Up Front: Well, Read Women
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The saying 'close, but no cigar', apparently originates "from the practice of giving cigars as prizes at carnivals in the US in the 19th century; this phrase would be said to those who failed to win a prize"
(wiktionary entry) -
Pretty sure the comment about Zadie Smith is referring to the practice of giving cigars as fairground prizes.
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Just 2 minutes too slow.
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Ah, of course. For some reason I read it as "doesn't come close to being a cigar", which given that columnist's history, would not be out of the question.
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Tim Hannah, in reply to
He messed up the saying. By saying Zadie Smith, who he claims to like, "does not come close to a cigar" he's calling her crap, not a close second but far down the ranks.
Which is probably just bad writing...
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To be fair, I don't really like to read objectional newspaper columns written by apparent idiots, so I guess my own reading habits aren't completely balanced either...
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I'm mostly a SF and Fantasy reader. A genre with a long and storied history of sexism.
But also genres with some amazing authors who don't have penises. I rarely think about the gender of the author although I have to say I've been bemused that some of my favourite female authors are gay. I have no idea why or even if it has any relevance at all.
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Thomas Dolby on relationships and cigars… yes, from a male perspective, dammit...
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Cigar? Something to do with Freud, maybe?
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TracyMac, in reply to
Who are you alluding to? Nicola Griffith? Melissa Scott? Two of my faves.
I grew up reading Asimov. Still like the old bugger, although his portrayals of women were limited. Although better than many of the era. At least he had Susan Calvin as a lead character, with a brain, even if she was... odd.
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A friend has suggested the cigar line is a reference to Kipling:
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
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My first thought was Kipling:
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
The poem it comes from is quite .. something.
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Ah snap!
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break out the Bronte-saurus...
But not a diet of Chick lit lite, right?
I'm thinking May, June or July would be possible months for a National Women's Writers Month - I'll start with a stack of Mary Patricia Plangmans and Kage Bakers ... -
Whining and dining?
Pat Barker
Jeanette Winterson
Annie Proulx
AS Byatt
Janet Frame
Lee Childs. -
Bart Janssen, in reply to
Melissa Scott
Nope I was thinking at the time of Susan R Matthews. I'm pretty sure I've read Nicola Griffith's Ammonite but it appears to have gone from my memory. Which is cool because I can read it again :).
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I've always kind of loved Catharine Asaro. They're basically a combination of romance novel and the kind of hard scifi that spends five pages explaining how Klein bottles work.
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Jeremy Andrew, in reply to
I’m mostly a SF and Fantasy reader. A genre with a long and storied history of sexism.
True, but if you haven’t encountered Sheri S Tepper, Octavia Butler, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffery, James Tiptree Jr, CJ Cherryh or Mercedes Lackey (amongst many others) then you’re probably deliberately avoiding female authors (and in the case of Tiptree AKA Alice Sheldon, doing some research to do so).
(ETA - that's a generic 'you' not a specific one)
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Whining and dining?
....Lee Childs.odd man out?
did you mean Leigh Brackett?
or am I over-Reachering?
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Stephen R, in reply to
Lee Childs.
I'm pretty sure Lee Child is the pen-name of a bloke in the UK, and Lee Childs is a (male) tennis player...
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Andrew Stevenson, in reply to
Julian May, Elizabeth Bear, Martha Wells, Connie Willis, Tanya Huff, Elizabeth Moon...
All good writers and storytellers.
P.S. if you haven't go back over Emma's post and read the tool tips when you hover over the links. -
william blake, in reply to
Whining and dining, end of para four of Emma's text.
Had to throw in Jack Reacher as the latest incarnation of the hyper masculine comfort read (dick lit?)
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No Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm? And you call yourself SF/F readers :P
ETA: Also how amazing was the return to fitz this year?! So amazing.
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Lois McMaster Bujold writes lovely SF. I could rant about her for hours. One of her most interesting books, Ethan of Athos, is about a planet populated entirely by males - the story follows one obstetrician's quest to replenish the planet's failing stock of ovarian cell lines.
I hesitate to try unfamiliar male sf/f authors, because there's just so much of a higher chance of their female characters being few and poorly drawn within those genres.
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Andrew Stevenson, in reply to
<cough>JohnRingo<cough>
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