RANDOM JOTTINGS

A blog about music, sports, theatre and rants

Long time blogger just moved to wordpress. Love music, theatre, movies, sport (tennis and cricket) and cooking. Two great daughters, two great granddaughters.

The only problem with ‘chick lit’ is its name

Recently I've read a lot of reviews of Pamela Druckerman's book French Children Don't Throw Food. And one thing that many of them mention is the fact that French mothers just tend to get on with doing things their way. They have the kinds of births they want with all the pain relief they want, they bottle-feed their children if they want to, and they certainly don't spend hours on internet forums criticising each other's parenting choices.

via www.guardian.co.uk

Interesting article and makes many valid points about book snobbery and also asks if Lee Childs et al are ever accused of dumbing down because they write popular best sellers?   No need to answer that.

'Chick lit' is a very patronising genre – how would men like it if we lumped their stuff under the title 'Cock lit'?

Just a thought…

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9 responses to “The only problem with ‘chick lit’ is its name”

  1. Victoria Corby Avatar
    Victoria Corby

    I think the appeal of Natasha to a painfully shy and large 15 year old was that she had all the confidence and joie de vivre that I longed for. I agree with you about her treatment of Andre but she paid for it by marrying Pierre. I still can’t get over that!

    Reply
  2. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    Welcome VIctoria – normally most readers view War and Peace as a chore and I will admit I probably would have found it difficult, but I read it many moons ago when the BBC version had been shown with Alan Dobie as Andrei, wonderful and a very young Anthony Hopkins as Pierre, also wonderful.
    It meant that I was able to know which character was which. I also, round about that time saw War and Peace by Prokifiev at the Colosseum and that was wonderful too. A cover like this is insulting
    I must admit I found Natasha a pain and how could she betray Andrei?

    Reply
  3. Victoria Corby Avatar
    Victoria Corby

    Can I join you and Linda as a member of the having read War and Peace for enjoyment club? I read it when I was 15 and loved it, I was supposed to be revising for my mock O levels and spent the whole of the study week reading and feeling that I wanted to be like Natasha. I did surprisingly well too, such is the power of a great book.
    I’d never seen that cover before, it’s truly dreadful, isn’t it?

    Reply
  4. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    Please don’t apologise for mini rant Linda. I love a good rant as you well know and glad I am not the only one to get incenses at this sort of ghastly marketing of classics. We would all like more people to tackle a book like War and Peace but this kind of cover is self defeating. Those of us who would like to read it and have knowledge of what it is about would recoil from this kind of crap cover, and those who did not know about the book at all, would be misled at its content.
    I am also one of the few people who read War and Peace and enjoyed it. Not sure I would do it again but am proud to know that I did.
    Any time you wish to rant – drop by!

    Reply
  5. Linda Gillard Avatar
    Linda Gillard

    I was sooooo angry when they did that to WAR & PEACE. (This pb came out in 2006 and I’m still furious.)
    I took something of a proprietorial interest because I’m one of the (few?) people who not only read WAR & PEACE voluntarily, but also loved every minute of it, especially all the military stuff. But a more modern translation was long overdue.
    Then they brought it out with this dumbed-down abomination of a cover.
    I refused to buy it, taking huge exception to the cover’s implication that the most interesting thing about the immortal Natasha Rostov was her (rather small) breasts.
    Apologies for the mini-rant, but I know you’ll understand.

    Reply
  6. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    Linda – I was trying to think of a title that would not be dumbed down in this way but oh my goodness. All I can say is ‘o my prophetic soul.
    Vomit time

    Reply
  7. Linda Gillard Avatar
    Linda Gillard

    They did put a headless woman on the cover of WAR and PEACE, don’t you remember? http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Peace-Pocket-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141025115/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329329828&sr=1-3
    And we have Penguin Classics to thank for that cover, folks.

    Reply
  8. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    I have read quite a few in this genre and some of them are pretty dire, but there are others which I have enjoyed and rather feel if they were given different, more serious covers in shades other than pastels, and no cartoon women on the front, would sell much better. It is all in the presentation. You could take Anna Karenina and put a headless woman on the front with a romantic tag line and market it as such if you really tried. The Austens were marketed like this a few years ago but did not do well, happy to say

    Reply
  9. Maxine Avatar
    Maxine

    Ha ha! Great question! Officially the book trade calls it “commercial women’s fiction” – not sure whether that is less or more patronising than “chick lit”. Though I have to say, the not many examples I have read are utterly vacuous/tedious wish-fulfilment, in other words, exactly the same as 99 per cent of c**k lit! (trying to get through the spam filter!)

    Reply

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