Chick Lit

[helena22]

things to talk about...
-Have you heard the term "chick lit"?
-What do you think are the characteristics of the genre that stand out?
-Have you enjoyed some good works of the genre?
-Anything to recommend?/Any great author(s)?
-What makes you feel drawn to those works?
-...and anything else you'd love to bring up!
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Here's my story:

Several years back, I found some books on my sister's desk.
All these colorful covers with pretty fonts...Def. caught my eye.
I believe in the "Don't judge a book by its cover" rule, but sometimes I break the rule and don't feel no shame.
Those covers got me thinking "Hmmm, might be fun to read."
She had several books by the same writer named Sophie Kinsella.
Soon after, I came to know there actually is a sub-genre called "chick lit" and thinking of my sister's favorite Kinsella series, it made perfect sense.

Fast forward to right now, I'm reading The Undomestic Goddess by...Sophie Kinsella.

I bought it, when, I think, I was in a funk and tried many different things to get out of it. Kind of what people can get from watching happy-go-lucky soap operas or reality shows. I was ready to take advantage of chick lit. Not too heavy, not too difficult...
Like, even after work and very tired late at night, I feel like I can enjoy chick lit books. Can't deal with heavy stuff when I'm on the verge of falling asleep.

 

[Severus Snape]

Everyone judges a book by its cover, despite the old adage. If this weren't so, people wouldn't invest in luxury editions of given works, and publishing companies wouldn't bother printing the book on quality paper and printing out a glossy quality jacket. There also would be no niche for book cover illustrators/designers/photographers if a book's cover was of no importance. People appreciate beautiful things, that's a fact. We are visual creatures, and would rather have a book which appears clean and pretty than one with tattered pages, torn covers, signs of age, etc. (Although there is a market for gracefully aged copies of works, but these were usually aforementioned quality editions at some point, so even in this context my words apply).

In any case, I have heard of "Chick Lit," but I don't partake. I don't even like "chick flicks," something would tell me I would have a similar reaction to "chick lit." Truth be told, I don't relate to women at all, so those kinds of things don't interest me. I'm female in physical anatomy only.

 

[helena22]

Everyone judges a book by its cover, despite the old adage. If this weren't so, people wouldn't invest in luxury editions of given works, and publishing companies wouldn't bother printing the book on quality paper and printing out a glossy quality jacket. There also would be no niche for book cover illustrators/designers/photographers if a book's cover was of no importance. People appreciate beautiful things, that's a fact. We are visual creatures, and would rather have a book which appears clean and pretty than one with tattered pages, torn covers, signs of age, etc. (Although there is a market for gracefully aged copies of works, but these were usually aforementioned quality editions at some point, so even in this context my words apply).

In any case, I have heard of "Chick Lit," but I don't partake. I don't even like "chick flicks," something would tell me I would have a similar reaction to "chick lit." Truth be told, I don't relate to women at all, so those kinds of things don't interest me. I'm female in physical anatomy only.

I think esp. many chick lit book look pretty on the cover.
I'd love to point out that, almost all of the ones I looked at, they had various warm and vibrant colors. Beautiful fonts and everything.
Got me thinking "Oh, this must not have a tragic ending", or "Can't be too dramatic." It can become, like your comfort food when you're stressed out and don't wanna deal with no more serious stuff again in books.

I'm never girly-girly or highly "feminine" myself, but I feel I'm drawn to some of the characters and stories on an emotional level, not necessarily the topics.
The tone of the writers, that too.
At the same time, it's really interesting to peep at another woman's life, esp. really different kind of women from the kind of woman I am.

 

[Severus Snape]

It's not about being feminine or "girly." I mean it when I say I'm not female at all. Even tomboyish or not-so-girly girls still exhibit a womanly frame of mind when it comes to the way they react to the world, from my observations. Case in point would be my friend, who isn't what I would think of when I think "girly," but who nonetheless reacts to the world in a manner befitting a woman. The pattern of talking about/exhibiting feelings, having higher levels of empathy than men, and investing high importance in her relationships with others [such as her boyfriend, for example], etc.

Women are more about communication than men, and don't tend to be as aggressive. Even your words reflect that--you find solace in creating relationships, even if these are on an abstract level with fictional characters and their stories.

I like to read a lot of what others would consider "dry" books dealing with history, psychology, science, etc. When I do read fiction, it is usually gender-neutral haute literature, mostly written by men. Actually, now that I really think of it, with the outstanding exception of J.K. Rowling [who doesn't even write in a particularly womanly way, which is why her books are universally popular], not a single woman is to be found among my favourite authors. Interesting--never noticed:

Victor Hugo, J.M. Barrie, Aleksandr Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov, Marquis de Sade, Voltaire, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, Michael Jackson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Milton, J.K. Rowling.<--

 

[helena22]

It's not about being feminine or "girly." I mean it when I say I'm not female at all. Even tomboyish or not-so-girly girls still exhibit a womanly frame of mind when it comes to the way they react to the world, from my observations. Case in point would be my friend, who isn't what I would think of when I think "girly," but who nonetheless reacts to the world in a manner befitting a woman. The pattern of talking about/exhibiting feelings, having higher levels of empathy than men, and investing high importance in her relationships with others [such as her boyfriend, for example], etc.

Women are more about communication than men, and don't tend to be as aggressive. Even your words reflect that--you find solace in creating relationships, even if these are on an abstract level with fictional characters and their stories.

I like to read a lot of what others would consider "dry" books dealing with history, psychology, science, etc. When I do read fiction, it is usually gender-neutral haute literature, mostly written by men. Actually, now that I really think of it, with the outstanding exception of J.K. Rowling [who doesn't even write in a particularly womanly way, which is why her books are universally popular], not a single woman is to be found among my favourite authors. Interesting--never noticed:

Victor Hugo, J.M. Barrie, Aleksandr Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov, Marquis de Sade, Voltaire, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, Michael Jackson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Milton, J.K. Rowling.<--

Now that you mentioned your friend, I think I'm like her.
Maybe she doesn't hate chick lit, if not particularly enjoy.

"Gender-neutral"...That choice of word really caught my eye.
Got me thinking about the topic at hand in a different way.
Chick lit, as the term shows, its target audience is women.
I think it heavily draws on some of "feminine" characteristics or "female experience", so it's gender-oriented.
What I'm tryin to say here is, some might think that is exactly why the sub-genre is essentially limited?
Me, I don't think so. IMO, chick lit is intended to be lacking in depth and THAT is why some people might look down on it and/or its readers.
[With the use of the word "chick", to begin with, the genre almost like refuses to be taken serious, but I don't think it's out of self-depreciation or anything.]

Well, almost more than half of the fictions that really touched me, they're from female writers, like, Nella Larsen, Cho Kyung-ran and Kate Chopin, to name a few. None of em is a chick lit author.
Not saying I think less of chick lit authors. They really are good story-tellers, but the kind of stories are not meant to touch your soul and change your life in some way or another. If a particular story does that to some readers, then it's a wonderful thing, tho.

One more thing....
There once was a time when all those acclaimed female writers' work woulda been looked at the way some would look at chick lit...I guess, even many years later, contemporary chick lit works still wouldn't be highly praised as classics.

 

[Severus Snape]

^Yes, but even high literature female authors still write in a way that is exceptionally female. The only female I've read work from who does not write in an explicitly female way is J.K. Rowling, but I think that is mainly because the majority of her protagonists are male, so her word choices and frame of mind have to be gender-neutral at best, for the maleness of her protagonists to be believable. She lets her feminine frame of mind come out in characters like Ginny and Hermione [who are annoying to me, lol]. But I'd say Rowling is gender-neutral. Her male and female characters have a mix of both masculine and feminine traits, so the whole work is really almost androgynous as far as the way it reads.

Revered female authors like, for example, the Brontë sisters, may write high literature but still in an overwhelmingly female sort of way [which is why they're overwhelmingly popular with females--I have yet to meet a passionate fan of the Brontës who was male, lol, but yet their works hold paramount cultural/social importance, especially in relation to women and the 19th century]. I'm not looking down on it, I'm just saying that's not the way my mind works so I personally don't like books written by women as a general rule.

There are books marketed at men, which also do not appeal to me. They're usually action/military history sort of books. They focus a lot on WHAT is happening, and do not usually sufficiently develop the protagonist as 'self,' as opposed to books targeted at women which usually center on the protagonist in relation to his/her environment, and while they may elaborate intensely on her relationships, they also fail to develop the protagonist as 'self.'

I guess I really like books which focus on ideas and concepts as opposed to either actions or relationships. That's probably why I read the kind of stuff I read about for fun. =P

 

[helena22]

How about this one?

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
I think the story neatly falls into the chick lit category.

I'm sure some of yall read it.
I only watched the movie and it was just some weeks ago.

Would you recommend the book?
(not to me, cuz I've already made up my mind )
Even to someone like me, I mean, those who saw the movie?

Since the movie was good, I'll try the book some time after going back to non-chick lit.

 

[Severus Snape]

^Never read, mother dragged me to watch the film. It was decent for what it is.

 

[helena22]

^Never read, mother dragged me to watch the film. It was decent for what it is.

Yep :yes:
For me, it was good becuz I could relate to Anne Hathaway's character.
I wasn't drawn to the fancy clothes and luxurious things at all.
You know, what rookies have to go through just starting out in the real world.
I mean, I could see my old self in her.
She made soooo many mistakes and sometimes didn't even know it was a serious mistake LOL

Oh, speaking of which, I think I've just found another characteristic of some chick lit stories.
The setting is usually a city life with a lot of hustle and bustle goin on. The main character gotta be financially independent and stable, more or less and she makes and spends her own money.
Otherwise, I don't think many readers would find it appealing.