Market forces

Zaftig vs Sidebottom

Extraordinary interview with Erica Jong in last Saturday`s Times. According to Jong a lot of the 'bad boy' writers who gave her books bad reviews had more than literary criteria on their minds. "I was too zaftig [curvy] to get a good review. Look at all the women who are praised. They`re either very, very skinny or very, very fat. Some of them are hunchback, and some of them enormously fat" - offensive remark about Hilary Mantel omitted [LOLZ] - "Not one of them is a woman you would want to f***." 

Some years ago I gave Jong`s Sappho`s Leap a very bad review in the TLS. At the time I thought I did this because it was a very bad book. Now I know differently. 

Glad she cleared all that up.

- Harry Sidebottom, on Facebook

In other news, I've just looked up a boozy interview I did with Dr Sidebottom. 1) I note Ms Jong was referenced; and 2) I can vouch his books have since also made it to Afghanistan.

How to do it

Frenemies

(A new one on me.)

Hitchens v Amis; Big Papa v F Scott; you get the idea.

Worth it for the closing line on Mormon Nailer.

How Literature works

After the fateful day in 1929 when Virginia Woolf was prevented from walking across the lawn at Cambridge, any instance of an inquisitive woman being stopped by a beadle anywhere and under any circumstances is a reference to Woolf.

- Sofi Thanhauser, 'Hustler Scholars', Wag's Revue

Feminine endings

Because most/all women writers prefer 'em, apparently.

NB The comments section does include a couple of witnesses for the defence...

Muses

Though few in number, admittedly, my favourite female writers are all mad-looking pensioners with cardigans and cats. Go figure.