Friday, August 25, 2006

Friday's Book Thought

"It's like if a young woman writes it, then it's chick lit. We don't care if she's slaying vampires or working as a nanny or living in Philadelphia. It's chick lit, so who cares? You know what we call what men write? Books."

Jennifer Weiner
quoted in the New York Observer

3 comments:

Lindsey Lou said...

To be fair, there are certain books written by females that don't take a lot of mental processing in order to read and enjoy. (I'm sure there are male writers who also qualify - sci fi/fantasy, anyone?) Not all female writers write "chick lit." Patricia Cornwell, Sandra Brown, even Nora Roberts come to mind. "Chick lit" is called by a fluffy name because it's fluffy stuff, usually. What is interesting is that the Jennifer Weiner book I read was not what I would consider fluff. No wonder she's pissed about it.

Lindsey Lou said...

Oh, and I meant to add that I've never heard Patricia Cornwell, Sandra Brown, or even Nora Roberts referred to as "chick lit."

Kym said...

I agree with what you are saying but male writers don't have the same title associated with them, nor will they ever. What would we even call it? Dick lit? Eventhough some female writers are mainly fiction they are typed chick lit which is unfortunate because it may mean that many men would be turned off by it. I think its sad how narrow minded some people really are and I also think its sad that our society feels the need to classify a book into one genre instead of many.