Wisdom of the Internet, I ask for your help

[jamjar]

Throwing myself on the mercy of the internet: can you give me the names of any living and active writers you particularly like. The writers should be thinky people,* but their books don't have to be Deep Worthy Tomes- middlebrow is ideal, genre is fine. Also preferably female, but this isn't massively important.

*Thinky people is a bit vague, and is kind of "I know them when I meet them/read their work/listen to an interview.", but I mean the people that give the impression of liking to think, liking to know and learn and explore and analyse, whatever field they write in.

ETA sorry, should have mentioned that they should be fiction writers, rather than non-fiction.

Comments

[slob-child.livejournal.com]

What I really, truly adore about Pierce's Tortall series is - not just that there are these female characters who are confronting societal issues and pressures surrounding their femaleness - but that they help each other out. In both the Immortals and Protector series, Alanna acts as a mentor and guide to Daine and Kel. This goes against the grain of most girl-centred children's lit, in which the strongest female presence is set in place to dominate the developing female presence, most often in a malicious sort of way. I'm thinking historically of texts such as "A Little Princess" where Sara Crewe is very much enslaved to what's her face, Miss Minchin I think - and also the contemporary Gaiman's "Coraline", where the Other Mother is inherently threatening and stifling. They present this dialectical argument that girls can only be heroines if they can struggle with and defeat villainnesses, which of course means that there is a dearth of fore-mothers because all the preceding generations to this one are obvs. so very evil omg. (Of course the inescapable irony is that the girl heroes grow into the women villains.)

Pierce disrupts that process and establishes a continuum of support, whereby Alanna acts as older sister to Daine and benefactor to Kel, and Daine acts as older sister to Kel, and Kel in turn in one scene in, I think it was Squire, provides a mentoring role to two hero-struck young girls.

Ahahaha, sorry again. It seems I have my English-major brain turned on tonight. *facepalm*

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

You make interesting points, actually. It does make me want to go back and reread a lot of my old books. There is a role in a lot of... hm. Traditional or traditionally styled children's stories for a younger sister figure, but not so much for equals giving support.

The friend or little sister is usually sweet and docile, they may be prettier than the heroine (often are, I think-- Katie Crackerjacks' sister is an example that springs to mind), but they're not as intelligent or as active. They're there to be protected or sheltered or -with The Little Princess- brought out of her shell, but they don't give peer support or support from above.

Out of curiosity, have you ever read Spell Me A Witch by Barbara Willard?