FWIW, a technical note: As far as the publishing is concerned, "chicklit" doesn't refer simply to books that girls like better than boys. (For one thing, girls like books better than boys generally.) It refers to a subspecies of books-girls-love that was kicked off by "Bridget Jones' Diary" -- EZ-reading books for modern girls.

And the key element is this: That the girl in the story is more or less the same person as the girl doing the reading of the book.

That's the big diff between traditional fiction-for-women and chicklit -- that sense that what you're reading about is me-me-me. "That's me on the page!" is a big part of the chicklit experience.

(I think you could easily argue that it's a function of the narcissism of our age. After all, one of the reasons people used to read traditionally was to get out of themselves. With stuff like chicklit, it's all about staring in the mirror. It's all going to hell in a handbasket, isn't it? It always is ...)

But that's just as far as the publishing industry is concerned. No need to let that get in the way of a fun discussion. Still, kinda interesting ...

I wonder how long it'll be before colleges are teaching classes in the history of chicklit ...

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on June 1, 2008 11:32 AM

male college student - excellent.

but what goes on the mind of an average college teacher?

Posted by: j on June 1, 2008 1:22 PM

Thursday/Patrick H.

Guys, you want to REALLY bust open some sets? Simple:

"Hello. My name is Diego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Shotgun neg squared!

Posted by: Sebastian Flyte on June 1, 2008 2:32 PM

I wouldn't be able to say it with half the panache of Mandy Pantikin, Sebastian. I'd be more inclined to steal Aloysius from you and use him as a prop. Girls loooove teddy bears.

Posted by: PatrickH on June 1, 2008 4:33 PM

Random thoughts:

1) I disliked The Princess Bride and think of it as one of the worst movies I ever saw. I don't like American attempts at the fantasy/fairy-tale genre, in general. The Last Unicorn is one exception.

2) English chick-lit is funnier, less formulaic and has more of a bite than the American version.

3) I loved parts of The English Patient, but I disliked the changes to the novel's ending in the film. In the book, the nurse does not "euthanize" the patient. I also disliked Ralph Fiennes's moony and pathetic performance.

4) Contemporary romantic comedy is a bore.

5) Women are more willing to watch/read work intended to appeal to men's tastes, than men are willing to do for work created for women.

p.s. I don't mean to pick on American tastes. There are many types of books and movies that Americans do supremely well.

Posted by: alias clio on June 2, 2008 6:39 AM

0/20

The Mrs. knows better. I don't make her watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, to be fair.

The movie posters for these have given me an unsettled, nauseous sensation. I probably need to play a chase scene from Terminator 2 to recover.

Posted by: thaprof on June 2, 2008 10:01 AM

the comments on the math check are wrong - it isn't e^2*pi, it is e^i*pi, where i is the square root of -1, which means the expression is equal to -1. Euler said the equation 1+e^i*pi = 0 was the most beatiful in the world.

Posted by: David Wilbur on June 3, 2008 3:11 PM






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