Men Write too?

Blog where I read books by men in order to convince myself that they're capable of being good writers.

[menwritetooquestionmark]

Point of this blog

Long story short: I have an unfair bias against stories written by men. This is me working to change that.

In my mid-teenagehood I noticed that I was mostly reading books by female authors, thought it was funny how that kept happening, because I pick books by what section of the it's in, If the title catches my eye, and if I like cover art) and didn't think much more about it.

In my late teens/early twenties I noticed that I didnt like books by male writers. Gay, straight, cis, or trans, books by all kinds of men almost always fell short of what I thought good books should be. The fantasy books had interesting world building but lacked characters with depth. The comedy books were usually funny but could feel preachy sometimes. The romance novels were... just not ... I can't even explain how much they missed the point of what a romance novel is supposed to be. So, I gave up on reading books by men if I could avoid them and if I did read a book by a man I held them to a lower standard than books by women.

ENTER Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfus

I loved this book. It his every mark for me and because that didn't make sense to if a man wrote it I made up a conspiracy theory that it was actually written by a woman who for some reason couldn't publish under her own name so hired a guy to be "Patrick Rothfus" and that's the guy with his picture in the back of the book and shows up at cons. The reason the third book hasn't come out is that they had some kind of falling out over money, or maybe she died and "Patrick" decided to not come forward with the truth.

This insanity made me realize that I clearly had a problem with male writers. and I want to give them a fair shake.

I've read plenty of women authors I don't like the writing of but I don't blame my dislike on their gender.

(note: I'm not sure where nonbinary folks fall on this as one of my favorite authors is nonbinary but they came out when I was halfway through the series so I didn't know they were nonbinary when I started reading [also author bios at the back of books are kinda vauge gender-wise are i make assumptions based on pronouns] this is a frigging shit show. Do You See Why I Want to Fix This!!!

[hicscribere]

some cuties for all of us

[menwritetooquestionmark]

do you ever feel like your opinion is wrong? Like you're just not understanding the media in question so don't want to talk about it. But still want to talk about it anyway even though you probably shouldn't because the people who did understand it will laugh at you?

[apathetic-revenant]

love how much of Aragorn’s initial interactions with the hobbits is just telling them not to say things

[apathetic-revenant]

aragorn: could you stop casually invoking the dread name of the ancient and terrible evil that even now follows at our very heels for FIVE MINUTES

[apathetic-revenant]

aragorn: hey I gotta take a breather can you take over the hobbit duties for a bit

gandalf: no worries got you covered

[apathetic-revenant]

Aragorn’s given up

[apathetic-revenant]

elrond: hey you can’t say that here

gandalf: you can’t tell me what to say, do I look like a hobbit to you

[elodieunderglass]

The film repositions this for comedy, but in Return of the King, there’s this scene:

Gandalf, outside the door: oh hang on, just a sec. for reasons I won’t explain; this is about to get super geopolitical. Try not to spill too many beans in front of Denethor.

Pippin: Do I have that many of them?

Denethor: right, you ignorant child! Under my skilled interrogation I shall force you to spill the beans.

Pippin: I know three things about beans and will share them (under skilled interrogation, discourses for a full hour on beans, the preparation thereof, the cultivation thereof, and the Shire’s various thoughts on beans in general)

Gandalf: (pretends to be annoyed) denethor if you wanted SENSIBLE discourse on geopolitical beans I am RIGHT HERE

Denethor, fascinated: no! I already know everything you’re about to say and I’m NOT accepting criticism at this time. And I genuinely have no idea what this guy’s going to say next - do you have ANY idea how fun that is for me

Pippin: now the classic market share of baked beans inna tin belongs to Heinz, but I myself am a Branston man, because - referencing my previous statements - if you want beans, you do NOT need to faff about with a tin opener. The decision to retain the pop-top -

Gandalf: this is unbelievable. denethor, can we -

Denethor: BZT! ✋ let him cook

(Later)

Pippin: are you mad at me for talking about beans for an hour

Gandalf: it was, in a weird way, the best move on the chessboard, and so politically savvy that it furthered three of my agendas, and was also really funny to listen to. Denethor has the long sight; he is accustomed to reading the minds and hearts of men at a long distance, these long years. Actually, maybe this has jaded him as much as anything else. To meet a mind whose umwelt, whose very nature, he has not already fully plumbed is not just an act of political obfuscation on our part; for Denethor himself, could such fresh provocation burst his stagnant social bubble, and save him from being so terminally fucking online? Might we have uncovered the potential of a Theoden thematic parallel? Much to ponder. The only unfortunate bit was that you kept freezing up and looking guilty when Denethor asked you about containers

Pippin: you said not to spill any beans and I was worried he’d trip me up

Gandalf: it is, as ever, like talking to a fucking genie with you people

[lakritzwolf]

[missmollyetc]

Everybody who wears The One Ring in LOTR starts to refer to it as ‘My Precious,’ and Tolkien’s right that is super creepy, but what I really love is that everybody does it, which says to me that this super powerful scary evil sentient ring has a favorite pet name and just, like, will not respond to anything else.

[swilmarillion]

Hey uhh @piyo-13 you cant hide brilliance like these in the tags

[piyo-13]

look i’m just saying, even as educated as frodo is, would he really KNOW the true name of sauron? like shit, of any of the elves left in middle earth by the time the events of LotR actually happen, only círdan and galadriel are old enough to remember that sauron existed in valinor (not counting old sindarin/avari elves because iirc sauron was never called mairon on the shores of ara [except possibly by melkor wink wonk]), let alone what his name was. so to everyone in ME, he’s always been sauron, and there’s no connection to “precious” in any linguistic sense… but mairon remembers.

[swilmarillion]

no you’re a hundred percent right!! no one would know, and it wouldn’t make sense to anyone except maybe Gandalf, but that shredded little piece of sauron’s souls remembers

[marithlizard]

Oh, wow.   

[scarletjedi]

this is why i love lotr fandom. this right here

[shaelit]

so what you’re saying is there’s a tiny piece of sauron’s soul tucked smug into the Ring just going around introducing itself as “i’m babey”

[tuulikki]

This post has justified every second of every minute, hour, and collective day I have ever spent on Tumblr. It was all worth it for this.

[anvael]

[forest-faerie-witch]

Kinuko Y. Craft

[deadelated]

It's okay to have blatant double standards that favor women

[tragicallyunaesthetic]

[menwritetooquestionmark]

A Song for The Basilisk

In this book we follow a man with many names, but we'll call him Rook for now, who was hidden away on an island of bards, to keep him safe. But now must return to it and perhaps kill the Basilisk that haunts his nightmares.

The Basilisk in question is the Tyrant Prince whoo killed Rooks family. He's called the Basilisk in part because it's his family coat of arms and partly because people tend to freeze in fear under his gaze.

We also follow a music teacher who is helping plan an opera for the Tyrant Prince. Her lover, a tavern musician, who is helping plan a coup of the Tyrant prince. And the Daughter of the tyrant Prince, his young reflection, just as ruthless a clever as he is. The true heir to the House of the Basilisk.

This book is about music, about vengeance, and little bit about what it means to be part of a family that no longer exists.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes the fantasy and lyrical prose. I love how Patricia A. McKillip writes. It's very dreamy and vivid. (I tried my best to emulate it) Also no matter how far into the book I was I always felt like I was in the middle.

And in a sense we are we come in to witness this tumultuous time in these characters lives but they had life before the story and after it's just not in the book.

[ddeck]

i love mentally ill characters so much. i love when they make annoying, rage inducing, unreasonable and completely illogical decisions that make everything worse, hurt everyone, hinder the plot and are just genuinely hard to watch influenced by the symptoms of their mental illness. like thats so awesome. yay. yippee

[menwritetooquestionmark]

one of my new years resolutions is work on this blog again and we're gonna kick it off with

The only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones!

I'm at the halfway point and I've realized it's about an elk that goes human hunting! It's chilling and funny at the same time. At the moment I highly recommend if you're into horror and Native stories. We'll see if it sticks the landing.

Happy New Year!

[menwritetooquestionmark]

The landing was Stuck! Totally check this out if you like horror. It has what i think is the perfect mix of getting me sympathize with all the characters, victims and killers. so I was somehow dreading and rooting for every other kill.

There's a lot of insight into modern native's relationship with their ancestors and heritage. The constant external and internal racism. Cycles of cruelty. Deep stuff i don't know how to put into adequate words. Just trust me it was awesome!

This book is also low key the answer to my mom saying "Native Americans would ask the animals to choose to be hunted. so that proves the animals were okay with it."

I say this as a meat eater for most of my life. I don't think anything is okay with being killed and eaten. And I think Elk Head Woman agrees with me.

[menwritetooquestionmark]

one of my new years resolutions is work on this blog again and we're gonna kick it off with

The only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones!

I'm at the halfway point and I've realized it's about an elk that goes human hunting! It's chilling and funny at the same time. At the moment I highly recommend if you're into horror and Native stories. We'll see if it sticks the landing.

Happy New Year!

[peatbogpirate]

this one's from last year but I just started my rotk reread and this scene makes me giggle every time

[menwritetooquestionmark]

Some criticism for The Sol and Lune book duo I'm reading.

This is a poly-romance with some dub-con elements. Fairly complicated dynamics for a romance/erotica novel (at least in the first book). I found it refreshing and interesting. But I'm a bit of a narrow reader, maybe it's typical of other genres.

Book one : Our heroine is defined by her strong religious conviction to stay in her manor home and provide for the tenants of her land who haven't fled the enemy army. Said army takes over her home and sells off her stuff but doesn't kill anyone. All her actions and in-action is guided by wanting to outlast the army occupying her lands.

Book two: yeah she doesn't super care about that stuff anymore. Like she still loves the people on her land but that religious conviction vanished. Which is odd because SHE'S BEEN FUCKING BLESSED BY THE MOON GODDESS AND HAS SPEED RUN BECOMING A PRIESTESS!! And also has magic powers now.

In book one i found her really interesting and I got why the three love interests were drawn to her. She's a mostly ordinary woman living through a terrible time and trying to make the best of it. She's discovering that she likes sex (a big part of why she puts up with the army for so long) and she has all these emotional attachments to her home and her tenants and her lands. I really liked her, she's captivating in a way that's hard to describe.

Book two she's just The Special now. She the most special and wonderful woman who's ever walked the earth and everyone should love her. Her character is suddenly very bland and one note. She doesn't have anything at stake now. She wants to turn her former home into a temple but she could just pick somewhere else to do that if the war gets too bad. She has no emotional attachments there anymore. She's just kinda there. Every time the love interests talked about how special and amazing she is especially since she's become a priestess, I was just like

[menwritetooquestionmark]

And another thing!

Book two read like the author has been yelled at by readers about the rape/dubious consent in book one and is 'fixing' it in this one. I hated that! All the teeth of book one are pulled in book 2.

How are things 'fixed'? Well before the first sex scene of the books it felt like The characters turned to the reader and said "this is consensual sex. Any dub-con sex in the last book is deeply regretted by the male character and also forgiven by the female character. We will now begin the sexing."

Rinse and repeat with the two additional love interests.

[menwritetooquestionmark]

Some criticism for The Sol and Lune book duo I'm reading.

This is a poly-romance with some dub-con elements. Fairly complicated dynamics for a romance/erotica novel (at least in the first book). I found it refreshing and interesting. But I'm a bit of a narrow reader, maybe it's typical of other genres.

Book one : Our heroine is defined by her strong religious conviction to stay in her manor home and provide for the tenants of her land who haven't fled the enemy army. Said army takes over her home and sells off her stuff but doesn't kill anyone. All her actions and in-action is guided by wanting to outlast the army occupying her lands.

Book two: yeah she doesn't super care about that stuff anymore. Like she still loves the people on her land but that religious conviction vanished. Which is odd because SHE'S BEEN FUCKING BLESSED BY THE MOON GODDESS AND HAS SPEED RUN BECOMING A PRIESTESS!! And also has magic powers now.

In book one i found her really interesting and I got why the three love interests were drawn to her. She's a mostly ordinary woman living through a terrible time and trying to make the best of it. She's discovering that she likes sex (a big part of why she puts up with the army for so long) and she has all these emotional attachments to her home and her tenants and her lands. I really liked her, she's captivating in a way that's hard to describe.

Book two she's just The Special now. She the most special and wonderful woman who's ever walked the earth and everyone should love her. Her character is suddenly very bland and one note. She doesn't have anything at stake now. She wants to turn her former home into a temple but she could just pick somewhere else to do that if the war gets too bad. She has no emotional attachments there anymore. She's just kinda there. Every time the love interests talked about how special and amazing she is especially since she's become a priestess, I was just like