Pynchons Problem

[Erik T. Burns]

I think Stegner is good at writing women, but then, I am a man. And so was he.

I am thinking in particular of Sabrina in _A Shooting Star_



On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 5:46 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> First,  I had no inclination to "dis"   male writers about anything.   The post which said  Oedipa Maas could be Daisy Bucchanan's daughter started me thinking.  My head went,  "Yeah?  Well... which contemporary women characters are well-written then?"   I couldn't really think of any.  I can think of plenty of classics with strong and wonderfully well-written  women characters in them,  but contemporary?   Is a strong woman (as opposed to a sex object and/or a political statement)  out of fashion in books as much as in film?  Where are the Dorothea Brookes, the Isabel Archers,  the Emma Bovaries, the Scarlett O'Haras, the Anna Kareninas - etc?  Maybe I was missing them so I asked.  (Otoh,  maybe classic women characters aren't that different from what we have in contemporary literature - ? .)
>
> Then, albeit a bit late,   I started wondering what I meant by the phrase "well-written" meant.  (gads)     "Liberated" ?  Not necessarily - lots of stereotyped "liberated" women around in detective fiction.   Did it mean "rounded" ala Forster?   Did it mean "poetically" written?  Did it mean contextually meaningful or issue-driven characters - ?   I don't know.  So by default,  any of the above (and more) can count.  (heh)  Mine?
>
> Strong women / beautifully written:
>
> Wallace Stegner's Susan Ward in Angle of Repose
> Toni Morrison's women are generally great -
> A.S. Byatt writes excellent female characters
> As I Lay Dying by Faulkner - all the women in that one
> Yashmine Harcourt in Against the Day by TRP
>
> bekah
>
>
> On Mar 13, 2012, at 11:39 AM, Keith Davis wrote:
>
>> Bekah, The paranoia set in because I thought you might be leading up to suggesting that male authors weren't writing good female characters.
>> I'd like to know what female characters you like, besides the ones you mentioned.
>>
>> On Mar 13, 2012 2:07 PM, "rich" <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Pat Barker's WW1 trilogy works on just about every level--war reporting, history, female emancipation, and of course as wonderful fiction
>>
>> rich
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 1:37 PM, James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Erica Tate (Alison Lurie - War Between the Tates) ?
>>
>> J
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 4:07 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> Who,  in y'all's  opinion,  is a well-written female character of the post-WWII era  - use any author, any book.
>>
>> Bekah
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe
>> http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412
>> http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe
>> http://www.thedetails.co.uk/
>> http://www.songkick.com/users/Auto_Da_Fe
>> http://big-game.tumblr.com/
>>
>