Murray Bail, Richard Flanagan, Louis Nowra, Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Winton. There is only one I would even consider inviting to a dinner party (and it's certainly not the Christian with the ponytail). These are the authors who have made the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin award, and that's the woman herself, on the left.Jason Steger reported the announcement in The Age today without even a passing reference to the exclusive maleness of the shortlist. He did, however, point out that the nominations give Winton a chance to win for the forth time, Bail a chance at his second MF award and that Flanagan has been shortlisted three times before. Are we really so bereft of new literary talent that it all becomes so predictable and boring?
Murray Bail's nominated The Pages is so filled with unchallenged fear and loathing for women I threw it against the wall while reading. Tsiolkas' The Slap failed to engage me with its suburban Dads having a morning wank and lusting after blonde vets and I gave up at around page 20 (a friend later described it to me as 'Neighbours with wogs' which is, I guess, pretty noice, different, unusual but doesn't have me racing back for the remaining 300 or so). And I've been burned by Flanagan, Nowra and Winton too badly before to ever again risk the $35+ on one of those hardbacks with the arty-nature covers.
It strikes me as deeply odd and sad that we don't have more to reward in Australian fiction than these five established and (apart from Tsiolkas on past performance merits) rather staid male writers. What are the politics and prejudices at work here? If So You Think You Can Dance? thinks it's important to keep the gender ratio balanced among its contenders, why shouldn't our major literary prize? I'd like to see the ponytailed one, the misogynist one and the anti-social Tasmanian one dance for their lives please...
Okay, okay so the first post is barely settled and already the facts are challenging my version of things. I was told in no uncertain terms tonight that THE SLAP gets awesome, "masterly" past page 20ish and I should give it another go... Okay, maybe I will. Let's hope it wins the MF then cos I will seriously *lose it* if Bail or Winton win again...
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how, generally at least, "the literary" is gendered female -- as in the cliche of the fiction author I'd say is either a woman or an effeminate man, because writing is about the subjective, the internal, feeling, emotion, blah blah etc. Yet when it comes to awards this male-smoking-room dynamic somehow descends from above. So not only is writing framed in terms of skewed gender labelling, but it's selective too in that this labelling vanishes whenever writing is officially celebrated (well, at least in Australia). Have I offended someone? Revealed my kitchen-sink gender politics? Started a comment war??
ReplyDeleteGuy that is a great point, and extends to the literary 'consumers' too I think. I've read over and over again that Australian women are the majority of the book-buying public and that reading groups (which, according to the industry, are keeping bookshops viable even in a new media world) are predominately initiated and populated by women...
ReplyDeleteIt's like the cook and the chef dynamic isn't it..
ReplyDeleteAgree that there aren't enough good female Australian writers being published (or when they are, time and time again they seem to be forced to write such tediously "Australian" stories, or chick-lit).
ReplyDeleteOf course the publishers would argue that it's not just a problem with Australian male fiction, but all Australian fiction -in particular by new writers -is being ignored by the book buying public. Print runs are smaller and sell-through is poorer. Even once bankable names are no longer safe bets, so they only publish the safest of the safe: Winton, Flanagan, blah. No wonder the prize committee has so little to choose from.
FYI The Slap does not get awesome past page 20, more readable perhaps, but even more offensive. For each and every male-female relationship that comes across the following chapters there is but one that is anything other than insulting (to both genders). On the flip side, the relationship between the central female characters is actually rather well done.
Ohhh Alice, very interesting about The Slap - now I have to read it so I can hate it properly!! :)
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of "hating things properly".
ReplyDeleteYes I picture you doggedly reading on occasionally making huffy noises...
ReplyDeleteMore, please...
ReplyDeleteJess, when I read this blog post title again I somehow conflated it with Ice Cube's "You can do it" - "I got dick for days - You got ass for weeks, yeah, yeah" lyric. Classy aye?
ReplyDeleteSo true Jess. This year Brian Castro is shortlisted for the MF for The Bath Fugues. I haven't read it as yet, but I think we can rest assured that it would be challenging, interesting and innovative Australian writing. Let's hope he wins.
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