissatisfied with her despite the fact she writes really beautifully.

This got me thinking about you females. Since most books are written by males, ( the published ones anyway)
Do you feel the females are miss represented. Does this make you angry or upset. Can you tell when a book is written by a male and does it feel all wrong. Do you purposely read only female writers for this reason or do male
writers simply get it better than the female ones.

[pianistimo]

pearl s. buck has always been one of my favorite authors.  i think when you can say a lot in a few words - you are a good author.  it doesn't matter if you are male or female - really - but i find the best authors put some of their personal experience into their writing (even if it is fiction).  you can tell it is something they know about - by the way they write in the details.  shakespeare and milton are cool, too, even though they go so far back.  delving into the 'details' of people, personalities, what motivates people. 

women tend to remember lots of details, imo, and men tend to think of the overarching connections.  so, on the one hand you get wild jumps from chapter to chapter from a guy - but perhaps more facinating reading when it 's all done (tom clancy?) and with girls you don't miss a detail (even if it's every other chapter connecting).  you don't wonder for a bit - where am i?

women are the best with romance novels.  i have never read a romance novel that a man has written that made sense.  they don't think like women .  it's all purpose driven sex.  the women's novels make it an adventure.  you have fabio, the horse, the situation.

[rimv2]

pearl s. buck has always been one of my favorite authors.  i think when you can say a lot in a few words - you are a good author.  it doesn't matter if you are male or female - really - but i find the best authors put some of their personal experience into their writing (even if it is fiction).  you can tell it is something they know about - by the way they write in the details.  shakespeare and milton are cool, too, even though they go so far back.  delving into the 'details' of people, personalities, what motivates people. 

women tend to remember lots of details, imo, and men tend to think of the overarching connections.  so, on the one hand you get wild jumps from chapter to chapter from a guy - but perhaps more facinating reading when it 's all done (tom clancy?) and with girls you don't miss a detail (even if it's every other chapter connecting).  you don't wonder for a bit - where am i?

Yeah like the color a drop of coffee made on a fictional lawyers suit. How it smelled right before she tasted it. The heat against her lips. The ecstacy of every slow sip. How she licks her lips every so often. Then the smile when she's finished. It reminded her of back when she she was in college. She used to drink starbucks every day. The green sign just bursting with life always filled her with a warm tingly feeling. It started at her stomach and slowly spread around. She always had to let out a giggle. Her tall dark and handsome best male friend would always look at her butt and have a boner in his pants. But isnt this a murder mystery?

You're right. Guys arent as good at the detailed stuff. A woman would have actually described the suit and told exactly where the drop landed. She would have included what type of container the coffee was in, its color, and how it contrasted the general theme of the diner she sat in.

women are the best with romance novels.  i have never read a romance novel that a man has written that made sense.  they don't think like women .  it's all purpose driven sex.  the women's novels make it an adventure.  you have fabio, the horse, the situation.

different paths same destination. they should just be called sex novels

And what the world do you mean by fabio, the horse, the situation

[rc]

And what the world do you mean by fabio, the horse, the situation

That ain't right, Fabio!

Can't say I've ever picked up a romance novel, or read much by female authors for that matter.

I do remember going through a collection of short stories, when I came across one that I just could not make any sense of. Something about a dinner party with uptight women, their husbands running around pulling pranks, then suddenly one guy dies and his wife is cold in the park THE END. It was titled 'The sugar-tit', with a title like that I thought I'd like it... Got to the end thinking "this story was written in womanese", sure enough it was.

I also like when an author is able to work out the details of a personality, not explicitly but implicit in the characters behavior. The best stories give the impression that the characters might have actually existed.

Another big factor in making a story realistic is unpredicatability. When something happens that makes you go "what, did that just happen? whoa". When an author does something like kill off a central character, it gives the impression that this story could wind up anywhere.

That's the problem with Hollywood, too predictable. You know the guy's ALWAYS going to get the girl. The antagonist will get what's coming and it will all wrap up neatly. Gives the audience exactly what they expect, and is boring as hell.

[pianistimo]

agreed about unpredictability.  that's more 'real life' than just perfect perfect.

ok.  i must explain about the horse in particular (you all made me die laughing because i really didn't mean it like it sounds).  i think the 'romantic era' was romantic because we didn't have the fast transportation, and communication.  things worked at a slower pace.  i can't say i really like the terribly slow pace of anne of green gables or anything - i mean you wait forever for mr. darcy to make a move (is that anne of green gables?). 

rlefebvr, can you explain in more detail the parts that you found out of context in your book?  i am curious.

[jas]

I prefer male writers, largely because most of the female-written books I know are chick lit, which I absolutely can't stand. It seems to me that women write to make a point, whereas men write for more intellectual reasons. Women are more idealistic, and consequently, their books are likely to reflect that. Men are more realistic, even pessimistic, and I think that can be seen in many male-written books. Women are often more subjective than men.

That's not a bad thing -- it's just that the kind of books I personally like to read have a slightly more intellectual and less observational bent. If I liked chick lit I'd almost certainly prefer female writers, because they're better at the real human stuff (again, IMO).

Of course, there are exceptions. The Harry Potter books, to use one example, are written in an almost masculine way (IMO). I can't think of any male-written books that sound feminine, off the top of my head.... There must be some, though. Hmmm.

EDIT: Thought of one. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. That's written by a man about a young woman, and it's so sympathetic to her (especially striking given the time it was written) that you might think it was a woman if you didn't know otherwise.

Jas

[g_s_223]

Hmmm. Well, just to add to the puzzle, I am currently reading a book written by a woman writer who writes under a male pseudonym, i.e. "Lionel Shriver". The book is We need to talk about Kevin, and is a narrative in epistolary form written by a mother about her deeply troubled child who has committed a mass shooting at his school. It is the most lacerating and shattering book I have ever read.

[stevie]

HAHAHAHAH THE HORSE