osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2013-08-28 07:57 am
osprey_archer) wrote2013-08-28 07:57 am
Entry tags:
Wednesday Reading Meme
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Will James’ Smoky the Cowhorse, the only Western ever to win a Newbery Medal. I now have just three books left for the Newbery project, and all of them are on CD!
What I’m Reading Now
Clare Vanderpool’s Moon over Manifest, which is ostensibly the story of Abilene, but in fact is mostly the story of Jinx and Ned. (I am pretty sure that Jinx is going to turn out to be Abilene’s daddy, but we’ll see.)
So until recently, Abilene’s been riding the rails through the Depression Era Midwest with her daddy Gideon, but after she cut up her leg he sent her to the town of Manifest, where he spent some time as a boy. Abilene is our narrator, but most of the story concerns her digging up her daddy’s story, as he and his friend Ned dodge the Klan, learn how to make fireworks, and get caught up in the Great War fever.
It’s not precisely that I mind this, but it does feel a bit like Vanderpool made up a heroine then couldn’t think of an adventure to give her, so ended up writing mostly about her dad instead.
Last week,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
enemyfrigate asked whether there was any correlation between time period and gender of protagonist - if, that is, historical fiction books were more likely to have a male protagonists than contemporary fiction. The answer is “Not particularly” - I have the numbers below the cut, if you’re interested.
But there is a definite correlation between gender of protagonists and type of plot. The historical fiction books about boys tend to be adventure stories, descended loosely from Treasure Island, while the ones about girls are coming of age stories in the mode of Anne of Green Gables. Many of the boys come of age too, but they usually do so through the medium of adventure.
Here’s how the numbers stacked up:
Historical fiction
Male: 26
Female: 18
Co-protagonists: 1 (Moon Over Manifest)
Contemporary fiction
Male: 11
Female: 7
Co-protagonists/Multiple Protagonists: 6
And then I went ahead and broke down the whole list of Newbery winners by genre, just to see what type of books won most often.
Genre
Historical fiction: 45
Contemporary fiction: 24 (and these are clustered heavily in recent years; until the 1950s, only one contemporary fiction book won)
Fantasy/SF: 12 (including talking animals stories like Rabbit Hill and Miss Hickory, although I don’t normally think of those as being part of the fantasy genre.)
Non-fiction: 6 (there are also a number of novelized biographies, which I’ve counted among the historical fiction)
Poetry and short story collections: 5 (and I suppose you could include Out of the Dust, but I really think that’s more of a historical novel that happens to be written in verse)
Western: 1 (Smoky the Cowhorse)
I think it is fairly clear that the Newbery judges, at least in the early days, subscribed to the classical theory of art criticism, that historical works are clearly of more merit than genre - “genre” in this instance meaning, confusingly, contemporary realistic works. Until the 1950s, the award slanted heavily, heavily toward historical fiction; until the 1950s only one contemporary fiction book won, and as that focused on a Navajo boy whose family still mostly followed the old ways, the judges may not have noticed how contemporary it was.
What I Plan to Read Next
School has started, so mostly I’m reading books for class. However, once I finish listening to Moon Over Manifest, I’m moving on to Criss Cross.
Will James’ Smoky the Cowhorse, the only Western ever to win a Newbery Medal. I now have just three books left for the Newbery project, and all of them are on CD!
What I’m Reading Now
Clare Vanderpool’s Moon over Manifest, which is ostensibly the story of Abilene, but in fact is mostly the story of Jinx and Ned. (I am pretty sure that Jinx is going to turn out to be Abilene’s daddy, but we’ll see.)
So until recently, Abilene’s been riding the rails through the Depression Era Midwest with her daddy Gideon, but after she cut up her leg he sent her to the town of Manifest, where he spent some time as a boy. Abilene is our narrator, but most of the story concerns her digging up her daddy’s story, as he and his friend Ned dodge the Klan, learn how to make fireworks, and get caught up in the Great War fever.
It’s not precisely that I mind this, but it does feel a bit like Vanderpool made up a heroine then couldn’t think of an adventure to give her, so ended up writing mostly about her dad instead.
Last week,
enemyfrigate asked whether there was any correlation between time period and gender of protagonist - if, that is, historical fiction books were more likely to have a male protagonists than contemporary fiction. The answer is “Not particularly” - I have the numbers below the cut, if you’re interested. But there is a definite correlation between gender of protagonists and type of plot. The historical fiction books about boys tend to be adventure stories, descended loosely from Treasure Island, while the ones about girls are coming of age stories in the mode of Anne of Green Gables. Many of the boys come of age too, but they usually do so through the medium of adventure.
Here’s how the numbers stacked up:
Historical fiction
Male: 26
Female: 18
Co-protagonists: 1 (Moon Over Manifest)
Contemporary fiction
Male: 11
Female: 7
Co-protagonists/Multiple Protagonists: 6
And then I went ahead and broke down the whole list of Newbery winners by genre, just to see what type of books won most often.
Genre
Historical fiction: 45
Contemporary fiction: 24 (and these are clustered heavily in recent years; until the 1950s, only one contemporary fiction book won)
Fantasy/SF: 12 (including talking animals stories like Rabbit Hill and Miss Hickory, although I don’t normally think of those as being part of the fantasy genre.)
Non-fiction: 6 (there are also a number of novelized biographies, which I’ve counted among the historical fiction)
Poetry and short story collections: 5 (and I suppose you could include Out of the Dust, but I really think that’s more of a historical novel that happens to be written in verse)
Western: 1 (Smoky the Cowhorse)
I think it is fairly clear that the Newbery judges, at least in the early days, subscribed to the classical theory of art criticism, that historical works are clearly of more merit than genre - “genre” in this instance meaning, confusingly, contemporary realistic works. Until the 1950s, the award slanted heavily, heavily toward historical fiction; until the 1950s only one contemporary fiction book won, and as that focused on a Navajo boy whose family still mostly followed the old ways, the judges may not have noticed how contemporary it was.
What I Plan to Read Next
School has started, so mostly I’m reading books for class. However, once I finish listening to Moon Over Manifest, I’m moving on to Criss Cross.
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If the historical fiction seems to be considered particularly of merit up to the 50's, is there any grouping to the distribution of SF?
Now I am thinking about historical adventures for girls...
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Historical fiction still dominates the recent lists, though. It's just not quite as overwhelmingly dominant as it used to be.