Anita Blake Gets a Nod on NPR's Talk of the Nation

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Author Christopher Rice (son of Anne Rice) recently published a short, sharp piece on The Daily Beast, entitled "Why Crime Novelists Don't Get Women"--not as in why they can't get women to date them, of course, but why they don't seem to get into the heads of female characters, relying instead on tired stereotypes. In the essay, Rice listed four overused types of female characters in crime novels: The Cop's Wife Who Just Doesn't Get It, The Babe Assassin, The Ice Queen Bureaucrat, and the Token Lesbian Cop; the full description of these "types" are under the first link.

Today on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," Rice talked about the list in a little more detail and took some questions from callers. The very first caller mentioned Our Gal Anita.

Cliff the Caller: "I was just curious about your guest's thoughts on a character in a similar novel: Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake."
Chris Rice: "I have not read Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels, unfortunately, but I--obviously the elephant in the room here is that my mother is Anne Rice, and my understanding of the Anita Blake novels is that they sort of expand the vampire sort-of supernatural mythology in a certain direction, and they place the female in a sort of heroic role, but beyond that I can't really say. Maybe there are some strains of the Babe Assassin, but I think it gets back to what Neil and I were talking about earlier: if these were real--you could take any of these four stereotypes and if you put them at the centre of the story and if you commit yourself developing them and giving them origins and plausibility, I think you can do something successfully, and maybe that's what the Anita Blake novels are, but again, I haven't read them."
Neil the Host: "Could you briefly, Cliff, describe Anita Blake for us?"
Cliff the Caller:"Well, she's actually a combination of the Babe Assassin and the last example, the Lesbian Cop, because she has in a lot of ways become the male with female parts. It's highly sexualised, because it's a vampire novel, sort of that genre."
Neil the Host (in agreement): "Yeah, yeah."
Cliff the Caller: "It was interesting, because your guest, when he spoke about all the different four types to avoid? She kind of picks and chooses areas from each of them, kind of all of them together."

The full interview with Rice can be heard here. The discussion of Anita Blake starts at 6:35. (Clip may only be available for short time.)

Comments

[concordantnexus.livejournal.com]

Cool interview, ty for the link.

[kd-lalala.livejournal.com]

"It was interesting, because your guest, when he spoke about all the different four types to avoid? She kind of picks and chooses areas from each of them, kind of all of them together."

Picking and choosing stereotypes, that's a bang on description.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the Voltron of stereotypes.

[kd-lalala.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeeehehehe!

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

And I'll give ... the head!

sorrycouldn'tresist

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

That was so wrong.

...But I love your icon. ~gigglesnort~

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that "lesbian" means "male with female parts."

[sharkcowsheep.livejournal.com]

It doesn't, but the specific type of fictional lesbian referenced does. The fact that it's used to mean that is part of its fail.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I was being sarcastic, but yes, I completely agree that it is epic, offensive fail. First, for assuming all lesbians are transgender, second, for assuming that women cannot be wholly female if they pursue "manly" careers and activities.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

I didn't take it to mean that the Lesbian Cop was literally a male with female parts, more that the author was so off-base and/or uncomfortable writing female characters that the character was, for all purposes, another male character with feminine pronouns slapped on it.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

did you read the link...? he's talking about writers who don't understand that women are PEOPLE and instead write lesbians as caricatures of the ultimate dude.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was Christopher Rice? I thought it was Christopher Reich.

I couldn't listen to it because I am so fucking sick of the NPR mansplaining.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I mean, crime novels, as a genre, are dominated by women authors in the US. Many women authors have written and spoken extensively about the issues with stereotypes of female characters in the genre.

And NPR needs to have Christopher Rice be their expert on this?

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Haha, just last weekend (or so) NPR did a piece on the trend in news reporting to favor male sources. They even lampshaded the irony in having a man on to discuss it.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES

See my LJ for my angry letters to the ombudsman.

I am even more cross now that I know it was Christopher Rice rather than Christopher Reich, because Christopher Reich is a very distinguished writer of crime fiction.