Warning: Some Violence and Much Strong Language.SHE WROTE: I, Of Course, Am Logic
Emotion and logic colliding make perfect sense. It's that "You got chocolate on my peanut butter" thing.
Bob had this interesting idea tonight: "You know, maybe we should write a book where the heroine and hero switch roles. She's the assassin or whatever. And he's the librarian."
Jenny: "I love it. It'd be good for us, too. Maybe he's the hotel manager. With glasses."
Bob: "And you could write him, and I'd write her for the first two acts. Could be weird."
Jenny: "Nope, you write him and I write her. We just learn to be different people. It could be very cool."
Bob: (Silence)
What I'm thinking is that I can understand wanting to kill somebody easier than I can understand wanting to write my name in the snow, so to speak. And that Bob can understand wanting to take care of people and nurture easier than he can understand PMS and shoes. In other words, it's easier to switch worldviews than it is to switch genders.
We're already doing it to a certain extent. I had Agnes beat a guy to death with a frying pan in the first draft of the first scene. Bob had Shane bantering endlessly, establishing relationships with everybody in the first draft of the second scene. We're already well on our way to becoming peanut butter cups.
Which is why I keep going back to the line in the otherwise good PW review: "cliched gender dynamics." No, I'm not obsessing on the review, I'm trying to wrap my brain around the "cliched" part because I wasn't trying to be girly and Bob wasn't trying to be manly. (Bob was BORN manly.) I was just writing my kind of girl and he was writing his kind of guy and when they got together, well, they sounded like us. We had some of those fights. And after one of them Bob said, "I'm sorry," and I said, "What for?" and there was a long silence, just like in the book, while he tried to figure out why the hell I was mad. (And let me tell you, I HAD A REASON.) We had a lot of the same battles that Lucy and Wilder did. In other words, Bob and I are cliches.
Except I don't think that the differences in genders are cliches. I don't think that writing a woman who likes shoes is a cliche; most of the women I know have the shoe thing. I figure it's in our DNA: somewhere back in the mists of time, the women with the great shoes got a survival edge and we've been buying them ever since. Does that mean that all female characters should buy shoes? No. Does that mean if she does, she's a cliche? Bite me.
Where was I? Right. Gender cliches.
So emotion and logic colliding. Bob says that makes no sense. I think it makes perfect sense. Emotion needs logic to temper it and keep it safe, and logic needs emotion to keep it warm and make it laugh. Just like our heroines and heroes. So in the hotel book, my heroine is going keep the hero safe, and his hero is going keep my heroine warm and make her laugh. And she's going to describe the Gatling Gun while he buys great shoes.
Okay, this is going to take some more thought.
But I am DEFINITELY Logic.
20 Comments:
"What I'm thinking is that I can understand wanting to kill somebody easier than I can understand wanting to write my name in the snow, so to speak."
I think you underestimate yourself. :-) I bet if you had the equipment and were feeling playful, well, enough said.
I followed your logic. Wow, DLD, releases in less than a month, you are working on Agnes, and now the hotel book! See me doing the Snoopy dance. How's that for logic? I'm ready to reserve a copy of a book that is only an idea! ; )
I've never understood this fuss about shoes. Shoes have to be comfortable, how they look comes a distant second. To me clothes are much more important.
Hotel book, hotel book, hotel book.
Repeat after me, hotel book. I bags the first copy.
I don't understand the shoe thing either. They need to be comfortable, and one needs more than one pair (sandals/ sports-shoes/ hiking-boots /wellington boots /pair of shoes for everyday / pair of shoes to wear to parties). Shoes are too expensive, and take up too much space, for me to want more than one of each type.
I think there is a huge bias against anything other than "serious" fiction out there by reviewers. Forget it. Forget the reviews. Your books make people laugh and cry and not feel guilty about carb addiction. And now they'll give us a real insight into the male psyche and their obsession with breasts. So reviewers can ponder and postulate and pontifcate and literary snobs can turn up their noses because it's not boring or depressing and doesn't make you want to slit your wrists as you read it.
We're going to love it!!!!!!!!!
I didn't get the shoe thing until my late twenties- then one day it just sorta 'clicked'. Now I'm obsessed. I bought the coolest 'hooker shoes' a couple of weeks back- now I'm just waiting for it to get warm enough to wear them. (Four inch heels, pale beige, dinky little strap around the ankle, awesome embroidery and beadwork across the open toe... ahhh.)
Maybe the heroine could buy shoes to match her gatling gun? :P
Let me get this straight... you BOTH want to write the woman's POV. Nice. And a Happy International Women's Day to you both.
Bob had this interesting idea tonight: "You know, maybe we should write a book where the heroine and hero switch roles. She's the assassin or whatever. And he's the librarian."
Jenny: "I love it. It'd be good for us, too. Maybe he's the hotel manager. With glasses."
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Oooh. The Hotel Book. It'll be like Fred's book! Okay, now you have to write it. Otherwise we'll just nag you guys mercilessly
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Which is why I keep going back to the line in the otherwise good PW review: "cliched gender dynamics." No, I'm not obsessing on the review, I'm trying to wrap my brain around the "cliched" part ...
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There's a reason why things become cliche ... nature v. nurture aside, we get the shoe DNA and they get the gizmo DNA. There are exceptions to every rule though because while I might not defend my iPod to the death (which I would my shoes) I have to say its a pretty cool little doodad.
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... while he buys great shoes.
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Lets not get carried away here.
Instead of a hotel clerk, what about a musician? Musicians are often soulful and sincere (and not likely to beat someone over the head with their piano or violin) whereas hotel clerks are often jerks.
Hey watch who you are calling a jerk!! OK...I am not actually a hotel clerk anymore, but I put in my time. We have some strong opinions about guests too! After being in the hotel industry for 12 years now I only wish I could be a jerk sometimes!
Thank you, Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer, for this blog.
I just got offered, and accepted a new job yesterday, after almost seven years at my current job. I'm so nervous about taking it on, I cant think today. But then, after reading about *your* profession, the idea of managing the home office of a huge dental supply office in the midwest doesn't seem quite so stressful.
can't wait for April 4th!
I think I would more easily get the shoe thing if my feet weren't size 10.
That said, I do have some really awesome shoes that I love. But cute... not so much.
Putting in my vote for the hotel book too. (There was a discussion a couple of days ago over at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, about professions that are never seen in romance novels -- butcher? mortician? minor bureaucrat? grad student? -- during which I figured out that I find quiet, laid-back competence, in whatever form, extremely sexy. FWIW. Bob could so totally write a quiet, laid-back, highly competent hotel manager.)
I think shoes are right up there in importance with the right hair style (my SoCalian tendencies are shining through, aren't they?)I "get" the make-over scenes in romance novels. I always feel a good surge of self confidence and general happiness after a good hair cut, or new shoes.
Of course, I get the same surge in general happiness from reading Jenny and Bob. Or just Jenny. Or Bob. Wait, there's a marketing hook here, somewhere...
-Lily (Cherry Blues)
yes, Yes, YES!!!!
Please write that book!!!!!!
---Bob: "And you could write him, and I'd write her for the first two acts. Could be weird."
Jenny: "Nope, you write him and I write her. We just learn to be different people. It could be very cool."---
Of course, Jenny has the logic. You don't have to be male to be a killer or female to be a clerk. Instead of a hotel clerk, why not have Bob write an event planner at a hotel? He'd be so on top of it with his background, planning every detail down to the tiniest thing. Bob, if you ever get bored with writing, there's a career for you. Even planners make big bucks. (Work their asses off, too, but we won't mention that...oh, I just did.)
Hey! You're two, TWO, TW, mints in one!
That should be two, TWO, TWO
In some cultures, women are seen as the cool, collected, logical ones who accomplish Worthy Things, while men are the erratic balls of emotion charging about hither and yon and making lots of noise. How about going multi-cultural if you can't wrap your brain around hotel clerking?
I WANT THE HOTEL BOOK!!!! I wanna see what happens when you start playing around with inverting roles. Would you make it happen by external circumstances? Or would you dream up characters who would have such a mix of human characteristiscs that they could switch between roles? Or, is it that men are men, women are women, and you would explore how they each could be successful in the opposite role? (And no, it doesn't have to be a hotel--it's the role bending I want to see.)
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