Why this author says female characters are harder to write than male ones
Women are complicated creatures - it's something we're told over and over on TV, in books and by parents with teen daughters.
Author Jaclyn Little has worked to unravel that idea in her latest book, "Warning's Wane," published last year. Paul and Colleen Danniers move to Praxia, a small island off the coast of Maine, so that Colleen can be with her mother in her final days. The island is strange, its residents creepy and superstitious: They believe that if two people touch, they disappear, and so touching is forbidden. As Paul struggles to obey this rule, he starts to uncover the island's secrets - and finds himself simultaneously obsessed with and disdainful of his mysterious wife.
In an online chat, Little talked to The Washington Post about how she came up with this unusual plot, how her book represents women and grapples with the male gaze.
Q. "Warning's Wane" is told from the point of view of Paul instead of Colleen, who I really wanted to know about! How did you make that choice?
A. The story always naturally came to me from Paul, although I think of the actual story as being Colleen's. Colleen is the Siren, the enigma and the mystery - she is the stranger and the Other in whom I'm interested in writing about, these people that we can never fully know.
Q. Well, we're in this time when people are often questioning the representation of female characters and how strong they are.
A. I was really interested in the male gaze. A lot of Paul and Colleen's relationship is derived from my own relationships, where I felt my male counterpart did not fully respect or hold me in regard as an equal. Paul sees Colleen as property in a way.
Q. Was it hard to write from a man's point of view?
A. Sometimes I would spend such long stretches of time in [Paul's] mind. I would leave the house and see women as if I were him, and act very differently than what's true to my sense of self. It got really confusing sometimes. But there were times when I was worried about coming off as too "emotional" - as insensitive to men as that is. But I think it's definitely easier for a woman to write as a man, as opposed to a man writing as a woman, which I believe is a direct product of our patriarchal society.
Q. It brings to mind the kerfuffle with Andrew Smith, who wrote "Grasshopper Jungle." When he was asked why he didn't often write female characters, he was kind of like "eh, girls are hard."
A. I am seriously laughing right now.
Q. On the one hand it's like, OK, I don't want you to force something if you're not feeling it, but how can you be an adult and feel like you don't understand women?
A. But we are hard, if you're not one of us! Even if you are one of us! I feel terrible saying this, but also in all of my interaction with men, I feel this is an informed statement: Women have more complexities than men.
That's the problem with our society, and that's a huge theme in "Warning's Wane." There are so many people who are "adults" but don't even make an effort to understand women.
They just give up. And they can. They can give up and just continue existing within their oblivious world, because that's how society functions. That's something I try to subtly break down in my work.
Q. But after awhile, you start to understand Paul's world view, and then that of the islanders. It's kind of scary actually.
A. Exactly! Which is how I see just natural human adaptation. You start to reason with things you'd never normally reason with. You adapt. Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's very, very bad.
Q. It's kind of like ... have you ever stood in a line when you didn't have to? Like, everyone is getting in line, and you're like, well, this is what you do in society, you just stand in this line.
A. Yes! Like ... why are you standing there? Why are you doing what this crowd is doing, even though you know it's idiotic?