a while ago i started almost exclusively reading books by women writers. i don’t think it was a conscious decision so much as i’m just more interested in female writers. it is women that i care about the most. i want to support their work, read their words, see their perspective, share in their experiences.
when i look at my goodreads ‘read’ books, there are a few men in there, guillaume morrissette, richard brautigan, scott mcclanahan, ben lerner, richard chiem. but for the most part it is women. it’s not that i don’t think men aren’t good writers, if i want to read a book by a man i will, for instance i want to read 'wolf in a white van’ by john darnielle, because his music affected me a lot in my teens and i’m curious to read it. i just read 'lion attack!’ by oliver mol and i really enjoyed it. there are some male writers i used to like but have changed my tune on, murakami for example. it simply doesn’t interest me anymore. i will only read male writers that i’ve felt have proved themselves to me. i will give considerations for the males that i know and love of course.
i read a passage in 'heroines’ by kate zambreno that made me laugh: “the entire history of western literature is dominated by absolute pricks, i realise, pricks that can’t get hard but yet ejaculate with such eloquent language.”
reading about the male-dominated history of literature makes me aware of the special attention we need to give to female writers, who for so long were shunned from the literary world, being seen only as muses or “raw material” for their male counterparts. this is our time!!! in my own little world i barely even consider male writers, i just kind of forget they exist, all i see are woman writers, doing important and exciting things.
not only is it important to read books by woman, it is important to read books by woman of colour. a lot of us probably had literary upbringings that reinforced homogeneous, white experiences, when there are so many other non-western and non-white perspectives that were ignored. that’s why it’s important to read widely, so that we expose ourselves to the perspectives that are different from our own in order to understand the world better.
suggestions for books we can read and thoughts welcome
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
discoholicmusic
