Literary Lions - Jezebel

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The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
"Housewife Finds Time To Write Short Stories": An Evening With Alice Munro
New York Times Hard-Pressed To Name Funniest Female Novelists

Is A Female-Only Literature Prize Sexist?
Zelda Fitzgerald Went Crazy Because She Was Schizophrenic, Not Because She Was Oppressed

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Understater
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
I'm a Hemingway nut, and this revelation totally adds a new dimension to his work. The overemphasized machismo, the one-note female characters, the constant association between womankind and the hindrance of mandkind...
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woobie
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
I learned this last year in English with The Sun Also Rises. I thought it was, like, common knowledge.
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formergr
12/18/08

@woobie: Well, like, not all of us knew it.
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Hiroine Protagonist
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Always the mother's fault, eh?
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SouthernComfort
12/18/08

@CraigWabba: Unless the daughter is on the pole. That would be Daddy's fault.
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SouthernComfort
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Wow. My Grandmother did this to my Father until he was four years old. My Grandfather was a raging drunk who would beat my Father upon returning home from the bar. He didn't hit women so my Grandmother dressed him as a girl at night and he was spared.

He is now a mess of a man who despises women and may have been better off taking the beatings.
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J.D.Regent
12/18/08

@SouthernComfort: wow. now THAT is the shit southern gothic novels are made from!
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margotenenbaum
12/18/08

@SouthernComfort: whoo boy. he must have been pretty damn drunk to forget that he had a son not a daughter
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SouthernComfort
12/18/08

@J.D.Regent: One day I will tell you about my Grandfather, his webbed toe children (second family), and his family run brothel.
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SouthernComfort
12/18/08

@margotenenbaum: He had one of each but I doubt that he paid that much attention.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@SouthernComfort: Oh my God. Oh, honey. What a legacy. Your poor Grandmother, and poor little boy who your father once was. Sometimes, the sheer quantity of pain in the world leaves me reeling.
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SouthernComfort
12/18/08

@ellaesther: I come from a long line of eccentric and crazy people, everyone lands on their feet with an everlasting supply of stories to tell.

My Grandmother ended up escaping the South and headed for New York where she was a nurse at Bellevue Hospital in the sixities and seventies. She also took in runaway heroin addict girls and helped them get a better life. She died a few years ago but I can tell you she would have loved this site.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@SouthernComfort: Aw man, that is the best story I have heard all day! Thank you for sharing it. And bless you Grandma, wheresoever you may be!
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Raspberry Swirly
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
So was his mother later institutionalized for some kind of breakdown? That seems like a post on the nutball fence.
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iheartapocalypse
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
When I was a kid I asked my mom why the kid down the street was so mean. It turns out his mother did the same thing to him until he was 5! Even creepier, she named him Aubrey after her daughter who had died before he was born.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@iheartapocalypse: Oy. Oy oy oy oy! OYYYYY!

Oy, that is so many kinds of wrong, and so sad! Oy Oy!

I try to tell my kids that if someone is mean, it usually means that they're sad or scared. I think your little neighbor was probably an example of both. Oy li!
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WaltzingMatilda
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Hm, this will change my battle cry for when I am going to get drunk. I usually say: "I am going to get Hemingwayed tonight - I'm either going to impregnate someone or someone's going to end up dead." Doesn't make much sense, but now I feel even worse. I will have to throw in a line "or I will dress my husband up in pantyhose" to round it out.
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taranwanderer
12/18/08

@WaltzingMatilda: Do you actually say "I'm going to get Hemingwayed tonight?" That is the best way to say "getting drunk" ever. I may have to steal it from you.
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WaltzingMatilda
12/18/08

@taranwanderer: Yup. It's either treated as a verb (i.e., I'm totally going to get Hemingwayed) or a noun (i.e., I'm definitely going to pull a Hemingway). It's very versatile.
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ccchild
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
I'm not sure I agree with the whole slant of this news item: So, just because his mother dressed him in the "wrongly" gendered clothes, he's supposed to be unsure of his sexuality throughout his life? Maybe he was, but it also seems that people are giving much too much credit to ribbons and bows.

But, what do I know? I also think that little boys who play with dolls aren't necessarily 1)gay, and 2) trans.
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ucelluccia
12/18/08

@ccchild: She didn't just dress his as a girl, though. She slotted him into both the physical sex of female and the gender role of girl. That's necessarily going to have a major impact on his development.
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ucelluccia
12/18/08

@ucelluccia: Try "dress him". Finals week = brain rot.
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ucelluccia
12/18/08

@ucelluccia: Actually, strike that whole second sentence. It came out wrong. Suffice it to say that there was more to it than dressing him as a girl. Blagh.
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Raspberry Swirly
12/18/08

@ccchild: I'm fairly certain that it wasn't JUST ribbons and bows. She actively maintained the illusion of having twin daughters, and that can be very damaging to a young boy. Hell, if it were reversed, it would be just as damaging to a little girl. See: numerous serial killers. No one's really saying anything about this making him gay or trans. It's just a deep psychological scar for him that came across in his writing and in his persona.
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sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit)
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Well that settles it. I'm naming my son Priscilla Vagina Boobies. He will outwrite Shakespeare.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@sarah.of.a.lesser.god (subservient to the ovumlord): If we are to believe Johnny Cash, "Sue" will do.
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EkaterinaBallerina
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
My parents knew a woman in book club that only wanted boys. When her second child turn out to be a girl, they named her Jacqueline and called her Jack. You weren't allowed to call her anything else. I often wonder what became of her.
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J.D.Regent
12/18/08

@ekaterinaballerina: extremely weird. why are some parents so obsessed with one gender? i can't wrap my head around it.
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EkaterinaBallerina
12/18/08

@J.D.Regent: Yeah I know. I don't get it either. It's biology, its genetics, and its a crapshoot. If you don't get that, you probably shouldn't be having kids. I can understand wanting a certain gender, but I don't understand the obsession with it. You get what you get, live with it (ha, literally...)
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J.D.Regent
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
the comments on the article also say that Ernest had a transgendered daughter (Gloria). Did you guys know that? How much did my lit professors blow for not telling me about this?
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Raspberry Swirly
12/18/08

@J.D.Regent: I was unaware of that. English class is in need of a serious revamp. Oh, as is history. I think kids would be a lot more interested in learning if the fun bits were taught.
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DontFearTheReefer
12/18/08

@Raspberry Swirl's love is on lockdown: seriously!! history is so dirty and scandalous and they never tell you about ANY of it in high school history class. thank god for wikipedia!
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Raspberry Swirly
12/18/08

@DontFearTheReefer: Wiki and the numerous "what they don't teach you in history class" books out there. Oh, and the history channel. I would move into the history channel if such a thing were possible.
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girlnamedblue
12/18/08

@Raspberry Swirl's love is on lockdown: So this is hours late, but, I loved watching the history channel when I was little. They didn't leave out all the fun stuff, and my parents never paid attention to what I was watching because it was "educational".
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randomnessish
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
I wonder...I wonder if F. Scott Fitzgerald knew.

Probably.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Ooh, ooh! I so rarely get to say this!

My grandmother (not the flapper) grew up across the street from Hemingway, and one of his other sisters (Carol) was her best friend, and babysat for my dad! And (to top it off) she did all this while living in a Frank Lloyd Wright house that Wright built specifically for her father, with whom he worked.

Sadly, the house is no longer in the family and I don't like Hemingway's writing either (see missteenwordpower's above "no fun" comment). But where I live, this story makes me all-but royalty.
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@ellaesther: Oops, should have said "LATER babysat for my dad." My grandmother did not give birth to him as a child.
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AuntieEm (robots from the year 2000 > zombies)
12/18/08

@ellaesther: that's amazing!
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@AuntieEm - check out cafepress.com/121608: I know, right? People are always telling me I should write about it, and the problem is that that's all I got -- and there's no one left to ask about it.
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the dodo, the cuckoo, and the nene
12/18/08

@ellaesther: That is really cool! I just finished reading "Loving Frank" so I am in an Oak Park/Frank Lloyd Wright/Mamuh Borthwick sort of mood. It totally made me want to go down to Oak Park and check out the houses. And yeah, definitely worthy of your royalty status!
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ellaesther
12/18/08

@I-L-L... is no longer the lizard queen: It's the Balch House, on Kenilworth, kind of catty-corner across the street from the Hemingway House (not the one he was born in, on Oak Park, but the one he grew up in). You'll know it when you see it!
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rocknrollunicorn
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
Hmm... on the one hand, I want a literary genius baby. On the other hand, I've come up with a plan because I do not want to find out any potential unicornkids' gender(s) in utero. I am going to just buy a lot of black baby clothes beforehand, and have a Sprockets baby regardless of sex.

Which might oddly affect any girl babies I have, I guess.
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LadyNo Fondles Sweaters
12/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: Goth babies!
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squirrelcop
12/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: Oof, their in-utero dancing could be a little tough on the belly.
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Raspberry Swirly
12/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: But will they have time for ze dancing?
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AuntieEm (robots from the year 2000 > zombies)
12/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: SPROCKETS!!!
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
12/18/08

In reply to The Old Man And The...Lacey Bonnet
I thought back then all little boys were dressed in bonnets and dresses. Maybe that was just my grandfather.
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FourInchHeels
12/18/08

@treecut...Grim Reaper of the forest: My great aunt used to dress my father up as a girl. My grandma was the oldest and this aunt was like 15 years younger than her, so she and my dad were only a few years apart. She'd put him in dresses and call him Andy Sue. He may be 58, but he still gets mad as hell if you call him Andy Sue.
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