I'm not sorry, either.
The experts on whether it's been done 'authentically' are, of course, the members of the imitated gender. The verdict will rarely be unanimous. Some will say yes, some no. I just read Altered States written by Anita Brookner in a man's voice and thought it was done unconvincingly. In fact, I didn't even finish it. Someone might disagree. I know of the case of one long novel written by a man in a woman's voice in which, following the book's publication, suspicions were voiced that the male author had had a female ghost-writer.
Authenticity, or perceived authenticity, doesn't matter if you are only assessing entertainment value, but if you are evaluating a book of fiction as a work of art, it surely does. (Unless the inauthenticity makes its own point.)
My reaction to those who feel there is something not quite right about a member of a gender writing in the voice a member of the opposite gender is that they don't understand that making art is supposed to be the act of a transcendent imagination.
Also, I think that not only can a male legitimately attempt by art to evoke a female, but a member of one social class can try to portray a member of another (I suspect that's harder than doing the opposite sex), the young can attempt to portray the old, members of one culture can try to evoke members of another, healthy writers can attempt to get into the minds of the ill or halt, landlubbers can do fishermen, the fortunate can portray the wretched of the earth, the free man can make a slave his narrator, the law-abiding can do crooks, the sane can do maniacs, and -- here's the controversial one--whites and blacks can legitimately make the attempt to create characters that speak convincingly in the voice of the other race.
Let the subjects of the 'portraits' decide how accurate their portrayal has been. The most an author can hope for is a consensus thumbs up or thumbs down.
I understand the consensus among rabbits was that Watership Down was a good job. (Of course, some bunnies are just always so negative.)
Most books have many characters. If a writer were constrained from speaking in the voice of anyone very unlike him or her self, novels would have to be quite restricted in their fictional populations!
I love talking about books. I used to have a book group, we called it The Book and Dining Club, but gradually the Dining part got more and more elaborate, and it was lots of fun but people started leaving after the protracted dinners and gradually the club ceased to exist.
I was going to participate in Rambi's new book club on SI, but i wasn't interested in the specific books being proposed (or the theme) and figured I'd check back later. And now i have a special requirement: the book has to be available on tape! |
