Carrie,
Re your comments below, it's not absolutely clear to me
whether you actually believe what you're saying, or you're
just being playful and bantering and I'm taking my self too
seriously to see it.
If your comments are meant seriously (in which case they come
uncomfortably close to being a "flame," though I suppose I
may not be objective enough to make that judgment), and you
really do believe I'm some kind of gender bigot, I'll try to
respond:
> Gee, do you have a visceral reaction to
female
> doctors and lawyers too . . .
As it happens, my personal physician is a woman. She also
(lest I be accused of xenophobia as well as gender bigotry)
is foreign-born. My wife and I didn't choose her for either
of these reasons. She just happens to be a great
doctor.
Before I moved to the Midwest, my doctor in California was
also a woman and (to forestall any accusations of racial
bigotry) African-American. Again, I didn't choose her for
either of these reasons. She just happened to be an excellent
practitioner of a specialty I needed at that time.
I have no idea what their political opinions are, and it
makes no difference to me, since I'm not hiring them as
political commentators, but as medical practitioners.
Over the years I have also consulted, or worked with, woman
lawyers.
If I ever had need of a private detective, I wouldn't pick
one on the basis of gender, or race, or ethnic background, or
religious belief, but on the basis of professional
competence.
I specifically drew a line between real-life and the
"fantasy world" of the traditional PI figure. I'm aware of
the fact that there are real-life female PIs.
In fact there have been women PIs for almost as long as
the profession has existed. Allan Pinkerton regarded a female
undercover specialist who worked for him for over twenty
years as one of his most effective operatives. This
historical figure ( whose name escapes me at the moment)
became the model for Bill Pronzini's Sabina Carpenter
character in a series of historical mysteries he
writes.
I was talking about the traditional "fantasy figure" PI, and
all I did was maintain that, since that figure is
traditionally male, and, moreover, is traditionally male
because the traditional fantasy was created predominantly by
males for a predominantly male audience, a note of dissonance
ensues when that figure becomes female.
If that's gender bigotry, so be it.
> only the ones with strident offensive
left-wing
> agendas?
The "strident, left-wing agenda" comment referred
specifically to the works of Sara Paretsky. Let me make my
self clear. While I'm not totally indifferent to the
political opinions of novelists, those opinions are less
important to me than the ability to write a story that I
enjoy reading. If the political commentary becomes the main
end of the novelist, then it becomes offensive because it
detracts from the novel, whether or not I happen to agree
with those opinions.
One of the things I disliked about avowed John Bircher
Elizabeth Linnington (aside from the fact that she wrote
police procedurals without knowing anything about police
procedure), was that all too often, her books became thinly
disguised propaganda for her political opinions, getting in
the way of her story.
By contrast, this was rarely a problem readers encountered
with Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, both avowed Marxists. Their
opinions were evident, but not so obtrusive that they got in
the way of the story.
Ms. Paretsky, in my view, has created a character who exists
more to push the author's agenda than to move the action of
the stories she appears in. Others may disagree. If they
enjoy her books, more power to them. I don't, quite apart
from V.I. Warshawski's being a woman ( except insofar as her
being a woman is an integral part of the author's
agenda).
> Since when does admitting that something is
a
> prejudice make it a less
> offensive statement? How about if I say: "I admit
I
> have a prejudice
> against blacks (gays, Hispanics, disabled
people)
> appearing in PI novels.
> The genre is based on a white (straight,
Anglo,
> non-disabled) fantasy and
> this new (meaning introduced since 1940,
apparently)
> breed of PI may give me
> reading pleasure but just doesn't fell *right*
to
> me, somehow, on a visceral
> level."
I think it was very clear that I didn't mean
"prejudice" in that sense.
In the first place, I specifically excluded characters, like
Joe Gores's Giselle Marc (based on real-life PI Ronile Lahti,
one of Gores's co-workers during his PI days), who appear in
novels that are
*not* embracing the traditional PI fantasy.
Characters like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, Maxine
O'Callaghan's Delilah West, and Sara Paretsky's VI Warshwski
are all specifically designed to fit into the traditional
"fantasy PI" paradigm (i.e. 30-ish unmarried ex-cops [or
offspring of cops], 1st person narrators, operating
one-person businesses, in large US cities, tough, principled,
etc., etc.) except in one important respect: they are women.
This introduces a note of dissonance. In fact, I would argue
that the introduction of this note of dissonance is
deliberate.
Now if you really think that recognizing this note of
dissonance, and having to readjust to it, makes me a gender
bigot than nothing I can say will convince you otherwise, but
if I've managed to introduce at least a spark of doubt about
my unraised consciousness, let me draw a few analogies that
might illustrate what I was trying to say.
Rock-n-roll and classic symphonies are two different kinds of
music. One might enjoy both, but will come to each with
differing expectations. If one hears a symphonic composition
rearranged as a rock tune, or a rock song rearranged for
symphonic performance, the music will not meet those
expectations. The resulting performances may be very
enjoyable, but the listener is going to have to readjust
his/her expectations in order to enjoy them.
Novels are almost always written in the past tense. Novels
like Turow's *Presumed Innocent* or Winslow's
*Calif. Fire & Life*, written in the present tense, may
be enjoyable, but the reader is going to have to readjust
his/her expectations in order to enjoy them.
Romance stories and confession stories are almost always
written from the point of view of a female character. If one
writes a romance or confession from the male POV, it may be
very enjoyable, but the reader is going to have to readjust
his/her expectations in order to enjoy it.
I don't want to belabor this. If you still choose to believe
that I'm an intolerant bigot, I can say no more to defend
myself from that charge. Believe of me what you will. *Say*
of me what you will.
But in the interests of keeping Rara-Avis a collegial forum,
believe them and say them in private, out of my
hearing.
JIM DOHERTY
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