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From: mario@astrovax.UUCP (Mario Vietri)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Authors' Protagonists
Message-ID: <593@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-May-85 14:48:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: astrovax.593
Posted: Tue May 14 14:48:46 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 15-May-85 01:48:44 EDT
References: <5200@ucla-cs.ARPA> <830@unmvax.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 33

> > Are there any authors who don't fall into this trap?  Who write about
> > believable protagonists (not just antagonists) who are of either sex?
> 
> 	Anne McCaffrey and Ursula LeGuin (although LeGuin is less fantasy)
> come to mind.  Can't think of any men.  Hmm...

	I am terribly surprised that noone mentioned Henry James. Was the
original question restricted to science-fiction authors? I hope not, because
Henry James is one of the subtlest connoisseurs of the human psyche among
novelists of all places and times.
	Some of his books concern principally women. In fact, in the preface 
of 'The Bostonians', he relates how he desired to write a book on America
and Americans (his earlier books mainly concern Americans living in Europe),
and how he soon persuaded himself that there is nothing more peculiarly 
American than the relatively free condition of American women. For this
reason, the book's main characters are two women and a man, all of them
exquisitely portrayed.
	Many other of his books have women as protagonists ('The Princess
Casamassima', 'The Europeans', or his late masterpiece, 'The Wings of the
Dove'), or as the second most importants characters in the book ('The 
Ambassadors', 'The Goden Bowl', etc.). There is no need to mention that
men are beautifully portrayed, too. 
	There are also other men writers who narrate splendid women's stories:
how about Jorge Amado and his 'Teresa Batista Tired of War', 'Gabriela
Clover and Cinnamon', or 'Dona Flor and her Two Husbands'? Or, for all
his mysoginy, G.B. Shaw's postface to his 'Pygmalion' in the Penguin edition.
	Obviously, the list could go on and on indefinitely. Add Doris 
Lessing, Jane Austen, D.H. Lawrence, and probably many many others writing
in languages that I do not know.

					Mario Vietri
				Princeton University Astrophysics
			      {most majors!princeton!astrovax!mario}