'King Rat' and the abuse of women in Gene Wolfe's stories

Marc Aramini · 19 Mar 2011, 23:51 · from 2011-March.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at yahoo.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:51:48 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) 'King Rat' and the abuse of women in Gene Wolfe's stories
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimgsF5oFdUPZOLwpuSCBfjt7=-h64G7MVHdzWWk at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <206294.68794.qm at web161810.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

--- On Wed, 3/9/11, Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) 'King Rat' and the abuse of women in Gene Wolfe's stories
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 7:27 AM

I tend to write (almost exclusively) male protagonists and narrators.? Because I am male.? I don't have any direct, subjective experience of being female.? I do not think I could write a female narrator from a first-person perspective.? Third-person limited is probably the only voice I could use for female protagonists.
?
I?
But that's me.
?
LH

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:

As an aside, whenever a story pops into my head, the hero is usually a troubled young man or boy. I have to force him to be anyone else more often than not.

Any writers on this list have a similar experience with their muse?

...ryan

A bit late chiming in on this, but my best fiction can be found in my analysis of Gene's work, posted here throughout the years. (just kidding eh?)
?
I've found if I let my pen get away from me the characters become psychotic/neurotic sociopaths with a penchant for cruelty, something I certainly would?deny?being -?I, who cry at Starman, or even the music to it, or?when I am reminded?of the Bridge of Birds marrying heaven and earth one day out of the year.
?
But yeah, I don't think I would ever try a female 1st person.? And come, the abuse of women in?a story does not a misogynist make.? I think Henry Miller is one of the biggest misogynists of our time, but I rarely hear the accusation made.? And his fiction wasn't fiction, really.? Right up there with accidentally shooting your wife in the head, Burroughs.

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