GIRLED OUT - REALLY?
I came across this quote last week on a publishing industry website:
“Yes, we are always seeking exciting new novels... but we are rather GIRLED OUT.”
Certainly the ‘Girl’ bandwagon seems to have ram-raided the zeitgeist and hijacked our bookstores and cinemas.
The Girl On The Train is hitting box office heights right now; in 2015 it was The Danish Girl; the year before, Gone Girl.
And it feels like only yesterday that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tore the place up, hot on the heels of the The Other Boleyn Girl... and, of course, The Girl With The Pearl Earring.
Now these are 21st Century Girls – so you would be excused for believing that the entertainment world has only latterly succumbed to such feminine charms.
But, then I thought – hold on – what about Gregory’s Girl? (My second favourite film of all time.) It might not be a book – but it’s got ‘Girl’ in the title. And that was way back in 1981.
In any event, there was ‘The Queen of Crime.’ Agatha Christie wrote Third Girl in 1966.
Earlier still – what about Edna O’Brien’s Girl With Green Eyes? First published in 1962. (And she wrote The Country Girls in 1960 – the same year that Kingsley Amis penned Take A Girl Like You.)
But it doesn’t stop there.
In fact, to cut a long story short, the ‘Girl Tradition’ dates back almost a century; it was pioneered by some of our greatest classical authors. To name but two: PG Wodehouse (The Girl on the Boat –1922) and DH Lawrence (The Lost Girl –1920).
Search ‘Girl’ on Amazon.com and you get 400,000 hits. (There’s even 731 ‘Girl’ titles in Goodreads’ listopia.)
So where does this leave us? Girled Out? That might be a good title for a new novel – but I don’t believe it’s yet a permanent state of affairs.
“Yes, we are always seeking exciting new novels... but we are rather GIRLED OUT.”
Certainly the ‘Girl’ bandwagon seems to have ram-raided the zeitgeist and hijacked our bookstores and cinemas.
The Girl On The Train is hitting box office heights right now; in 2015 it was The Danish Girl; the year before, Gone Girl.
And it feels like only yesterday that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tore the place up, hot on the heels of the The Other Boleyn Girl... and, of course, The Girl With The Pearl Earring.
Now these are 21st Century Girls – so you would be excused for believing that the entertainment world has only latterly succumbed to such feminine charms.
But, then I thought – hold on – what about Gregory’s Girl? (My second favourite film of all time.) It might not be a book – but it’s got ‘Girl’ in the title. And that was way back in 1981.
In any event, there was ‘The Queen of Crime.’ Agatha Christie wrote Third Girl in 1966.
Earlier still – what about Edna O’Brien’s Girl With Green Eyes? First published in 1962. (And she wrote The Country Girls in 1960 – the same year that Kingsley Amis penned Take A Girl Like You.)
But it doesn’t stop there.
In fact, to cut a long story short, the ‘Girl Tradition’ dates back almost a century; it was pioneered by some of our greatest classical authors. To name but two: PG Wodehouse (The Girl on the Boat –1922) and DH Lawrence (The Lost Girl –1920).
Search ‘Girl’ on Amazon.com and you get 400,000 hits. (There’s even 731 ‘Girl’ titles in Goodreads’ listopia.)
So where does this leave us? Girled Out? That might be a good title for a new novel – but I don’t believe it’s yet a permanent state of affairs.
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Quite right - I think 'Girl' has plenty of life left in her.I believe that after 'Fifty Shades of Grey' came out there were hundreds of books released with 'Fifty Shades' in their title, just trying to jump on the bandwagon.
I just searched it on Amazon.com and it lists about a quarter of a million hits. There's even 'Fifty Shades of Taxation' - that's taking the torture aspect too far!
That seems sexist and unfair to me. I think it's a refreshing change to have a smart independent woman as the protagonist.
Well, ok I can guess and even understand but isn't it always like that in the book industry? Some big shot companies decide to give a good book a chance (sometimes they're not even that good) and then it's a hit so hundreds of similar ones come out.
To be honest this "girl thing" may not be so bad after all, comparing to some other trends that came before (twilight and 50 shades, yes, I know, bad baaad examples) and after being brides, princess and sidekicks for so long (especially in the Hollywood productions and adaptations) why not have some action of our own?