RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing style?

Collarspace Discussion Forums

Home Login Search

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing style?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing style?

Page: << < prev 1 [2] 3 next > >>

Login

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:28:44 PM

FelineFae

Posts: 7756
Joined: 1/23/2009
From: i do wander everywhere...
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: snappykappy

one of the best that i have seen but cant remember where i saw it

"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" is not a nice safeword to give someone, Lotsa fun, but not fair.

Why would you mix Gaelic and Klingon ???

< Message edited by FelineFae -- 6/3/2011 2:41:26 PM >

_____________________________

FelineFae
All right reserved by Chaos
: Disclaimer :
Do not expose FelineFae to direct sunlight.
FelineFae cannot spell in any language.
Granting of Fae-Wishes VOID where prohibitededed.
Individual results may vary.

(in reply to snappykappy)

Post #: 21

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:31:16 PM

VaguelyCurious

Posts: 5264
Joined: 12/2/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline

S'not Gaelic. It's Welsh.

Pedant!VC

_____________________________

Sthetic on FetLife.

(in reply to FelineFae)

Post #: 22

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:34:44 PM

FelineFae

Posts: 7756
Joined: 1/23/2009
From: i do wander everywhere...
Status: offline

Isn't that derived from Gaelic ?

And there is Klingon in there, yes ?

< Message edited by FelineFae -- 6/3/2011 2:41:06 PM >

_____________________________

FelineFae
All right reserved by Chaos
: Disclaimer :
Do not expose FelineFae to direct sunlight.
FelineFae cannot spell in any language.
Granting of Fae-Wishes VOID where prohibitededed.
Individual results may vary.

(in reply to VaguelyCurious)

Post #: 23

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:42:44 PM

ParappaTheDapper

Posts: 190
Joined: 4/28/2011
Status: offline

I....I got the romance novel style one wrong! Now I feel all cretinous and shit. :(

quote:

ORIGINAL: VaguelyCurious

quote:

ORIGINAL: ParappaTheDapper

It did make me wonder, though, what point they were trying to make in selecting that passage.

I think that one and the romance novel-style one were there to make the readers feel clever - people don't like to come away from a quiz with 0/10, innit.

_____________________________

You can't say A is made of B, or vice versa. All mass is interaction--Feynman

...and if you missed it, I'm the one who said "Just grab 'em in the biscuit"--either Feynman or Humpty Hump, I forget

(in reply to VaguelyCurious)

Post #: 24

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:44:00 PM

VaguelyCurious

Posts: 5264
Joined: 12/2/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline

Heh. No, it isn't. It's Celtic, not Gaelic (different ethnic group) - it shares roots with Breton (which has always seemed weird to me), and has odd bits of Latin and English, but relatively little Gaelic.

Probably is some Klingon, though, yes

_____________________________

Sthetic on FetLife.

(in reply to FelineFae)

Post #: 25

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:45:23 PM

VaguelyCurious

Posts: 5264
Joined: 12/2/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ParappaTheDapper

I....I got the romance novel style one wrong! Now I feel all cretinous and shit. :(

Don't feel cretinous - clearly you just haven't read very many romance novels.

_____________________________

Sthetic on FetLife.

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 26

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:47:04 PM

mnottertail

Posts: 60698
Joined: 11/3/2004
Status: offline

Ja, but if you want to feel gelatinous, it would be hard to find fault with such an emotion in your circumstance.

_____________________________

Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two? Judges 5:30

(in reply to VaguelyCurious)

Post #: 27

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:50:09 PM

0ldhen

Posts: 2221
Joined: 12/27/2010
From: Henhouse in Trolltopia, Harleyville USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ParappaTheDapper

quote:

ORIGINAL: 0ldhen

I don't think so. I think it depends on the author. I have a friend who writes fantasy, and his females are all female and his males are all male. Even stranger to me is that there is a certain amount of sex in his books, and he writes both sides equally well.

If there is a difference between Male and Female voices, I suspect writing about sex and sexual attraction must be among the most telling topics!

Lol, yes, there is. Yet this author is as true and shining an example of his sex as I've ever met. He is 110% straight and a D to boot.
He just has an amazing handle on women.

Le sigh, he is also the same age as my oldest daughter, 31.

< Message edited by 0ldhen -- 6/3/2011 2:51:11 PM >

_____________________________

Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't.

Za'beeta Regal, Et Vogo O' Lurwadra'd Wyka Go Abosh Inunsey.

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 28

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 2:53:48 PM

FelineFae

Posts: 7756
Joined: 1/23/2009
From: i do wander everywhere...
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: VaguelyCurious

Heh. No, it isn't. It's Celtic, not Gaelic (different ethnic group) - it shares roots with Breton (which has always seemed weird to me), and has odd bits of Latin and English, but relatively little Gaelic.

Probably is some Klingon, though, yes

Ah, oks.

_____________________________

FelineFae
All right reserved by Chaos
: Disclaimer :
Do not expose FelineFae to direct sunlight.
FelineFae cannot spell in any language.
Granting of Fae-Wishes VOID where prohibitededed.
Individual results may vary.

(in reply to VaguelyCurious)

Post #: 29

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 3:24:11 PM

DesFIP

Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline

4/10 however I haven't read any of the books.
For what it's worth though, I'm not a fan of Naipaul but am a long time fan of Austen.

_____________________________

Slave to laundry

Cynical and proud of it!

(in reply to VaguelyCurious)

Post #: 30

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 3:28:50 PM

0ldhen

Posts: 2221
Joined: 12/27/2010
From: Henhouse in Trolltopia, Harleyville USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: FelineFae

quote:

ORIGINAL: snappykappy

one of the best that i have seen but cant remember where i saw it

"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" is not a nice safeword to give someone, Lotsa fun, but not fair.

Why would you mix Gaelic and Klingon ???

Some just might....

Ya know, in my friends books he occasionally uses a language that is strictly from this books. Seriously, there is an entire Dictionary for it. I have had occasion to hear him speak "Lantion" and it musical.

I attribute it to the fact that the guy is from Ireland, Kells Meath, in fact. Hmmm...some of his characters, those from certain tribes do speak Gaelic as well, I digress, where was I going with that? Oh well, here is couple of sentence from this language at any rate.

Et Oriono Bosh. (I love you) Ion DeDe Bry Ros'd (Kiss on the lips) (ION is pronounced Eon) The rest is said exactly how it looks.

Another friend heard this author on speaker phone telling me how to pronounce these words and said it sounded like we were dancing when we spoke it to each other. Too funny I am trying to learn some of this Lantion, after I had a major meltdown when I found out my oldest took Klingon as her language course in college. But DAMN these books are hot.

< Message edited by 0ldhen -- 6/3/2011 3:43:41 PM >

_____________________________

Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't.

Za'beeta Regal, Et Vogo O' Lurwadra'd Wyka Go Abosh Inunsey.

(in reply to FelineFae)

Post #: 31

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 3:35:29 PM

ParappaTheDapper

Posts: 190
Joined: 4/28/2011
Status: offline

I do like Naipaul as a stylist, but I'd never put him on the same tier as Austen as either a stylist or a story teller. Mansfield Park is probably one of my ten favorite novels ever written.

The amazing thing about Austen is that not only did she write gorgeous prose but she wrote books that are still hilarious a couple of hundred years after she died. For all of the insight Naipaul has shown, I am skeptical that his work will still be considered vibrant, poignant, and bitingly prescient in two centuries. Of course that's nothing more than speculation and all I can say for sure is that to me, as a guy living in the here and now, Naipaul's self-assessment vis a vis Austen is easily the funniest thing I've ever seen him say/write (but it still isn't as funny as Austen).

quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

4/10 however I haven't read any of the books.
For what it's worth though, I'm not a fan of Naipaul but am a long time fan of Austen.

_____________________________

You can't say A is made of B, or vice versa. All mass is interaction--Feynman

...and if you missed it, I'm the one who said "Just grab 'em in the biscuit"--either Feynman or Humpty Hump, I forget

(in reply to DesFIP)

Post #: 32

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 4:56:42 PM

sunshinemiss

Posts: 17673
Joined: 11/26/2007
Status: offline

Hello Parappa (and everyone)
I hope you won't mind if I take a "writer's" view of this question. I find that there are certainly different ways men and women communicate, and there are ways men communicate with each other and women communicate with each other. In order to be a writer, a good one anyway, one must go beyond personal experience and view the world, see the little idiosyncracies of people. This is what being a writer is - observe and then paint the picture with words. The observation is through one set of lenses - our own. Female and male are only one part of that. (Thank goodness!) A great joy in my life is the writers group where we share our work and each person gives feedback to the others. Sometimes this very topic comes up. I wrote a scene in which two men were talking, and I had it spot on... almost. All the guys were like, "ah, sunshine, men will tease each other about x, y, and z if they are alone - even during a serious conversation." That was an eye opener.

Do men and women have different writing styles? Each person has their own. Are we influenced by our gender? Sure... that and a million other factors.

On a personal note, it's a pleasure having you here. Your topics are always interesting. Thank you for bringing such fabulosity to the boards.

best,
sunshine

_____________________________

Yes, I am a wonton hussy... and still sweet as 3.14

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 33

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 5:19:25 PM

Edwynn

Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008
Status: offline

Here is one current situation, perhaps pertaining to the subject.

My niece presented me with a short essay, as what was an item in her freshman English Comp class a couple of years ago, but presented to me a few months ago. This was an essay in one of her text books.

How Do You Spell That?

"Ever since I first started writing, I can remember having trouble spelling out the words. I never had a problem with creating a sentence or a paragraph, it was only spelling. I would always ask my mom how to spell the word I wanted to use and she would reply, "sound it out."

Already here, I am hearing a young woman, jammed to the wall by typical academic lapel shoving "I want an answer!", along with the requisite 'your personal experience matters only insofar as what it "brings to the table" for literary or otherwise for furtherance of substantiation for existence of this department.'

Further to the essay ...

"This was the same phrase she used to say when I was trying to learn how to read. It didn't help me how to do it either. All it did was make me frustrated and upset."

Aside from the easy giveaway as to gender differentiated response from impolite imposition upon one's personal experience in life and inherent academic callousness therewith, I still took it as a female speaker from the start, don't ask me how.

When I asked my niece something further into what the student author was saying, she stopped me in mid-sentence and said; "almost everybody in my class in 'open discussion' thought it was a guy writing it, and everybody jumped on 'him' for being such a whiner, etc., and I thought it was a girl all the time. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't a wacko and thinking it was a girl all the time."

Yes, the instructor had to let it in on the class that it was indeed a female writer.

< Message edited by Edwynn -- 6/3/2011 5:52:13 PM >

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 34

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 5:35:29 PM

Edwynn

Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008
Status: offline

"Why Johnny or Janey can't read anymore" has come to another level.

Is that what's being promoted here?

(in reply to Edwynn)

Post #: 35

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 5:39:57 PM

LookieNoNookie

Posts: 12216
Joined: 8/9/2008
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ParappaTheDapper

VS Naipaul dropped some weird wild predictably egomaniacal comments recently in which he said among other things that female writers and male writers will always have different prose styles because "inevitably, for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house" and that bleeds through in her writing. He also said no woman including Jane Austen has ever been his equal as a prose stylist!

The Naipaul interview is interesting if you're interested in Naipaul (I am!) but I'm more scintillated by his audacious comments about men and women as writers. Do you think that in the 21st century there is still a distinctly Male voice and a distinctly Female voice? If you're interested, here is a list of sample passages that let you try your skills at identifying, in the course of a few lines, the gender of a writer.

Since it's only polite to answer one's own questions, let me drop some science:

1) I am honestly undecided as to whether there exists a Male and Female prose voice. I think there have been times, like the Victorian era, when this has been more true (George Eliot, one of my favorite writers, wrote a classic piece about this called Silly Novels by Lady Novelists ) but I think that questions of sex and gender have always been subtle and slippery and that feels even more true in the 21st century. My kneejerk reaction to comments like the ones Naipaul made is to remember those old Sinbad standup routines about how women be walkin' all like this but men be walkin' all like that. Still this question of a male and female voice in literature is an old one and some very smart people, both men and women, have come down on all sides of it so it still strikes me as interesting.

2) Full disclosure! I got 7/10 right on the test to tell men and women apart! But this doesn't really weigh heavily in favor of a "Female voice" since in 5 of the cases I was familiar with either the work being quoted or with the style of the writer who wrote the work, so those were gimmes. Funny bonus though: Most of the people I know who took the test improperly guessed the passage they quote from Naipaul as having been written by a girl!

3) My feelings about Naipaul are that he is a likable pompous blowhard and that he is a supremely gifted jackass who is often wrong but has a knack for being wrong in achingly pretty prose. I also find it laughable that he compares himself to Austen as a writer because she is sooooo out of his league!

I just have to say one (very) simple thing, relating to your above prose (no offense meant).

Who gives a fuck?

Wimmens write differently.

Dats why we likes them.

And they smell good too.

(But...let's be honest...they make no fucking sense....so.....let's just tell them they smell good {because they do} and drop all pretense as to why or how.....just accept the fact that they're fucking insane....but they smell fabulous).

JJ

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 36

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 5:59:59 PM

0ldhen

Posts: 2221
Joined: 12/27/2010
From: Henhouse in Trolltopia, Harleyville USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: LookieNoNookie

(But...let's be honest...they make no fucking sense....so.....let's just tell them they smell good {because they do} and drop all pretense as to why or how.....just accept the fact that they're fucking insane....but they smell fabulous).

Thinking I just figured out your nic..........

_____________________________

Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't.

Za'beeta Regal, Et Vogo O' Lurwadra'd Wyka Go Abosh Inunsey.

(in reply to LookieNoNookie)

Post #: 37

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 6:12:20 PM

Edwynn

Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008
Status: offline

As lax as the rules may be in this country sometimes, 'truth in advertising' comes to the fore on some occasions.

(in reply to 0ldhen)

Post #: 38

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 7:01:39 PM

aromanholiday

Posts: 307
Joined: 4/12/2011
Status: offline

There is a web test for this. Did I first see it here or did a friend IM it to me? I don't remember. Anyway, here is the test:

http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

It's better if you insert a large portion of text. I inserted myself and got female. I then inserted the text of a sexually ambiguous person, and got the gender they preferred, so maybe there is some accuracy to it. I hope that website isn't saving all of our texts...I didn't pay too much attention to where I got my text!

Post your results? I'd be curious to know if it guesses otheres accurately.

_____________________________

"Isn't it odd how we misunderstand the hidden unity of kindness and cruelty?"

My profile is not turned off. It is broken and I am too lazy to make a new one.

(in reply to ParappaTheDapper)

Post #: 39

RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing ... - 6/3/2011 7:09:38 PM

Edwynn

Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008
Status: offline

Somebody has pretensions to 'gender distinction' here, or, would that be, ... "gender disclaimer." ...

'Anna Karenina,' "Light in August," "Ulyses," "Emma," ...

Sorry, grab the fire axe all you like on the issue, I'm too busy reading.

(in reply to Edwynn)

Post #: 40

Page: << < prev 1 [2] 3 next > >>

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> RE: Is there a Male writing style and a Female writing style?

Page: << < prev 1 [2] 3 next > >>

Jump to:

New Messages	No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages	Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages	Locked w/o New Messages

Post New Thread

Reply to Message

Post New Poll

Submit Vote

Delete My Own Post

Delete My Own Thread

Rate Posts

Collarchat.com © 2025

Terms of Service

0.094