Why do I even bother to read the TLS?

[steepholm]

It always makes my blood boil, and this week I could have scorched a creme brulee using my nostrils alone.

First there was Hugo Williams's blimpish complaint in his Freelance column: "In order to avoid 'he' as a pronoun of common gender, some writers, including academics, have gone over to using 'she', a more obtrusive, less attractive word."

Now, whatever you think about the idea of common gender (no doubt everyone has their preferred solution), is "she" really a less attractive word than "he"? Really? And if Williams truly believes that, why, in his illustrative example of this barbarism, does he give a sentence that uses neither of these, but "her"? Answers on a brick, addressed to the TLS.

Elsewhere in the same issue, Adrian Tahourdin rightly celebrates the award of the Bernard Shaw translation prize to Thomas Teal for his work on Tove Jansson's Fair Play. Great - except that Tahourdin chooses to remind readers who Jansson is by telling them that "Tove Jansson will be known in this country for the charming novella The Summer Book." Now, I love The Summer Book, I really do, but this is a little like saying that "Shakespeare will be known to readers in this country for his narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece." Why couldn't Tahourdin bring himself to mention that Jansson is the author of some of the greatest works of twentieth century literature? Simple: because they were published for children, of course.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

>I could have scorched a creme brulee using my nostrils alone.

That's one HELL of an image!

I think you are quite right and my moomintastic household agrees with you.

[sheenaghpugh]

It can only be "more obtrusive" because in Williams's eyes, "he" is the default, and "she" some strange aberration from the norm, no? I hate to bring class up, she lied, but this is surely the world view of a man who went to a single-sex boarding school and formed his habits of thinking there.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about Williams personally, but I wouldn't be surprised. "She" obtrudes as a reminder that women exist, which must certainly be jolt to the system, and not a pleasant one.

As for the idea of "he" as a generic, which I'm sure Williams would raise if challenged, it bears very little examination, I think. He'd have conniptions if someone used "caveperson" instead of "caveman", for example, but ask anyone to draw a caveman, and the man they draw will always be male. Male is still the default, as you say.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Ah, Wiki tells me Williams is an old Etonian. It's not a huge surprise.

[sheenaghpugh]

I must admit, my own favourite work of Jansson's happens to be an adult one, the bleakly beautiful short story "Taking Leave". But her style strikes me as much the same, lucid and unfussy, whether she is writing for children or adults, and I doubt she ever made a difference between them in her own mind. We didn't have her children's books around because my daughter was terrified of Moomins, but I might revisit them now...

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Jansson is the author of some of the greatest works of twentieth century literature

Oh, yes.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

I used a They on Facebook the other month (although in fact I could have rightly used she but didn't want to specify a gender) and was taken to task. If it's good enough for Jane Austen...

On the other hand, there are those occasions when I've decided to used she as default, but all the comments are negative and I suddenly look anti women! (Ah, the poor wee liberal white male)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

(Ah, the poor wee liberal white male)

A cleft stick caught on the horns of a dilemma, to be sure.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

less attractive word

Well, of course, that's why Rider Haggard entitled his epic romance He.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

:-) Yes, thereby inventing a popular playground game!

[sovay]

It always makes my blood boil, and this week I could have scorched a creme brulee using my nostrils alone.

That is a wonderful image, and I am so sorry.

the award of the Bernard Shaw translation prize to Thomas Teal for his work on Tove Jansson's Fair Play.

I will have to check that out. I didn't know she'd written non-Moomin things until very recently, when I saw The Summer Book in the Harvard Book Store and The True Deceiver in the little book kiosk in South Station. They both looked very good.

Why couldn't Tahourdin bring himself to mention that Jansson is the author of some of the greatest works of twentieth century literature? Simple: because they were published for children, of course.

Sigh.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, do check out The Summer Book. I enjoyed it a lot more than Lucrece really! (And it's a lot better than 'charming novella' makes it sound.)

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Ghastly man. The singular "they" confuses no-one; English doesn't need strict pronoun/verb agreement. And if you really care almost anything can be euphoniously rejigged into a plural.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Indeed. And I forgot to mention that a few lines earlier he was bemoaning the loss of such useful words as 'sculptress', which puts his devotion to the language of common gender in some doubt. (Of course, the most important thing to know when you look at a sculpture is the sex of the person who made it, right? In fact, we might extend the practice: "sculptoik" could be the word for a working-class sculptor, and so on...)