Well, here I am. I’ve read books by white male authors before. Loads of them. I’ve read like…five. Or six. Yeah, I haven’t read every single book written by a white dude, but I’ve read the back cover copy on a few novels, and I went to a movie adapted from a Nicholas Sparks book, so I think I have a pretty good handle on the kinds of stories white male authors are putting out there.
I can do better.
I mean, think about it. White male authors haven’t given us anything new or fresh in a while. We need a braver, bigger voice, from someone who isn’t afraid to blaze new trails and really challenge the way we think about white male literature.
When was the last time you read a book by a white male author that had a real, kick-ass female character? And when I say kick-ass, I don’t mean well-rounded and capable of taking care of herself. I’m talking a female character who’s physically perfect and super strong, but carrying around some irreparable emotional damage. Maybe there’s a guy in her life who’s not as tough as she is, but she’ll need him. He’s the only one who’ll be able to heal her heart, and make her a whole woman again. You can bet you’ll see that fresh take in my novel. I’m not afraid to make that leap.
Of course, I might go a different way. I might center the story around a twenty-something guy having a quarter-life crisis. Can you imagine that? He doesn’t know where he’s going, and he has a lot of choices he has to make. Who’s going to help him? Um, why not that wacky girl who works at the record store and colors her hair with Sharpies? She wears a-line dresses and has bangs that fall into her eyes. She’ll change my protagonist’s life by showing him how to let go of his anxieties, let go of his therapist and probably the sexy older professor he’s banging back at college. By the time the story ends, he’ll be hanging upside down on monkey bars to subtly illustrate for the reader that he’s finally found a new perspective.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: why should anyone listen to me? I’ve never written a white male author’s book before. But I put some real consideration into this decision. Unless my beta-reader’s aunt–the high-profile literary agent–happens to see my book and finds something marketable about it, I’m going to self-publish this revolutionary work. It’s going to be far too controversial and outside-the-box for a traditional publishing house or their audience. People aren’t going to get this book. It’s just too edgy. But people didn’t “get” Moby-Dick when it first came out, either (speaking of which, Moby-Dick? I don’t want to be passive aggressive here, but my book is going to blow that P.O.S. out of the water).
I guess the thing we really have to remember here is that, despite having an overall uninformed opinion of the white male style of writing, I’m pretty sure I can barge right in and do it better than all the chumps who aren’t six degrees separated from a six-figure contract by stroke of pure networking luck. After all, if traditional publishing, that institution that strives to present only the most original and artistic takes, finds my novel marketable, that’s truly a sign that I’ve broken the mold. Even if I clearly demonstrate that I’m not sure what the mold is shaped like, or used for. Jell-o, maybe? Ice cubes?
Meh, I can do it better, anyway.
I love it! I’d read the shit out of your novel.
Wow. His agent doesn’t sound much better. What the hell was that line about The Hunger Games? Did she even read them?
@ Megan M: That’s what surprises me, too. I can understand an author who hasn’t read much in a genre being clueless about it, but an agent who specializes in children’s/YA lit?!
It’s interesting that “YA Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Bourne Identity, with a dash of Homeland” name-checks only franchises aimed at adults. Is this book actually intended for teenagers, or does it just happen to have a 17-year-old heroine?
I thought that too . . . all of those are missing some fundamental elements that make YA work for its intended audience, in my opinion?
Also Megan M. here. I didn’t understand whether the publicist meant that the premise of The Cruelty was more believable than the Hunger Games, or that The Cruelty was easier to stomach. Someone in this comment chain already pointed out that the second interpretation would contradict one of the main selling points in the book. If it’s the first, though, I have this to say: Wouldn’t law enforcement be looking for a diplomat? I’m sure the book gives a reason why a 17-year-girl was more competent than law enforcement, or why it made sense for some agency to train her instead of relying on the field agents they already had, or how her father’s disappearance was part of a conspiracy and she’s the only one she can trust to find him. But if this book was trying to do a more down-to-earth premise, wouldn’t the father have been someone that no one (good, besides his own family) would look for? Like an undocumented immigrant, or someone with crushing gambling debt, or a former Honduran gang member. Just sayin’ – lots of options for believable, real world premises, but none of them are this.
The line about the Hunger Games made me giggle snort not least because it completely contradicts the dickheads earlier asinine comment about his work being more morally ambiguous than other YA. What a crock of shit I say and yet another example of a man wandering into a genre, exploiting his privilege to the max and then declaring himself the new wonder/cutting edge/genius on the block. Correct me if I’m wrong (meds are messing with my memory) but it seems like not that long ago when we were reading almost the exact same commentary from a dude who wrote a romance novel? All I can say is it’s clear they don’t hear themselves because if they did they’d know it was time to pull their heads out of their asses.
Is it this guy by chance? http://jennytrout.com/?p=8460
Sooo… Taken, with the roles reversed so the father is abducted and the daughter has to come save him? Sounds legit! I mean, every 17 year old can just poof themselves into the criminal underworld and start slamming heads together, right?
Taken 2 in other words?
Heh. I love it!
That book in the link sounds like a pretty typical YA book to me. Obviously this guy hasn’t read hardly any YA books, because there are many with moral ambiguity, graphic violence, and dark themes.
Insulting a whole genre is one of the worst things you can do if you want to sell in that genre. I love how the commenters on that article are totally not going to take that shit from the author and are all swearing they won’t read his book.
So, here’s an excerpt from this groundbreaking work of literature:
https://twitter.com/DianaUrban/status/669514935622209538
Wow. I can tell that teenage girls are going to LOVE this book. /sarcasm. Seriously, talking down to teenagers and insulting their tastes will drive them away from your work like nothing else. Don’t do this.
A few excerpts from an interview with the author:
“It was all princess-this, Barbie-that. It was almost a satire of femininity. My wife—a very strong, highly-motivated attorney—was appalled too. What century were we living in if the feminine ideal little girls learned about was still a woman in a pink dress and a nineteen inch waist? I decided to create a female heroine who was the opposite of all that—a young, strong female who discovers real heroism within herself.”
Don’t do this either. Girls and women can kick butt AND like pink and dresses (see Buffy, any Personally, I HATE when people equal girly interests with being dumb or weak, and it’s one of my biggest pet peeves with books.
“I knew I wanted to create a strong heroine for The Cruelty, the opposite of the cheerleader-prom queen. She starts as a lonely, introverted girl, bullied by her prettier, richer classmates. After her father is kidnapped she transforms herself into a cunning, strong warrior. This transformation is critical to The Cruelty, and readers have told me it’s what makes this book stand out from other thrillers.”
Oh fuck me. This is stupid. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
“What troubles me about so much of today’s fiction aimed at young adults is that its set in an imaginary time and place. But if you take a look at the real world—the things happening today in, for example, Ukraine—you’ll see that dystopian future is really the dystopian present.”
Okay, Mr. Self-Important – do you have the same sneering opinion about literature for adults set in imaginary times or places? Do 1984, Brave New World, or The Handmaid’s Tale have nothing to offer because they’re set in dystopian societies? What about Lord of the Rings – is it just about wizards and elves and hobbits, or does it have something more to say?
He doesn’t even get the subway right. I used to live in Queens, and the underground part is one of the LEAST rocking-back-and-forth portions of it. I used to put on my mascara there on my way to auditions.
The El, on the other hand….
And to add to your subway critique – you NEVER lean on the door. The recording tells people AT EVERY STOP to not lean on the door.
It may seem picky, but seriously as someone who takes the subway every day that shook me out of the story immediately. I’m guessing this rich idiot has never even been on a train.
But woo thanks for passing along dangerous info to young readers as your heroine stupidly leans against the door.
Oops. I meant to say “Girls and women can kick butt AND like pink and dresses (see Buffy, any Tamora Pierce novels)”.
What a mixed message. Don’t be TOO thin because ew, who likes that, but don’t you DARE be fat. Gotta up hold the Fantasy of Being Thin!
I think there’s also an element of ‘be thin (and conventionally attractive), but don’t put any actual *work* into being thin. No one likes a girl who’s always counting calories! (But god forbid a woman be fat)’
I… am finding it hard, off the top of my head, to think of any book where the pretty cheerleader is actually the FMC. But I can think of a lot that have introverted, nerdy girls, because that’s the kind the audience can most relate to.
Has this guy ever read any YA published in the last few years?
The MC in the Nevermore trilogy is a cheerleader. MCs in Some Girls Are, Cracked Up to Be, and Before I Fall are popular girls, or former popular girls, and they’re all morally ambiguous, often not very likeable (the MCs of Some Girls Are and Before I Fall are bullies).
Ugh. This guy. This fucking guy. This is not a new idea- and you can bet there won’t be any real diversity in this book- the girl will be a skinny upper middle class white girl. She’ll angst about not being pretty/rich/whatever enough compared to the cheerleader bitches, and land a hot guy by the end of the book, whom she’ll also angst about.
I’m so sick of people shitting on feminine things- Barbie (which I love despite the toy’s…problems), pink (which is a flattering color on everybody) and cheerleading. Cheerleading is a fun sport that fosters community and competitiveness like any other sport. And the whole bitchy cheerleader trope needs to die. It’s so boring.
I like makeup. I like baking, and sewing, and babies, and hair bows. I also like rock climbing and zip lining and hiking. This is pretty normal for teenage girls, and to paint feminine things as bad is just going to alienate the audience. Annoyingly, this mindset of “I’m so cool, I don’t like girly stuff!” is way too common.
*raises hand* I actually look terrible in most shades of pink unless they’re a lot more purple, or very very dark. Washes me out something fierce.
Yeah I have rosacea (sp?) which gives me very red cheeks. Pink looks horrible on me.
Aw. My face is pink, so I just roll with it.
(@Jemmy but nesting is a jerk) I’m VERY pale, but something about light pink with my hair/colouring just doesn’t work. Really deep jewel tones can be nice, but pink isn’t my colour.
I went to one high school where the cheerleaders were actually pretty nice. They used to stretch out with the gymnastic team, and some tried to do both (which was very difficult, given scheduling).
The student council, on the other hand….
At my school, it was the volunteering club. The people in that club were backstabbing little thieves.
It’s the “not like other girls” mindset. Girls are a huge and diverse group, and there’s no one right way to be a girl. This isn’t anything revolutionary, it’s basic Feminism 101. And this guy doesn’t get it. He’s regurgitating the same bullshit stereotypes that girls and women have heard a thousand times over, but he thinks he deserves back-patting and cookies for being oh so original.
The character’s definitely white, but there’s a nonsensical and cringe-worthy line about how she looks a little “ethnic” under her pastiness.
But she’s dyeing her hair FIRE-ENGINE RED! So that makes her *different*. You know, like in Jenny’s brilliant rant about “that wacky girl who works at the record store and colors her hair with Sharpies?” because WHO would ever think of making his heroine a Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl?
I dunno, Chickies, maybe we should leave innovative writing to the Big Boys.
Apparently the MC is slightly overweight, so there’s that. However she turns herself into a lean warrior. So all kinds of problematic message there. Commentors under the article are taking him tot ask for that.
He’s a marketing guy and it’s a marketing ploy. Sure, the publishers and the studio heads love it, but will the YA market, or anybody else? Old story: pet supply manufacturer comes up with new dog food: scientists developed the formula, nutritionists approved it, advertisers promote it, ad campaign wins prestigious awards–but it’s a failure. Company scratches its collective head, til a lowly factory workers says, “Problem is, the dogs don’t like it.”
As I wrote above, no, I don’t think this book will sell well to teenagers. I’m seeing nothing but negative responses from readers, bloggers, and other YA authors.
Oh, I forgot to post a link to the interview I quoted from: http://thepenmuse.net/2014/03/20/interview-author-cruelty-s-bergstrom/.
Maybe it will appeal to the people who think an action movie isn’t complete without Megan Fox (or a low-budget alternative) or who used to read Continuity Comics’ “Samuree” when they were in middle school. It seems awfully calculated to me, and I think even younger readers without an extensive basis for comparison will pick up on its hollow core.
What kills me is the books numbers aren’t even in properly, yet there’s already talks of movie deals.
Ahahaha! I love all the comments on that article! They are not swallowing that bs!
It reads like one big brag fest.
And yeah, I can only join those that say they lost interest as soon as they displayed totally not having understood the Hunger Games books. And putting down the genre is you’re writing in is just dumb.
Also worth noting: that one person who goes answering one comment after the other to valiantly defend the man’s work… %D
I hadn’t seen that yet! Oi!
Lol I commented and there’s like one dude who’s all “BUT BUT BUT WE DON’T KNOW THE CONDITIONS SHE’S IN MAYBE THAT’S WHY SHE’S LOST WEIGHT.”
I had to respond to one of her rants. If the heroine has time and money to dye her hair, she has time and money to find some damn food. And if she’s trying to save her dad, becoming that weak by not eating is a bass ackwards way of going about it.
Omg that was you! I was like fuming and I wanted to wait until I was collected enough to respond and then you responded and saved the day. <3
If she’s trying to save her Dad, why is she dying her hair fire-engine red at all? Wouldn’t she want to blend in as an ordinary, frumpy-looking tourist until she’s ready to make her move? Oh wait: she has to look like a superhero.
Actually, it’s odd he sneers at princesses, because the whole bullied Cinderella thing WAS used in the Princess Diaries, in addition to all those fairy-tales.
Breaking the mold, my left glute. This is writing-by-the-numbers. “Mean classmates to stand in for Ugly Stepsisters? Check.”
@ ViolettaD: Yeah, I was wondering that about the hair, too. Why would you want to be totally obvious like that?
Not to mention what a PITA to maintain red hair once you’ve dyed it.
She’s traveling through cities, not roughing it in the wilderness, so she shouldn’t lack for food at all.
I mean, not to be gross or personal, but I have various urban friends who literally do their grocery shopping in dumpsters. I think the movement is called “freeganism” or something, but if you pass through a reasonably well-off suburb it’s not that hard to do.
I read the first couple of pages on Amazon and the character is described as having fire-engine red hair there while in school. Either the ‘dyed’ part is wrong or her hair was already dyed that colour.
Wait, when I view that page, it says they’re aren’t any comments. Did this idiot just try to delete his own controversy?
Probably not HIM, but whoever owns the blog. The entire thing has been a clear advertisement op, so of course they’d bury the embarrassing ACTUAL responses: how else will he be able to say in his next interview “the reviews of readers and critics so far have been amazing!”
Yeah, because that always works, without fail. Everyone will just accept this and forget it ever happened. God damn it people, this isn’t going to help! When will people learn that the internet is forever?
Argh, “Bergstrom’s heroine is Gwendolyn Bloom, a Jewish, slightly overweight 17-year-old, who is transformed into a “lean warrior with hair dyed fire-engine red.””
Come on, why can’t she just stay chubby with mousy hair and still be a warrior? Then maybe you’d be onto something different, Mr. Bergstrom.
Because they’re trying to tap into the “Run, Lola, Run” market.
I thought it was more inspired by the time Sydney Bristow wore a red wig.
Seriously. It would be more original, too – there are a lot more “lean red haired warriors” than chubby mousy haired ones.
Whoops! I sarcastically said that the character was probably a skinny WASP. The fact that he came so close to breaking the mold and U turned into boring town is disappointing.
I remain forever thankful that the heroine of the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy does loose a lot of weight (understandable when you spend significant time trekking through a desert with limited food), but is explicitly stated as just not having the body type to ever be “thin.” And she’s okay with that.
Urgh, this got me too. How obnoxious.
Exactly my point. Perhaps he was going for the whole the hero’s-journey-transforms-internally-and-physically thing. Which is not all that different. Granted even if he had kept her as a mousy haired chubby warrior, still not original. Mainly cause that’s a tried and true fantasy trope. Although, I think this only applies to male fantasy protagonists.(I could be wrong though), so maybe making applying this to a female might be different.
‘One of the girls behind me says, “Jesus, what a snob.” She draws the words out, adding a roll of her eyes for effect.
I turn and see it’s Astrid Foogle.’
[quote from bit.ly/1OgnoDT via @DianaUrban on twitter]
so i guess we’re getting more of the omnipotent when convenient first-person POV crap. how did you see her eyes roll _before_ turning to see who it is?
So I’ve tried to read the first chapter, made it to page 6.
What the hell? She gets so much hate, for being chubby and… bi-lingual? Besides the “All rich kids are evil”-trope, don’t those filthy rich children go to international schools? Where most of their peers are bi-lingual? Why on earth should they be jealous and hateful for something like this? Bullshit.
I am looking at his name, sounds Scandinavian. He should now about being bi-lingual, most people there speak English, as well as their mother tongue. Your brain switching into the language last used is not unusual. It can be annoying for others, but this level of hate for it?
And don’t get me started with the: I am chubby, so I hate myself and so does everyone else.
He opened the Pandora’s box of stereotypes and now we shall praise him? *yuck*
Cool that an author wants to branch out from their comfort zone, and great that he’s excited about it, but geeze dude, don’t diss the genre, especially when you’re a new kid. And especially when the descriptions sounds like a fairly basic bitch of a novel.
LOL too at The Hunger Games diss.
Adding: while this isn’t totally relevant to the discussion, The Hunger Games did one thing I don’t see enough books do: it got into the price the characters paid for their survival. Too many books gloss over how traumatic events really mark you.
“fairly basic bitch of a novel” *snort* That is gold!!!
But… the female protagonist is ALWAYS physically perfect in EVERY book ever written by a straight man. In fact, they make sure to stress how sexy she is, and how everything she says and does is done “seductively” and she ALWAYS ends up with the male protagonist in the end, after he saves her from some bullshit she could have and should have saved herself from. What on earth is so wrong with a woman being over forty, unattractive, overweight, aggressive, a mother, or any combination of these? Apparently it’s not acceptable for a female protagonist to be a REAL woman, and yet, it’s perfectly fine for a male protagonist to be a fat, old, ugly asshole. Sorry, but the double standards of fiction really PISS me off.
That’s actually kind of creepy when the protagonist is under 18. I’m not too sure I like aggressive protagonists, though. I tend to find them annoying, male or female.
Yeah, this is YA novel though. In most YA novels the female heroine is usually and outcas/unattractive or something.
I would like to petition that you review this book –
https://twitter.com/DianaUrban/status/669514935622209538
I say drop Apolonia if you need to. These smug male writers encroaching in romance/YA
(just because they know it’s a cash cow) deserve it.
Please please PLEASE, Jenny.
Operative word here being “smug,” not male. Jay Asher’s “13 Reasons” is rightly praised. But then, Asher is, um, a writer. Not a marketing guy who thinks he can rise above the very niche he intends to exploit.
I have to second this. The review would practically write itself!
My favourite author was Terry Pratchett. He was amazing, especially his Tiffany Aching series, which had some real kick-ass female leads (Mostly witches, so they had to be kick-ass).
Oh God, the Discworld books are BRILLIANT.
Fist pump for Terry Pratchet! His witches were all so bad ass, I want to Granny Weatherwax when I grow up.
Augh.
Practically speaking, if you became a warrior of any kind, you’d end up a bit like the lady knights Tamora Pierce writes: not really that distinguishable at first glance from the dude knights, what with all the armor and scars and enormous muscles.
They didn’t drop weight. They became like, body builders. And it took years of hard work, all day hard work, which seems kind of an impractical timeline to rescue someone from kidnappers. After a few days, don’t the odds of getting someone back alive drop to almost nothing?
Jeeze, Jenny. You had me worried for a whole minute there!
I was actually a lot happier thinking that maybe you WERE going to write a novel like that, than I was after I clicked the link and read the real story.
Everyone has already commented the thoughts in my head. But URGH, who the fuck disses the Hunger Games for being complex and uncomfortable and then thinks they have a clue how to write for Young Adult audiences. It’s like his character has a good wholesome story line, and that’s something to be proud of.
But really can you write a white dude novel please Jenny? I have found myself avoiding books and music written by white dudes for a number of years now (I tend to find them boring) maybe you could give me that main stream feeling?
Didn’t they already make a film that was like The Bourne Identity but about a girl and her father? It was called Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan and was pretty good.
And as for YA not having moral ambiguity. There was teenage fiction with moral ambiguity back in the ’90s. Dark stories like The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price or Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess.
Yes Hanna was that film, except that the girl was trained by her father to be an assassin and get revenge on the villain for him. But it could be to The Cruelty what Battle Royale was to The hunger Games.
Please, like The Boss, revolutionize the White Male Author book and sell it to us. Please!
I read his book. It’s not very good.
I was also put off by the constant disparagement of YA dystopian fiction.
AHMAZING. I second (and third) other commentators above – please (if you want, natch) review the book when it comes out!
So I see white dudes are doing that thing they do where they insult something they know nothing about, insist they can do it better, then proceed to be completely formulaic, and produce a totally mediocre, unoriginal, and otherwise underwhelming piece of work rife with lazy, problematic stereotypes. Then do that other thing they do where they pat themselves on the back for being second-rate and ask for money and awards and cookies, and get all of those things handed to them by other white men. All so they can do that other other thing they do where they circle jerk each other off and celebrate their own mediocrity while ignoring everyone else’s genius? Must be a day that ends in Y.
Hmmm…strong and physically perfect with psychological damage. Sounds eerily similar to a certain Jessica Jones who recently debuted on Netflix (but has been around in comics for years)