tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post7316161997790285071..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Why Female? Guest Post by Eric TomlinsonKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-79480527865383627142014-05-01T17:35:46.559+01:002014-05-01T17:35:46.559+01:00Sorry Lydia, I didn’t read your comment fully. Int...Sorry Lydia, I didn’t read your comment fully. Interestingly, it was a woman who recently said she’d read enough ‘edgy’ female leads. I was asking if I should flip the gender on a story I was working on.<br /><br />It is a fact that more young women read. I think if the character works, the gender isn’t as important. For instance, I can’t read chick-lit, because what I have tried feel rather clichéd, ‘sex in the city’ style. In-jokes aimed at women. Hunger Games and Diversity seem to say female leads can work okay.<br /><br />I’m probably the wrong person to comment. I find women more interesting than men.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18366891445996534870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-70722837453299168672014-05-01T13:27:32.183+01:002014-05-01T13:27:32.183+01:00Thanks for the comments. I possibly didn’t declare...Thanks for the comments. I possibly didn’t declare how LOTR geekie I am … read the book at least 40 times since I was 14 and I don’t count myself as an uber-geek. Ie, no surgery to acquire pointy ears (yet), but I have a friend who lives in Edoras. <br /><br />I don’t dispute that filmmaking especially for the cousins across the pond means stories need to be simplified. I actually don’t care. <br /><br />As a LOTR geek, I don’t want a commercially viable film, I want an accurate realisation of what is in my head. I waited 40+ years to meet Glorfindel and got some bird with collagen–filled lips. When he does introduce a character as Glorfindel, we get somebody who’d look a bit soft at a softie convention. <br /><br />Glorfindel gets not much more than a couple of sentences and the point I was making (badly) was that Arwen gets even less. That is the “traditional” Tolkien-based fantasy female, non-existent. I shouldn’t even see a need for the other 50%. However, I do.<br /><br />All of this is of course seriously tongue-in-cheek!<br /><br />@Lydia, Correct, whilst many profess they don’t have a bias, I made the decision to sufficiently mask my gender. I can’t recall ever being phased by reading fantasy written by a woman, but then I’ve been caught the other way by the likes of JV Jones. I also think my surname is too long, plus I have a children’s book on the blocks and I REALLY don’t want underage readers picking up Amara’s Daughter.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18366891445996534870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-68442521204797122322014-05-01T13:22:52.512+01:002014-05-01T13:22:52.512+01:00Well it has intrigued me sufficiently to download ...Well it has intrigued me sufficiently to download it! :-)madwippitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02595748471651052552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-63875992946806351322014-04-30T19:42:02.592+01:002014-04-30T19:42:02.592+01:00Interesting to read a male take on female fantasy ...Interesting to read a male take on female fantasy heroines. I see you write under E H Howard - are the initials to keep your gender unknown? Have you any concern about how saleable books with female protagonists are compared with male, in light of the belief that males are not keen to buy books about girls/women whereas female readers are happy to buy books with boys/men. Lydia Bennethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328239009863878547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-19980629507973492122014-04-30T17:35:28.806+01:002014-04-30T17:35:28.806+01:00I'm going to assume that the Higher Cause of t...I'm going to assume that the Higher Cause of the Story is meant to amuse us, Nick, but I do agree with your view here. No matter how complex a film may be, it will lose its audience if it's overly complicated. A novel can get away with any number and manner of complications. In fact, it doesn't even have to make sense.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-49328314374749964502014-04-30T09:29:43.620+01:002014-04-30T09:29:43.620+01:00Have to disagree with you on the Arwen / Glorfinde...Have to disagree with you on the Arwen / Glorfindel swap. I thought it was a genius decision (just as introducing the female elf warrior Tauriel in The Hobbit movies was a brilliant decision). <br /><br />Arwen is an essential character in those stories and Glorfindel, with the best will in the world, is not. Film making on that scale is a desperate business, and Peter Jackson had to wring every iota of usefulness from every minute of his limited screen time. It would have been sheer madness to introduce a character at that point who would play no further role in the story, and meanwhile he had to find a way to introduce Arwen (whom, it could be argued, JRRT himself rather neglected in the main body of his books) as one of the only major female players in the film.<br /><br />Sometimes good characters have to be sacrificed to the higher cause of the story as a whole.Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08191176209084540085noreply@blogger.com