Like So Totally, Like, Annoying!

[mrissa]

I am not a fan of censorship. You all probably know this by now. But if no one ever in the world ever ever ever wrote another story in cutesy ditzy teenage girl voice, I swear we would still have at least enough of those stories. At least.

Take Mike Resnick's story in Janis Ian's Stars anthology. (Do I have to say "please" here, or will you take the pleading for granted?) It starts out, "He's GORGEOUS! I mean, it's as if Morvich and Casabella and that old guy, Michael something, you know, the one who painted some big ceiling, as if they all got together and said, what's the most beautiful thing we can paint, the most beautiful thing in all the galaxy?"

If you read that and thought, "I hate the narrator and find her unbelievable and could not possibly care about anything she does ever," you are not alone. Later, the reader who is unwary enough to continue is treated to the gem, "He wasn't there today. I came home and cried and counted 51 ways to kill myself, but then I cracked a nail and had to go to the beautician to get the acrylic fixed." Oh, HA! Ha HA! Mike Resnick, you are so much with the funny!

Teenage dialect is hard to get right. You can't just decide to be optimally shallow and edit out a random half of your own knowledge and have a believable teenage narrator. Doesn't work that way. Go back and try again.

GRRRRR.

I am also probably being cranky to feel that there are far fewer "thick-headed shallow male teenager" stereotype POVs, and that people who write dizzy, shallow teenage girl narrators are likely to overlap significantly with the people who assumed I was dizzy and shallow for seven years just because I was a teenage girl. That is probably not fair of me.

GRRRRRRR.

Comments

Re: Dizzy and ditzy girls (Podkayne of Mars)

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I found the ending tear-provoking and sad, but I have a secret weakness for maudlin stories. In the original ending, she died, and then the editor convinced Heinlein later to change it so she survived. (I don't remember which version I actually read, or if I've just edited my memory on that part.)

Heinlein did say with a number of characters, now that you remind me, that having kids was the most important part of being female. Not being female, I don't have much of an opinion on the matter. I'd hate to think that was the primary purpose, but evolutionarily speaking, it's probably a big part of many people's inner drives. I think winding up with two poodles when you realize later you wanted kids is probably a mistake (some of my relatives), but I think people should be able to be happy not having kids and society shouldn't force expectations on them.

I liked the genius, oddly-socialized and possibly dangerous brother in the book, instead. Clarke? I thought he was a lot more interesting than Poddy.

Mack

Re: Dizzy and ditzy girls (Podkayne of Mars)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"A big part of many people's inner drives" is not at all the same thing as "give up all your goals; this is the only thing." In some other books, Heinlein seems to be saying that being a parent is the most important thing, which is problematic in other ways but at least not sexist. But in Podkayne, the standards are clearly that women have to give up doing other interesting things and men do not, period and full stop.

And I think "even when I try my very hardest to write a book for girls, I can't help but make the bratty little brother brighter and more interesting" is not a good thing.