I've been thinking a bit about these last two stories from Marlee. I feel like she's gotten to a point in her writing where she's driven to address unapologetically feminist issues from a place of genuine anger and pathos, so I find it unsurprising but disappointing that she hasn't been able to place these stories elsewhere.
I want to cry foul at sexism and patriarchy in the industry, but at the same time I know how all story rejections and acceptances mostly come down to subjective taste. Maybe the editors who would appreciate the themes don't like the style of the prose, and maybe the editors who would like the way the story was written don't understand where Marlee's coming from... or maybe people just aren't ready for a woman's anger in fiction.
I don't know. I'm mostly angry on Marlee's behalf because of an extremely condescending rejection note from a (almost certainly) male slush reader...
Totally not surprised it has yet to get picked up by any publications though, primarily because the publishing world (if not the world at large) is still incredibly conservative. And even if the [mostly male] editors were willing to bring themselves to accept the themes of the story, I find that publications are still very too conservative to print words like "cunt" throughout their pages regardless of context.
It is unfortunately a feature of the publishing world to very much resist boundary-pushing authorship, unless of course it comes from a writer so established they simply cannot say no to.
In any case; fantastic story, Marlee! More please!
I've been thinking a bit about these last two stories from Marlee. I feel like she's gotten to a point in her writing where she's driven to address unapologetically feminist issues from a place of genuine anger and pathos, so I find it unsurprising but disappointing that she hasn't been able to place these stories elsewhere.
I want to cry foul at sexism and patriarchy in the industry, but at the same time I know how all story rejections and acceptances mostly come down to subjective taste. Maybe the editors who would appreciate the themes don't like the style of the prose, and maybe the editors who would like the way the story was written don't understand where Marlee's coming from... or maybe people just aren't ready for a woman's anger in fiction.
I don't know. I'm mostly angry on Marlee's behalf because of an extremely condescending rejection note from a (almost certainly) male slush reader...
Really great, really powerful story!
Totally not surprised it has yet to get picked up by any publications though, primarily because the publishing world (if not the world at large) is still incredibly conservative. And even if the [mostly male] editors were willing to bring themselves to accept the themes of the story, I find that publications are still very too conservative to print words like "cunt" throughout their pages regardless of context.
It is unfortunately a feature of the publishing world to very much resist boundary-pushing authorship, unless of course it comes from a writer so established they simply cannot say no to.
In any case; fantastic story, Marlee! More please!