Post by account_disabled on Jan 1, 2024 7:39:33 GMT
I analyzed the last 44 stories published on the blog - the others are very short stories, almost all of 300 words - and only 2 pass the test: "The void around" and "Miss Gliss". The science fiction novel I'm writing passes that test. Unbelievable. And the story that I recently finished and need to revise and that I will sell in self-publishing also passes the Bechdel test, even if just barely. The validity of the Bechdel test As Tenar also wrote in his post, the Bechdel test does not demonstrate the validity of a story , but only how much importance was given to women in a story.
Here, however, some clarifications need to be made. If we look at the list of books I have read in the last 3 years, out of 7 novels, 5 are written by women, who focus their attention on women more often than men. Woodrell's novel has a girl as the protagonist, who finds herself having to talk to the women of the mountain community Special Data where she lives. Obviously a story like this passes that test. Ken Follett's novel is about life around a medieval cathedral, so again it's easy to qualify for the Bechdel test. Stories written by women pass the test more easily , in my opinion. A few days ago I finished Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas, which has 3 boys and 3 girls as protagonists – I suspect that the author took inspiration from Six Characters in Search of an Author . And that novel passes the test.
What the Bechdel test - and consequently Bechdel itself - does not contemplate is the author's intention : did he not want or was not able to give importance to the woman? In the film The Revenant – based on the novel of the same name The Revenant by Michael Punke – there were almost no women. I remember a couple, two Native Americans. There was no intention of not giving space to women. The situation simply didn't require it. In Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight , however, that test is met, because the situation required it. In the novel The Martian there were two women (one was the captain) in the crew that dumped the botanist on Mars and, if I remember correctly, they even talked to each other. Gravity doesn't pass the test, but how could it? The film only has 3 protagonists, one of whom dies immediately. The rest are found dead. He and she remain and she is the one who is saved. Well, to hell with the Bechdel test in this case, I think the woman was given enormous importance in that film.
Here, however, some clarifications need to be made. If we look at the list of books I have read in the last 3 years, out of 7 novels, 5 are written by women, who focus their attention on women more often than men. Woodrell's novel has a girl as the protagonist, who finds herself having to talk to the women of the mountain community Special Data where she lives. Obviously a story like this passes that test. Ken Follett's novel is about life around a medieval cathedral, so again it's easy to qualify for the Bechdel test. Stories written by women pass the test more easily , in my opinion. A few days ago I finished Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas, which has 3 boys and 3 girls as protagonists – I suspect that the author took inspiration from Six Characters in Search of an Author . And that novel passes the test.
What the Bechdel test - and consequently Bechdel itself - does not contemplate is the author's intention : did he not want or was not able to give importance to the woman? In the film The Revenant – based on the novel of the same name The Revenant by Michael Punke – there were almost no women. I remember a couple, two Native Americans. There was no intention of not giving space to women. The situation simply didn't require it. In Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight , however, that test is met, because the situation required it. In the novel The Martian there were two women (one was the captain) in the crew that dumped the botanist on Mars and, if I remember correctly, they even talked to each other. Gravity doesn't pass the test, but how could it? The film only has 3 protagonists, one of whom dies immediately. The rest are found dead. He and she remain and she is the one who is saved. Well, to hell with the Bechdel test in this case, I think the woman was given enormous importance in that film.