咖啡店里有不少不言不语坐在角落的茶客，他们天天都来，就是不贴帖子，有想法就给我写email， 就像这位，写了一个挺有意思的想法，因为不想独吞他的“思想”，就拿出来与大家一起讨论。
从今后要立个新规矩，光看不贴不行。
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I read your thoughts about the difference between men and women writers. Suffering, as you mentioned, is something close to it or has some truth in it. The deeper reason or the root of the issue is how to make a living and different social roles to play.
Most women writers began to write when they secured financial support from husbands or parents. While a
man writer is expected to achieve other success in society. He is supposed to support the family, be a success in any kind, and therefore face a stronger conflict in making the choice of becoming a writer. For women,
writing is to make things better. For men, it is to turn things to work, or worse. You surely know the origin of the word "scholar," which means to have leisure. In modern world, scholars don't have any leisure. So, women
writers are scholars in ancient sense and men writers are scholars in modern sense. When I said to you that I admire women's capability to describe details, I was kind of referring to this issue but not very accurate yet. Even for those women writers who suffered from some poverty (like the author of Harry Potter), there is still a difference here in social expectations of social roles.
For a woman suffering from poverty while insisting on writing, people would just respect her and think she has
courage and she is working to help herself or solve her problems. A man suffering from poverty while writing can get zero sympathy. People would just say: go find a job to make money. So women writing is usually viewed
as moving towards a higher status while men writers are viewed as self-exile or giving up other opportunities. This is somewhat similar or simply just opposite to homosexuals. Lesbians are giving up climbing on
social ladders and degrading their social class, for two-women-households have less household income than a man-and-woman household has. But gays are social climbers, as two-men-families have higher household income than regular families. Also opposite to writers situation, lesbians get more sympathy while gays have harder time to solicit understanding. These differences create different social environment for men and women in
choosing to become writers. In other words, it is different types of men and women who self selected to be writers. I think I have said enough, and wish to hear from you now.
- Re: male writers vs. female writersposted on 08/13/2003
跟别的事一样，写作本身不高尚也不低下，事在人为。男女某些方面当然有别，但男女作者突出的共同点也很多，比如：
1. 都用心观察人性生活
2. 都用心运用语言文字
3 .都主动或被动地成为作者
仅此几点，我觉得作者们或男女作者们相互间值得交流学习的东西还是很多的。
写过几篇小文章，只觉得写作跟染上烟酒似的，明知利害，却戒不掉。
饭桌上得一好故事，在家里讲了不算，硬要写出来给多朋友看，只觉得痛快。(注：我是男的) - posted on 08/16/2003
“我常常这样说，现在可以不受约束地谈谈这件事，即关于男人写的小说。存在着一种男性文学，废话连篇、喋喋不休，被学问教养缠得动弹不得，思想充斥累赘沉重，观念形态、哲学、变相的论述评论塞得满满的，这种文学已不属于创作范围，而是另一种东西，属于一种傲气，是一种一般表现老板地位的那种东西，完全没有特异性。在绝大多数情况下，他们根本不可能达到诗的境界。诗在他们那里已被剥夺无遗。男人的小说，根本不是诗。而小说，小说是诗，要么就什么也不是，是抄袭。”
-- 杜拉斯， <情人>的作者， 如是说。 我也深有同感。 诗意对文学写作太重要了， 可惜很多男性作家没有， 生活所迫吗？ 还是总觉得自己是老板， 想颐指气使。杜拉斯推崇的普鲁斯特的确没这个毛病。
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