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2002-03-27 - 11:21 p.m. Just a quick note from the feminist in me. I went to the link provided by Adam of Words Mean Things ofthe 100 Most Memorable Characters in Fiction since 1900 as provided by some magazine called Booktalk or something like that. Well, I went through and counted how many were by women. 22 was the grand total. Keep in mind that I hadn't heard of all of these authors so some could be women with man names (there were also some that were just initials so could have been women too). However, Virginia Woolf was on there for two different characters, so that makes it really 21. I was just appalled. This is since 1900, which means it should be more likely that there would be more women than found on many of these kinds of lists. I don't care where or how they came up with this list (whether based on a survey of book readers, or on the magazines writers' own opinion), it shows me that our society still has a long way to go. It's not like I don't agree with some of the selections. I love Holden Caulfield, of course. I was happy with the inclusion of Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Invisible Man and Bigger Thomas are both ones that stick out in my mind....however, I do contest Stephen Dedalaus from Portrait (sorry, I think Joyce is sooooo overrated) and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. I just think that more than one fifth to one fourth of the most memorable characters since 1900 could be created by female authors. I'm sure the list is even harsher to people of color but I was too disgusted to count.
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