Sex sells... even books

Two hundred years ago, female writers like Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë masked their gender on their works in order to have any chance to be taken seriously as writers in a male-dominated literary world. While Jane Austen published anonymously “by a lady”, Charlotte Brontë veiled her gender completely, writing under the pseudonym “Currer Bell”. 



At this point in the ongoing process of women’s emancipation, we would assume that women should not have a problem with authenticity and authority as writers anymore. However, the contrary is observed by organizations like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts that track representation of women in contemporary literary writing and their “unreliable“ critique as they are still primarily associated with fiction, written and read predominantly by women. But is it only women that face problems concerning their gendered voice when it comes to sales as it appears that now it is the market that determines a writer’s worth rather than their literary talent?

In 2014, the book review site Goodreads carried out an investigation which revealed that readers tend to prefer their printed evening entertainment written by their own gender. If we consider the fact that roughly half of the population are female and, consequently, the other half male, we should lean back in our armchairs and relax because there should be same number of writers and readers of both genders - if there was not the fact of an enormous majority of women reading fiction - preferably by women. But do not be fooled: Only because an author’s name on your new book seems to indicate it’s written by a woman, this does not necessarily mean we are dealing with a female writer.

There are several examples of male (and female) writers that use gender-neutral pseudonyms or even a name of the other gender in order to reach higher sales numbers -so we can say that gender certainly matters. It is very likely that a male writer’s female protagonist’s voice might be not taken as seriously as if the same character would have been created by a woman.

It is argued, whether authors like JK Rowling and EL James might have chosen their gender-neutral initials on their book spines hoping to reach as well boys and young men with their manly Harrys or Christians - or not. Of course, it is only speculation whether their bestsellers would have been more or less successful if it listed Joanne Kathleen Rowling or Erika Mitchell as the authors. We can also simultaneously ask if EL James seriously thought that Mr Grey’s “soft grey eyes“ would have attracted more men by only using her name’s initials. Moreover, after the tremendous success of The Harry Potter mega-series JK Rowling started using a male pseudonym for the “after-Potter-works“.

As we can see, there is much to be discussed about authorship and sales figures through the lens of gender.  Sean Thomas aka Tom Knox aka SK Tremayne is quoted as saying “Does it help to be identified as a woman, or to have no gender at all? […] And given that every ‘debut’ novelist wants to give themselves every possible chance, why take the modest risk that using a male name might bring? Why not just use initials? Get rid of gender altogether?”

Will "getting rid of gender" solve any of the problems surrounding gendered readings of literary texts?

Do we read the author or the story? 

Is there a problem in women only accepting female writers narrating female voices?
 
For further reading:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/31/male-writers-hide-gender-sell-more-books
http://www.vidaweb.org/about-vida/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-adler/why-do-women-read-more-no_b_5830852.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/25/readers-prefer-authors-own-sex-goodreads-survey

A Ravenclaw's Report

This past weekend, December 5 and 6, the German ComicCon took place in Dortmund in the Westfalenhallen. On approximately 20 000 square meters, 30 000 comic, manga and film fans met for two days to celebrate each other and their respective fandoms. And believe me – they had a blast. Two halls, 20 star guests from the realms of TV and cinema, more than a hundred different booths and thousands of costumes made sure of that.

Of course this wasn’t San Diego Comic Con. Or Dragon Con. Or any of the gigantic American conventions that take place every year. And it wasn’t the first German convention of that kind, either. Last year, fans of Star Wars were able to see their favorite actors and characters at a convention in Essen. For years, both Ring*Con and HobbitCon, being more specifically about fantasy (especially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), have been organized in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia. But the German ComicCon was the first to offer this kind of fair for comic, film and TV fans from all kinds of genres here in Germany. And the fans embraced it wholeheartedly.

It all began on Saturday morning, at 9 sharp. That is, for those with the VIP tickets. The smallfolk was allowed in half an hour later, but it seemed that the organizers had not anticipated a crowd that size – at least not right at 9. Because when I arrived (together with my sister and my partner), the line was ENDLESS. We got off the subway and had to walk back to the station before because the line was so long. It took us an hour to get in; fortunately it did not feel like an hour, though, because we were so excited.

See? And that’s only from our perspective, when we were almost inside.

Once inside, we got rid of our jackets and the real fun began. We went past a weapons’ check where the cosplayers (for those who don’t know, this is the term for the people who dress up as certain characters) could have their weapons approved – and some of them had GIGANTIC weapons! Then we entered the first hall. The place was overcrowded. Booths after booths with narrow paths in between, and hundreds of costumed and un-costumed people strolling past them. It was difficult to get oriented at first.

First, we went past the booths of the manga and comic artists. They sat there and drew, had artwork on display, and you could buy a drawing of you (or whatever you like) from them. Unfortunately, my knowledge of German or European comic artists is lacking,  so we did not recognize anyone. They had some pretty amazing artwork, though! The rest of the hall was filled with merchandise. A lot of it was actually in the Asian manga style, but you could buy Steampunk clothes and accessories, games of all kinds, old and new comic books, comic figures… the list could go on and on. And almost everything was covered – there was stuff from The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars, Doctor Who, just to name a few of the most famous. You could buy Targaryen Christmas balls, tiny Lego figures of Luke Skywalker, comic books about X-Men or Fantastic Four or Wonder Woman from the last ten or more years, little plush dragons that you can put on your shoulder, posters, buttons, and, and, and.

 A gigantic money making machine, yes. But also a place where all the nerds, all the people who would like to be someone else sometimes, all those who identify with characters from all kinds of works, can finally step out and be this character.

Because at ComicCon, when you dress up at a character, people see you as that character. See this guy? 

He cosplayed as Thranduil, the king of Mirkwood in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel (and Peter Jackson’s movies) The Hobbit. I have no idea what his name is, because everyone called him “Your Highness”, or “King Thranduil” or just “Thranduil” (depending on how much of a fangirl/-boy you were). From Middle Earth, Galadriel also roamed the halls, alongside Gandalf, Fili, Kili, and quite a few Bilbos.

 From Star Wars, there were many Stormtroopers, I saw a Padmé Amidala, some Darth Vaders, a few Reys from the upcoming The Force Awakens, and a myriad of Jedi Knights of various alien races. There were Spider-Men, Iron Men, big and small Captain Americas, Black Widows and an enormous number of Deadpools, eagerly anticipating the new film. Thors and Lokis were there, and both in their male and female versions. There were Batmen and  Wonder Women, but the majority of DC cosplays seemed to focus on the Joker and Harley Quinn. I saw two or three Cerseis (from TV show Game of Thrones/ novel series A Song of Ice And Fire) and one immensely realistic Khal Drogo. After a while we started a fun little game called “How many Daeneryses are there?”, because there were many, and all of them so beautiful and different that you could tell them apart enough from each other to count them And there were many people (including me) who simply donned whatever they had from the world of Harry Potter.

That’s my Ravenclaw-self with an amazing Captain America. Nearby him was also a replica of Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir. Of course I tried lifting it! But yeah, probably not worthy. There was also a (rather bad) replica of the TARDIS from Doctor Who, and of course we had to take photos with it! This was all in the second hall, together with much more merchandise, and a stage, where a cosplay contest took place! It was utterly amazing to see all those great costumes on stage, even though I didn’t know half of them (as they came from Asian manga culture). All the hard work that those people put into their costumes! I don’t know if this comes as a surprise to you, but most of the cosplayers (even those of male characters) were female. There was an astonishing Petyr Baelish (or Littlefinger) who only looked different from the original character with regard to height, and you wouldn’t have known he was actually a female body in a male costume if you had stood directly in front of her.

Oh, and the star guests! Look who attended this con!

It’s Sylvester McCoy, from Doctor Who and The Hobbit! He played the seventh Doctor, and the wizard Radagast the Brown from Tolkien’s stories. I got his autograph, and he was so lovely to all of his fans. I am so grateful that I got to meet him.

German ComicCon 2015 was one of the best weekends of my life so far. And although there were many little things that could be improved for next year, I think most of the visitors had a great time. It’s a commercial machine, of course, and everyone is aware of it – but nowhere else do you meet so many people who share the same enthusiasm, the same passion, the same love for something that is often disdainfully called pop culture.

See you next year.

What is the effect of these conventions on the sales of the books of their respective fandoms? How do they work together, how do they diverge? 

Do these conventions remain a part of the book/comic book/cultural production industry or do they take on a life of their own?

Have you ever been to a trade fair or a convention? What were your experiences? And if you could dress up as any character, who would you be?

Full pages, empty wallets: Book Prices in Canada

It was a common occurrence when I was a young book-nerd, haunting bookshops around Toronto. The price on the jacket of a book I wanted would say US: $12.99 CAN: $19.99. Instead of the stack of books that I wanted, I would leave with one, maybe two if mom had the money and there wasn’t a book she wanted. I would scheme on the streetcar-ride home, wondering if there was some way I could make it down to the US to go on a book shopping spree, finally fulfilling my bibliophile fantasy of having a personal library in our little two bedroom apartment.

Of course these schemes never were made into a reality. And while I now have too many books between Canada and Germany, many have come from second hand shops, prices in pencils marks on the titles pages, the official price (read: robbery) forgotten along with the coffee stains on page 56 and marginalia added by past readers.

There are some concrete economic reasons that book prices vary widely between the US and Canada. According to some industry representatives who were called before the Canadian Senate in 2012, these prices were meant to offset the low Canadian dollar in 1999 and despite any gains the dollar made in the intervening 13 years, the prices remained higher than their US counterparts. (Note: The Canadian dollar, while it enjoyed near-parity with the greenback for a few years, over 2015, it has dropped to an 11 year low.) The difference in price was meant to allow these massive publishing companies to keep their profits high despite the low value on the Canadian dollar, not allowing publishing, printing and distribution costs to overtake their revenue. Also, many books have to be imported into Canada, despite its robust national publishing industry. This is of particular concern for students and academics, whose books are already exorbitantly priced. If they are not printed in Canada under a subsidiary (e.g. Oxford University Press Canada), they are outrageously expensive.

The last time there was public concern over the price differences of books in Canada and books in the US, publishers stopped putting the American prices on book jackets. Retailers also often covered them with stickers of their own, rather than taking a serious look at the publishing industry, pricing and the economics of books.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian regulations allow book “importers to charge booksellers the price of the book in the country of origin, plus the difference in exchange rates, and an additional 10 or 15 per cent, depending on the country of origin, On top of this, American publishers can levy a further 10 per cent on top of on books shipped into Canada for sale. And, to make this almost a parody of pricing, there are additional duties (sometimes up to 18%) to import books to Canada as they are classified as consumer goods. Canada’s market is relatively small and the inability of publishers to tap into an economy of scale. Even e-books follow this pattern of being more expensive in Canada, despite their immaterial qualities. 

Before the current slump in the value of the Canadian dollar in 2015, prices of books began to drop in Canada over the last few years as the market itself has been forced to adapt to the overwhelming power of online shopping. Books are still listed at a certain price (before taxes are added at the checkout), but online retailers offer a discount for buying the books online as we bypass the service workers and the physical store. Of course, as the dollar loses value, the cost of books, like other consumer goods, are driven up.

This, in turn, has real world consequences. While we can’t eat books or use them to power cars, they do have a significant value. What happens when children’s families are priced out of affording books, as so many already are? How do we foster a love of reading, academic engagement, and literacy when buying food is difficult, never mind novels? While libraries are critical, they are massively underfunded in places like Toronto, and non-existent on many Indigenous reserves where poverty is pervasive.

Should the prices of books be regulated, establishing an affordable price ceiling? Should they be subsidized? Or should we allow the market to do as it does?

For more information, see:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/the-dark-side-of-a-weak-canadian-dollar-prices-for-food-clothes-books-shoot-up/article23210885/

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/why-books-cost-more-canada-205637376.html

https://www.thestar.com/business/2013/02/06/ottawa_needs_to_review_canadaus_book_price_gap_senate_committee_says.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/booksellers-blame-u-s-canada-price-gap-on-old-rules-1.1274166

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/12/18/canada-us-price-gap_n_2324155.html

Crimea Crisis Reaches Muscovite Library

Libraries are places of study, of comfortable reading and quiet reflection. They are places where you can get a new book every day without having to spend a cent. Libraries are important stewards and distributors of information and knowledge, doing their fair share in educating the masses.

Despite these functions and duties, governments might come to the conclusion that a library is home to dangerous literature. This is what happened in Moscow, just a few weeks ago. On the 28 October, the Library of Ukrainian Literature was raided by Russian police forces, seizing around 200 books and pamphlets – the contents of which are considered extremist by the Russian government. The library’s director, Natalia Sharina, was taken into custody after her home and office had been searched. She was accused of ‘abuse of office’ and has been placed under house arrest.

What was called ‘extremist’ literature was various writings on Ukrainian nationalism and national identity. The library is home to about 30,000 works, mostly written in Ukrainian. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been ongoing, reaching a series of crises including the Euromaidan protests, annexation of Crimea, and the military skirmishes in Eastern Ukraine. The library had already been searched in 2010 and 2011 for what is called ‘anti-Russian propaganda’. Around 3000 works have been labeled as such and Russian law forbids the ownership or distribution of such literature. The works of Ukrainian nationalist Dmytro Korchiniskiy fall into this category and were apparently found in the Library of Ukrainian Literature.

In response to the 28 October raid, the Ukrainian government has released an official letter of protest, condemning the raid and imprisonment of Natalia Sharina. Moreover, library employees accused the Russian authorities of having planted the forbidden works in the library in order to find incriminating material.  The library is seen as one of the few remaining links between Russia and the Ukraine, and this action seems to some as an explicit attack on Ukrainian identity in Russia. One of the library’s visitors, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters news agency: ”Tell the world to defend this place. […] It is an important place for academic study.” Russian authorities declined to comment on the incident.

Whether or not the books were actually planted in the library, this incident shows the importance of literature when it comes to developing, maintaining and defending identities, and how libraries can help in providing this literature to people who otherwise would not have access to it. It also shows how governments try to monitor cultural institutions in order to control information output and identity formation.

The question remains – should they be allowed to do so? In cases of extremist literature, this might seem to be the right thing to do. For example, should Hitler’s Mein Kampf, or the pamphlets of terrorist groups, be accessible in public libraries? Forbidding extremist literature can be vital in deflecting attention from potentially dangerous elements in a given society. However, there could be some crucial differences between these sorts of censorship and the actions of the Russian government.

What do you think about this raid of the Library of Ukrainian Literature?

Can literature be dangerous? Are there ever grounds for censorship of books and literature?

For further information, go to:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/29/us-ukraine-crisis-library-idUSKCN0SN0VI20151029#HQW9K6X18Oe72LYz.97

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/us-ukraine-crisis-library-idUSKCN0SO1CV20151030#uo1za8H0o1U6q43Z.97

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/30/russia-librarian-locked

 The Ukrainian letter of protest can be found here, if one is able to read both the language and writing:

http://mfa.gov.ua/ua/press-center/comments/4429-komentar-mzs-ukrajiniu-zvjazku-z-provedennyam-obshukiv-v-biblioteci-ukrajinsykoji-literaturi-v-moskvi

‘The Nobel Prize is run by a self-perpetuated committee. They vote for themselves and get the world's publishing industry to jump to their tune.’ - Doris Lessing

Throughout the year, many different literary awards are handed out to various writers from around the world.

‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ by Marlon James became the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. 

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".

The winner of the German Book prize is ‘Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969’ by Frank Witzel, whose work “is, in the best sense, a boundless novelistic construct”.

These and other literary prizes, of various sizes, are distributed throughout the year, allowing authors and publisher to celebrate, even if they only make the long-list. It seems to be a tricky task, distinguishing the one and only story to bear the highest title of ‘the best’ but, somehow, the selecting committees manage to fulfil their duty.

It is always, firstly, the author and, secondly, the story being judged and analysed. Although quite often the work bears the title, the person who wrote it is the first to be scrutinised and approved. Just as a reader chooses a book by the cover and summary, the committee can rely on the impressions and style of the author. Further, the story is taken in and, in case of success, brought to the top of the international literary scene, a sudden addition to the world’s literary heritage.

But can we really say the judgement of the jury is truly objective and universal, in line with the responsibility they claim to possess? The majority of the prizes are the trendsetters of publishing and literary world, shaping tastes and the monetary success of the book. Being a nominee for one of them can raise sales of the book itsef and, thereby, profits of publishers, as well as attract people’s attention to the names and the works, including those written before the book currently nominated.  But is this all these literary trendsetters do?

The Nobel Prize in literature, for instance, has been criticized for its strictly exclusive and political approach to choosing the winner. Neutrality in world affairs is one of the unspoken qualities of the award-winning work.

Championing the writers is a challenge and we, the reading audience of the world, tend to rely on those people who do it, trusting their judgements and tastes.

With all this in mind, can we really say that these prizes are awarded in an objective way? In a way that is truly indicative of the best writer, or the most influential work when prizes have their own political agendas and biases?

NOTE:

The digest of 50 year-old history of awarded Booker Prize books you can find here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/11154948/winners-list.html

Editor's Note: Not all literary prizes are serious.