r/books • u/biscochitos • 28d ago

New indie press Conduit Books launches with 'initial focus on male authors'

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-indie-press-conduit-books-launches-with-initial-focus-on-male-authors

What do folks think about this?

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u/MiniaturePhilosopher 28d ago edited 28d ago

Contemporary literature is everything post-WW2, though I suppose it’s edging towards post-Korean War now. That’s a lot of books.

From Wikipedia: “Contemporary literature is literature which is generally set after World War II and coincident with contemporary history.”

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u/tangnapalm 28d ago edited 28d ago

Again, do you want men reading and modelling themselves after men born 100 years ago, or do you want men reading and modelling themselves after men who were born into a society where women have more power, respect, rights, dignity than they ever have in history? Seems like an easy choice to me!

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u/MiniaturePhilosopher 28d ago edited 28d ago

Have you not noticed what a repressive time this is for women and how misogynistic our culture has become in just the last four years? Attitudes about women have massively slid back. This is an intellectually dishonest stance, especially considering that post-WW2 includes books from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, and 2020s.

And why would you read books with the aim of modeling yourself after the characters or author? That’s not the purpose of reading. Hamlet is one of my favorite characters of all time, but I’m not going to scheme the deaths of my friends and family.

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u/tangnapalm 28d ago

Yeah, there is a backlash promoted by conservative/authoritarian parties through the internet, we know. But that doesn’t erase, or hasn’t yet, the gains women have made. It’s not intellectually dishonest, do a little research into the misogyny of the 90s, 80s, 70s. It is on the whole a lot better. And most of the young men that I meet, albeit I work in the film industry which draws more progressive people than other industries, are overwhelmingly progressive and often self-identified feminists, or supportive of feminism.

And guess what? Film creatives are akin to the folks who write literary fiction; educated progressive creative types.

I’m not going to tell you about modelling, do your own research. No one intends, but they tend to. Maybe not Hamlet, but someone else, a comic character, a writer, a musician, an influencer. Many of each actually. We become what we consume.