Bukowski’s is extremely off-putting. That’s why I had to put it up. Hemingway is great, and Whitman is my all time favorite. However the extremity of Burroughs’ picture makes my day. Not that he’s the best author of them.
Good point. Nikki’s on there, but I guess that doesn’t speak as much of a majority. I actually realized the absence of women authors and am currently making a list for an additional thread similar to this one. If I’m being honest, I tend to read more male authors than female, and this list is a result of that inclination. It’s not because of a prejudicial bias or discrimination, but because I relate more easily to male writers. Thanks for the comment!
That’s what prejudice is. It’s a man’s world, and women are forced to bend their empathies to include the opposite sex. Men don’t bother to empathize as much with women. That’s why a woman is much more likely to read a book with a male protagonist than a man is. It is for this reason that women often publish books using only the first initial of their first name. They know they will sell more copies.
I guess I should qualify; yes it’s technically prejudice. It’s prejudice in the same way that getting information from people of a similar political ideology is prejudice. I’m not a bigot or a sexist, I just prefer male authors because I’m a man. I cannot pretend to prefer a different type of literature just to erase a benign prejudice.
I agree with Christian. I do not believe it’s prejudice to admit that you prefer authors who share your gender. I generally prefer female authors and female musicians, but I am in no way prejudiced against male authors or musicians. I relate to women better because I am a woman. It is what is is.
Prejudice would be refusing to read someone’s work because of the fact that she is a woman, or his work because he is a man. I do not see prejudice or sexism here.
I disagree. Empathy is EVERYTHING when it comes to prejudice. And empathy can be learned. The only way to overcome prejudice is to acknowledge your predispositions when it comes to preferences in literature/love/whatever. Then you work to see where they stem from and how you you can overcome them. My college is probably the best known in the world for female authorship. And yet, every male writing professor I’ve had has favored the (few) males in the class. Even the guys noticed, and we once did an experiment where the girls handed in the guys’ stories and vice versa. The professor–as always–favored the stories he thought had been written by men. After we got the stories back, we told him what we had done. He was humble and kind about it. From then on, we handed in everything without a name, and he graded them blind.
I don’t want to sound like I’m attacking you, but I think it’s a real problem in the literature world. And it is one that is usually brushed aside by male readers who claim that they can’t help but relate better to their own gender. They should try harder.
What so if I’m black and I relate to James Baldwin more than Mark Twain I’m racist? Or if I’m gay and relate to Wilde better than I relate to Dickens I’m prejudiced? What about if I relate to Contemporary literature more than I relate to Modernist literature? I mean seriously think about what you’re saying. Reductio ad absurdum.
I am a female who prefers male singers and most of all the books I have read where written by male authors. I am female, and I don’t have anything against female authors, singers etc.; just that most of what I have/do read is written by men.
Does this make me a sexiest or prejudice no and I don’t feel that Christian is sexiest or prejudice either.
Christian (different xtian than blogauthor) permalink
February 27, 2010 2:55 am
I commend Christian Harder for not backing down to the “empathetic” plea.
This blog’s author simply entitled his work as “16 Great Pictures of 16 Great Authors”. There are 2 ever-evolving, immeasurable variables at work alone within this title…and, rightly so.
In, and of itself, this work is subjective and relative SOLELY to the author. If a reader should agree, then the spiderweb of human connectivity expands with a smile. If not, then the reader should move along and comprise his/her own “16 Great Pictures of 16 Great Authors”. No one, male or female, has any basis, whatsoever, to chastise. Christian was true to himself, and opened the cape of vulnerability for us all to see. Shame on you for criticizing.
I agree with Phoebe. The literary community has a big problem with sexism, racism too. As a female reader, I constantly encounter books by men that I relate to and books by women that I don’t relate to, and vice versa. It’s a fact that women are culturally conditioned to be sympathetic to men, and the opposite is not generally the case. Also, I think it’s important to remember that it’s great when you really relate to a character in a book, but it’s also great to read books written by people you have nothing in common. It’s called learning something.
i’m a woman, and sometimes i just hate women. i don’t understand why everything somehow relates to sexism or prejudice. tell me? what if this was a list of all women, and a man said, “why aren’t there any men on this list?” i guarantee the woman who made the list would reply, “oh, there has to be a man on the list? you just think this a man’s world, don’t you?”, etc. this list has nothing to do with prejudice; it’s preference.
It’s got everything to do with prejudice and if you can’t see that you should just learn to shut your mouth and think. Wait till you get discriminated against for being female…It will happen one day. But you would enjoy it, right, because you hate women, and you are one…which makes no sense.
i’ve always hated this battle of the sexes. women say they want their rights and to be treated like equals, yet women attack men to belittle them. i’m sure this sounds crazy, for i am a woman, but i just want to tell women to toughen up. to be a strong woman, we need tougher skin
Yeah, try giving birth in a third world country where women are routinely oppressed. Women are tough, we have to be. But you would know that if you were a real woman. There is no battle of the sexes, there is a overthrowing of the misogynist patriarchal world view. GET AN EDUCATION.
Me either. Some people just get so silly. I usually tend to favor male artists of any trade, but even then it just seems so petty to get so worked up over something so unimportant. I’m also a person that gives everyone a chance no matter what. For anything.
Someone needs to find the line between being a feminist, and a feminist.
I couldn’t find most of the photographers. The majority of these pictures are obscure or ancient. I did however contact the people that provided these pictures.
Whoa. For the record, I was neither attacking Christian nor his blog. I think it’s a fabulous selection of photos, which includes my all-time favorite picture of Hemingway. It is THRILLING that a blog about literature is popular in 2010. I wasn’t even criticizing the lack of women on this list. I was only pointing out that an inclination toward male authorship is a kind of prejudice. I do not deny that there are some things that will probably always divide the genders. And it is certainly understandable that people relate better to their own sex. But women have been forced to adapt to understand and relate to men. Men do not have to bend their sympathies in the same way in order to survive/succeed. I do not think it can be denied that–the name she published under, aside–had J.K. Rowling written a book called Harriett Potter, it probably wouldn’t have done nearly as well.
I’m not blaming male readers. I really do not think it is their fault. I just find it heartbreaking that my gender alienates me from 50% of the reading public. And whether or not this means I have thin skin, I believe that is unfair that when I switched stories with the star writer in my fiction class, my story earned him the best review he ever received. His story earned me one of the worst. I’m not asking men to completely disregard their preferences. That would be ridiculous. I’m just asking them to recognize–and try to challenge–their biases. Gender does not matter as much as people think. Most of the differences–particularly on the page–are merely perceived. Try reading blind. Try disregarding gender. Apart from making you a wiser, more empathetic person, you may discover a book you might otherwise have overlooked.
It is a really complicated issue, and it spans beyond racial and gender divides. Should literature be read in a vacuum? What do we gain and lose from separating text from context? To what degree should we impose an author on his/her own work? Does reading blind actually exacerbate the problem? It’s a conversation that should remain open. Because it isn’t an issue that’s going away.
You make a valid point. I cannot argue with what you say; there clearly is a male-inclined bias. It’s a sad thing, especially in the case of your misguided teacher. However, I still cannot help but to relate with males. I do do my best to read literatures of all spectrums and all genders, and I have no problem reading literature written by a female. A lot of my favorite short stories are written by women. Thank you for elucidating your point so eloquently!
Cheers. Keep doing what you’re doing. I didn’t mean to start a war on your page. I’ve been up all night writing a paper, but I spent some time procrastinating on your blog. It’s really insightful and refreshing. I was particularly surprised by your interest in the Romantic poets. I’m majoring in 18th century British poetry, and I’ve realized that college students who give a fuck about Wordsworth and Coleridge–particularly Wordsworth– are few and far between. You’ve got a really good ear for language and sophisticated and eclectic taste.
George Orwell, a brilliant man, was one of the ugliest authors in the history of literature. Every photograph of him is hideous, so much so that it makes one wonder how it affected his ideas. Burroughs, on the other end of the spectrum, was always photogenic. From his early youth (see the photos of him as a teen in Literary Outlaw) through to his very old age, he was interesting to look at. His intensity was always present.
TOG
It’s funny that you say that, because I was thinking the exact same thing! In my search for this post, I realized there are just simply no good pictures of him. Oh well, he’s still one of the greats. I love Burroughs, and I’m searching out those pictures from his youth after I type this.
Dude, great post. HST and Ginsberg are great, always looking good. And as a male reader often encountered by the everpresent controversy of female vs male authors, I can recommend Cixous to help us clarify this mess. In our literary age, women writes tend (not all, bu there is a tendency) to write in a different style than men, hence the “bias” we feel towards them. But then again, recently men have started to write in that style (Joyce) and we have begun to accept it. Personally, I prefer men especially in poetry. But I can see women writers as getting more and more strong everyday. And then again, it’s just statistics. There are more men authors than women, just as there are more female nurses and secretaries than men (I don’t hear anybody screaming sexism there and boy, are those jobs tough for anyone).
So that’s my bit. I believe the only way to surmount sexism (in any area) is to not make a big deal of it (and here I must apologize for contradicting myself, but it being my first word I must do so to clarify), and ignore. The more we talk about it, the more we strengthen the idea of difference. Just do it. And anyway, a real writer doesn’t give a ***¨who reads him. Art is immortal in itself.
Men and women are different, they see things in a different light. They express themselves, their ideas all differently, we are different! We should celebrate our differences, this is what makes things interesting.
Things become sexiest when one gender is put down and/or held back because of their gender.
Sedaris, Whitman, and Hemingway are my favorites while Wolfe just looks creepy and Bukowski is too old and gross. Great idea for a post!
Bukowski’s is extremely off-putting. That’s why I had to put it up. Hemingway is great, and Whitman is my all time favorite. However the extremity of Burroughs’ picture makes my day. Not that he’s the best author of them.
Where are the women authors? Just wondering
Good point. Nikki’s on there, but I guess that doesn’t speak as much of a majority. I actually realized the absence of women authors and am currently making a list for an additional thread similar to this one. If I’m being honest, I tend to read more male authors than female, and this list is a result of that inclination. It’s not because of a prejudicial bias or discrimination, but because I relate more easily to male writers. Thanks for the comment!
That’s what prejudice is. It’s a man’s world, and women are forced to bend their empathies to include the opposite sex. Men don’t bother to empathize as much with women. That’s why a woman is much more likely to read a book with a male protagonist than a man is. It is for this reason that women often publish books using only the first initial of their first name. They know they will sell more copies.
Here’s an example:
http://haydensferryreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/so-how-do-we-strip-away-prejudice-first.html
I guess I should qualify; yes it’s technically prejudice. It’s prejudice in the same way that getting information from people of a similar political ideology is prejudice. I’m not a bigot or a sexist, I just prefer male authors because I’m a man. I cannot pretend to prefer a different type of literature just to erase a benign prejudice.
I agree with Christian. I do not believe it’s prejudice to admit that you prefer authors who share your gender. I generally prefer female authors and female musicians, but I am in no way prejudiced against male authors or musicians. I relate to women better because I am a woman. It is what is is.
Prejudice would be refusing to read someone’s work because of the fact that she is a woman, or his work because he is a man. I do not see prejudice or sexism here.
I disagree. Empathy is EVERYTHING when it comes to prejudice. And empathy can be learned. The only way to overcome prejudice is to acknowledge your predispositions when it comes to preferences in literature/love/whatever. Then you work to see where they stem from and how you you can overcome them. My college is probably the best known in the world for female authorship. And yet, every male writing professor I’ve had has favored the (few) males in the class. Even the guys noticed, and we once did an experiment where the girls handed in the guys’ stories and vice versa. The professor–as always–favored the stories he thought had been written by men. After we got the stories back, we told him what we had done. He was humble and kind about it. From then on, we handed in everything without a name, and he graded them blind.
I don’t want to sound like I’m attacking you, but I think it’s a real problem in the literature world. And it is one that is usually brushed aside by male readers who claim that they can’t help but relate better to their own gender. They should try harder.
Bitch, shut your mouth and get back in the kitchen. Who even let you on a computer?
What so if I’m black and I relate to James Baldwin more than Mark Twain I’m racist? Or if I’m gay and relate to Wilde better than I relate to Dickens I’m prejudiced? What about if I relate to Contemporary literature more than I relate to Modernist literature? I mean seriously think about what you’re saying. Reductio ad absurdum.
I am a female who prefers male singers and most of all the books I have read where written by male authors. I am female, and I don’t have anything against female authors, singers etc.; just that most of what I have/do read is written by men.
Does this make me a sexiest or prejudice no and I don’t feel that Christian is sexiest or prejudice either.
I think the picture of Orwell stripping a sten gun would have been better than the Time cover. Love the picture of HST.
Since you already have the NSFW label, you should include this photo of Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/385710146_6803b23de1_o.jpg
Done.
That is not a cigarette in Vonnegut’s hand. It’s a joint.
Didn’t even see that. How unobservant of me. Thank you!
The Ginsberg/David Cross similarity makes the pic even more consternating.
Especially since Tobias Funke is a never-nude.
I commend Christian Harder for not backing down to the “empathetic” plea.
This blog’s author simply entitled his work as “16 Great Pictures of 16 Great Authors”. There are 2 ever-evolving, immeasurable variables at work alone within this title…and, rightly so.
In, and of itself, this work is subjective and relative SOLELY to the author. If a reader should agree, then the spiderweb of human connectivity expands with a smile. If not, then the reader should move along and comprise his/her own “16 Great Pictures of 16 Great Authors”. No one, male or female, has any basis, whatsoever, to chastise. Christian was true to himself, and opened the cape of vulnerability for us all to see. Shame on you for criticizing.
So, what is he saying? That he doesn’t value any female authors? None? None of their work has ever touched him? Pathetic
I didn’t say that. Also, read my statements instead of making outrageous, overarching accusations.
I agree with Phoebe. The literary community has a big problem with sexism, racism too. As a female reader, I constantly encounter books by men that I relate to and books by women that I don’t relate to, and vice versa. It’s a fact that women are culturally conditioned to be sympathetic to men, and the opposite is not generally the case. Also, I think it’s important to remember that it’s great when you really relate to a character in a book, but it’s also great to read books written by people you have nothing in common. It’s called learning something.
i’m a woman, and sometimes i just hate women. i don’t understand why everything somehow relates to sexism or prejudice. tell me? what if this was a list of all women, and a man said, “why aren’t there any men on this list?” i guarantee the woman who made the list would reply, “oh, there has to be a man on the list? you just think this a man’s world, don’t you?”, etc. this list has nothing to do with prejudice; it’s preference.
It’s got everything to do with prejudice and if you can’t see that you should just learn to shut your mouth and think. Wait till you get discriminated against for being female…It will happen one day. But you would enjoy it, right, because you hate women, and you are one…which makes no sense.
i’ve always hated this battle of the sexes. women say they want their rights and to be treated like equals, yet women attack men to belittle them. i’m sure this sounds crazy, for i am a woman, but i just want to tell women to toughen up. to be a strong woman, we need tougher skin
Yeah, try giving birth in a third world country where women are routinely oppressed. Women are tough, we have to be. But you would know that if you were a real woman. There is no battle of the sexes, there is a overthrowing of the misogynist patriarchal world view. GET AN EDUCATION.
Good grief. I’m a woman and I have no problem whatsoever with this list.
Me either. Some people just get so silly. I usually tend to favor male artists of any trade, but even then it just seems so petty to get so worked up over something so unimportant. I’m also a person that gives everyone a chance no matter what. For anything.
Someone needs to find the line between being a feminist, and a feminist.
Where are the credits? You know, the credit one gives to the people who actually took these pictures? Prepare for a take down order.
I couldn’t find most of the photographers. The majority of these pictures are obscure or ancient. I did however contact the people that provided these pictures.
Great set of photos. I’ve never seen that one of Whitman. Love to see a young photo of him.
Whitman is one of the best photographically portrayed authors, in my opinion. Even before there was true photography.
Whoa. For the record, I was neither attacking Christian nor his blog. I think it’s a fabulous selection of photos, which includes my all-time favorite picture of Hemingway. It is THRILLING that a blog about literature is popular in 2010. I wasn’t even criticizing the lack of women on this list. I was only pointing out that an inclination toward male authorship is a kind of prejudice. I do not deny that there are some things that will probably always divide the genders. And it is certainly understandable that people relate better to their own sex. But women have been forced to adapt to understand and relate to men. Men do not have to bend their sympathies in the same way in order to survive/succeed. I do not think it can be denied that–the name she published under, aside–had J.K. Rowling written a book called Harriett Potter, it probably wouldn’t have done nearly as well.
I’m not blaming male readers. I really do not think it is their fault. I just find it heartbreaking that my gender alienates me from 50% of the reading public. And whether or not this means I have thin skin, I believe that is unfair that when I switched stories with the star writer in my fiction class, my story earned him the best review he ever received. His story earned me one of the worst. I’m not asking men to completely disregard their preferences. That would be ridiculous. I’m just asking them to recognize–and try to challenge–their biases. Gender does not matter as much as people think. Most of the differences–particularly on the page–are merely perceived. Try reading blind. Try disregarding gender. Apart from making you a wiser, more empathetic person, you may discover a book you might otherwise have overlooked.
It is a really complicated issue, and it spans beyond racial and gender divides. Should literature be read in a vacuum? What do we gain and lose from separating text from context? To what degree should we impose an author on his/her own work? Does reading blind actually exacerbate the problem? It’s a conversation that should remain open. Because it isn’t an issue that’s going away.
You make a valid point. I cannot argue with what you say; there clearly is a male-inclined bias. It’s a sad thing, especially in the case of your misguided teacher. However, I still cannot help but to relate with males. I do do my best to read literatures of all spectrums and all genders, and I have no problem reading literature written by a female. A lot of my favorite short stories are written by women. Thank you for elucidating your point so eloquently!
Cheers. Keep doing what you’re doing. I didn’t mean to start a war on your page. I’ve been up all night writing a paper, but I spent some time procrastinating on your blog. It’s really insightful and refreshing. I was particularly surprised by your interest in the Romantic poets. I’m majoring in 18th century British poetry, and I’ve realized that college students who give a fuck about Wordsworth and Coleridge–particularly Wordsworth– are few and far between. You’ve got a really good ear for language and sophisticated and eclectic taste.
So put them in then.
It’s going to be in a different post.
Vonnegut is not smoking a cigarette by the way…. Just shows even MORE insight into his soul :-}
George Orwell, a brilliant man, was one of the ugliest authors in the history of literature. Every photograph of him is hideous, so much so that it makes one wonder how it affected his ideas. Burroughs, on the other end of the spectrum, was always photogenic. From his early youth (see the photos of him as a teen in Literary Outlaw) through to his very old age, he was interesting to look at. His intensity was always present.
TOG
It’s funny that you say that, because I was thinking the exact same thing! In my search for this post, I realized there are just simply no good pictures of him. Oh well, he’s still one of the greats. I love Burroughs, and I’m searching out those pictures from his youth after I type this.
I love this! A Loy!
http://twitter.com/ariellecohen
http://ariellecohen.wordpress.com/
great post!
I’d like to see a list of women writers but its okay, I can wait for another post.
great post!
I’d like to see a list of women writers but its okay, I can wait for another post.
http://e6n1.blogspot.com/
Dude, great post. HST and Ginsberg are great, always looking good. And as a male reader often encountered by the everpresent controversy of female vs male authors, I can recommend Cixous to help us clarify this mess. In our literary age, women writes tend (not all, bu there is a tendency) to write in a different style than men, hence the “bias” we feel towards them. But then again, recently men have started to write in that style (Joyce) and we have begun to accept it. Personally, I prefer men especially in poetry. But I can see women writers as getting more and more strong everyday. And then again, it’s just statistics. There are more men authors than women, just as there are more female nurses and secretaries than men (I don’t hear anybody screaming sexism there and boy, are those jobs tough for anyone).
So that’s my bit. I believe the only way to surmount sexism (in any area) is to not make a big deal of it (and here I must apologize for contradicting myself, but it being my first word I must do so to clarify), and ignore. The more we talk about it, the more we strengthen the idea of difference. Just do it. And anyway, a real writer doesn’t give a ***¨who reads him. Art is immortal in itself.
Peace from México
This is a fantastic response. Thank you sir. I hope you weather is warmer than ours.
Men and women are different, they see things in a different light. They express themselves, their ideas all differently, we are different! We should celebrate our differences, this is what makes things interesting.
Things become sexiest when one gender is put down and/or held back because of their gender.