Play Book Tag discussion
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Reclaiming Her Name
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I saw this in another group and I'm not sure how I feel about it either. The writers deliberately chose those names, but of course if they were living today they wouldn't have to.
Some of them were known to be female in their lifetimes, with mixed results. If I remember correctly, Charlotte Bronte got some bad press from some well known male authors.As the daughter of one of the authors said in the article, this publishing effort is a great conversation starter. The issue hasn't gone away. Why was Harry Potter credited to J.K. Rowling instead of Joanne? And it is interesting that she uses a male name for her detective series.
N.K. Jemison was asked at an interview I attended why she chose initials instead of her name Nora, was it because she was writing fantasy, a male dominated field, and her answer was that seeing 'Nora', she hears her mother yelling for her. She then went on to say she did not give it a lot of thought but certainly gender anonymity played a part. The truth however is that as soon as you publish and start the promo circuit everyone knows who you are so gender anonymity isn't real. And everyone during the interview called her 'Nora'. She did say she considered whether to change but that there is no compelling reason to do so, and N.K. Jemison is a brand at this point.which today is another component...branding. And privacy.
Theresa wrote: "N.K. Jemison was asked at an interview I attended why she chose initials instead of her name Nora, was it because she was writing fantasy, a male dominated field, and her answer was that seeing 'No..."I may be wrong, but I think Rowling's decision might have been made with her agent, not her publisher. Something about a story featuring a boy hero was more likely to be read by boys if the author wasn't female.
Personally, as a reading teacher, I never noticed that boys pay much attention to authors.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Do think owning the set is appealing.