March 29th, 2007
by
Liz Henry
I’m reading Inkspell, and find myself curiously touched by just three words in it. In Inkspell, the sequel to Inkheart, a girl named Meggie and her family are obsessed with books and stories, and are deeply engaged in a particular important book, Inkheart. At the end of Book One, Meggie starts to write her own stories, some of them set in the world of Inkheart.
At the beginning of Inkspell, Meggie copies out a story that’s based on Inkheart, one written basically by a bad-guy magician, and adds three words: “And the girl.”
She writes herself into the story. That’s so damn cool.
Yesterday I was just reading The Mad Scientists’ Club to my kid, and I had to keep stopping to point out the sexism, and I thought of my own reading of that book when I was little, and how hard I had to try to write myself into the story, though it was impossible to be in that Club with Henry and Jeff and Mortimer and Homer and Dinky. Women and girls in their story scream, are sexy and incompetent, don’t understand science, or bake pies in a cow-like haze, while boys build cool toys and mess about on their ham radios.
Tonight, I put down Inkspell for a minute and just laid there in the bathtub, thinking of my whole lifetime of reading books and stories, and of the many times I’ve had to add, “And the girl.”
How much nicer if it were “And the girls” — plural — of course.
Then I was struck by another, happier epiphany, one of gratitude towards all the people who have written girls and women into stories I can love – stories where I’m already there. More of that please – for *all* women!
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Filed under Books & Literature, female characters | Comments (13)
Sounds very cool. And the author’s name is “Cornelia Funke” which must be pseudonym because the name is damn cool, too. (I had the same experience with the Mad Scientists Club! Very frustrating because otherwise I loved them.) And the Three Investigators, also geeky boys, with a cool headquarters in the junkyard … Alvin Fernald … Danny Dunn. (Although there was a girl in Danny Dunn who was okay, I think, and Alvin Fernald had a little sister.) Sigh.
(Come to think of it I loved those boy-centered science-y books so much it’s not surprising I married a scientist instead of becoming one. It’s just surprising perhaps that she’s a girl. But she’s got that nerdy boy/butch thing down pat. … I’m just glad she doesn’t solve mysteries on the side.)
This is pretty much the same impulse which leads thousands (…probably millions, really) of girls to write fanfics featuring self-insertion characters which are later denounced as Mary Sues.
Yeah, that’s one huge reason why I don’t like Mary-Sue bashing!
This post and another recent trip down memory lane inspired me to dig thru some of my middle school / high school journals, and all the little stories and poems I was writing back in the day … and to think back on all the fanfic I was writing with my best friend (although I’m not sure the term “fanfic” was current in the early 80s, and we certainly didn’t know it).
And I’ve been thinking a lot, this last year or so, about the copy instinct: the fact that we clever little monkeys learn by copying. (Of course I’ve been often thinking about this fact in terms of copyright.) And how many writers get their start basically doing derivative fanfic/slash, and then go on to do other stuff that is also more-or-less derivative of everything else ever written. And how fanfic is a training exercise in writing for so many people — it has many other functions, too, of course, but that’s certainly one of them. And to what extent all writing is somewhat autobiographical …
and none of this is revealing any brilliant insights, it’s all just swirling around in there, making me reflect …
It’s not just copying. It’s taking part in the popular culture around you. Everyone’s take on it will be different, but the popularity of culture, the joint effort in creating it, is crucial to its transmission to the next generation. And the social pressures that shape this heritage also influence who will be disinherited by it.
[...] other internets, Liz Henry reflects on how powerful three words can be in her post “And the girl” on Feminist SF – The Blog! And Amy Reads is wrapping up her Super Spectacular Women’s [...]
Of course no women have ever written books with only female characters. You guys should get over yourselves, and instead of looking around for signs of the oppressive world, crack on regardless and while doing your own thing, let others do theirs.
Seriously, this patriachy you all complain about?, it is merely another aspect of HUMANS being selfish. People are selfish, and leverage their belonging to a group into power over other groups.
The “Patriarchy” didn’t do much good for male slaves in the USA in the 1700s. It isn’t the magic charm you wish it was.
I sympathise with ANY group on the underneath of a pile, but would have a LOT more sympathy for you, if the very first thing feminists didn’t do THEMSELVES is that very human “leverage their belonging to a group into power over other groups”.
You have seen the enemy, and he is you.
Flame:
Hey, jackass, what is all this “the very first thing feminists … do” ? Are you suggesting that this blog is the first thing feminists have done? Don’t you think that writing books, writing fanfiction, gaining the right to vote, fixing illiberal laws that support and justify control over women by men, and so on, count? Or is it just that you hate to hear people actually pointing out issues that you failed to see? Do yourself a favor and don’t bother writing until you actually have something to say.
End of flame.
Hmmm… riiiight… wishing for more female hero-characters is really really super oppressive to men, I get it now, thanks for explaining! OMG if only I had had more men like you, Tigger, to school me in life’s lessons!
*snark*
*tongue sticking out* (*oppressively*)
*totally not into “civility on the internet” at this particular moment*
I have been a life long supporter of equality, my very first act of enfrancishment was to help the other New Zealanders like myself extend the rights we all expect, to homosexuals, I marched against the Springbox tours at 16 and got myself arrested for my trouble. I was raised to treat women with the same dignity as I expect to be treated with.
none of which escapes the fact that as soon as three women (people) get together in a position of leverage, they commit EXACTLY the same sins as men do, because of course, we are all people and have our own agendas, which are ABSOLUTELY selfish bye and large.
We have a female prime minister, attourny general, minister of police, welfare, and education. Ansd guess what girls, they are just selfish humans, and driving through legislation for their interests.
And the power behind them is women and men that , like you here, have convinced yourselves to be devisive, and that all your troubles stem from the “Patriachy” when really there is no such thing. You should stop looking for a label to place your blame on MEN through, and get to grips with the fact that you, and men, are all just selfish PEOPLE at heart, and it is selfish devisive IDEOLOGIES with names like “Feminisim” and “Conservatisim” that purpetuate the discrimination.
Every time you write “Patriachy” you do me a very real dis-service, for my lifetime of support of ALL our rights. Being, writing about, spending your days “Supporting one another in” “feminism” when you should instead be humanists. YOU divide yourselves from ME when you say “Feminist”, and why?. To serve YOUR purposes, instead of ALL our purpose.
“Feminst” is just a more palatable term for you to use for your self-interest, what you really ought to admit with your label is you are Chauvinists. Right thinking people in the western world did something about the chauvinists that kept your and my grandmothers subservient. You should do something about the new breed, because it is you.
Tigger, go read Feminism 101 before you come back here and comment again. (That will take you some time both to read and digest, so I don’t expect to see you back here any time in 2007.) Begin with Why was I sent to this blog?, and, under Specific Issues, read Isn’t “the Patriarchy” just some conspiracy theory?. After that, read everything else on that blog, and the recommended reading, and, in short, educate yourself into sounding like a better person.
Liz, did you know there’s a movie based on Inkheart that’s in post-production right now?
[...] other internets, Liz Henry reflects on how powerful three words can be in her post “And the girl” on Feminist SF – The Blog! And Amy Reads is wrapping up her Super Spectacular Women’s [...]