Posted on 12/03/2025 10:46:54 AM PST by nickcarraway
Men aren’t vanishing from fiction. The truth is more complicated (Cannot be posted due to FR rules.)
One reason is that books were increasingly written for women. It became harder and harder to find books for men, so men quit looking or read older books at used book stores and now electronically.
I remember the 60’s and 70’s when there were dozens of adventure series of books for men. Now ther is nothing.
I’ve written three novels—literary fiction—and can’t have an agent in the female dominated publishing world give me the time of day. So self-published. Good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but am glad I don’t have to make my living with a pen....
Exactly, there used to be dozens of adventure series of books for men. Now it is women, gays, and blacks writing book for themselves with tons of woke trash that real men, especially white, want to read.
I used to read a lot more when I was younger and there was so much to read. I liked science fiction, mystery, military, and adventure. I had authors I liked and series (Matt Helm, Destroyer, etc) that I liked to read. I also read a lot of older books my Dad read.
Now, when I look at books at the store, at least 80% are chick books and the rest are trash. Nothing new to read. Just like they killed off music.
Even in the 90’s, more of the main people in mystery series were women, but they were still readable. They weren’t pushing an agenda like they do now.
I still have hundreds of books at home and I read them from time to time and that will do.
If you like Leonard, you should check out James Ellroy. LA CONFIDENTIAL, AMERICAN TABLOID, THE BLACK DAHLIA. Very dark, but compelling noir fiction.
It started with the Invisible Man.
I read a decent amount of fiction, and have done so for about five decades now.
I have noticed over the past 20 years or so that publishers really seem to get a hard on to publish fiction from women and from people with last names that are obviously from other countries.
A lot of what I would consider to be quality fiction that I have encountered in my life comes from white men. I have noticed a big dropoff in the quality of the fiction I have read in the past 20 years or so, and much of the “good” fiction that gets out these days is still from dudes with white sounding names.
“Novelist Eliza Clark agrees. “Basically all of our brightest and most successful young male novelists – and there’s a hard divide between those and our old guard male novelists – are queer or men of colour or both. That’s great: I think it represents a true diversifying of the industry, though obviously we have a lot more work to do.” The old guard, she clarifies, is the usual roll call: Will Self, Bret Easton Ellis. Does it really matter that that is changing?”
All you need to know.
The first of each month, Amazon offers me a selection of books from which I may choose one for free. They are always ALL written by women, for women. I shudder to think of the dripping vitriol scribed within. I had to look at my profile to make sure they didn’t have me confused with someone else. Nope. It’s been years and I have yet to take them up on their offer.
That was the most “red pill” movie scene ever.
Isn’t Brett Easton Ellis gay?
“Isn’t Brett Easton Ellis gay?”
If so, one of two of the old guard are woke. LOL.
I don't know if Self is completely woke, but he's leftist. He says he's no longer socialist, but he endorsed Jeremy Corbyn.
Self is a Republican - in the U.K. that means "off with their heads" for the royal family.
Women read fiction far more than men, especially girly books written by women. So it’s the result of the paricular supply and demand.
Who is reading fiction, anyway?
Fiction is now featured on CNN, NBC, ABC, NPR and is no longer a reading activity.
Darned interwebs and boob tube has ruint ever thing! :D
Write more books that appeal to men then !
They got it backwards. I’d say they feminized the industry and produced product that men can’t stand and the men left. Speaking for myself.
FReeper run...and publishing great fiction for a quarter decade:
Give this one a try. It’s about the siege of Malta in 1565. You will not be disappointed.
https://www.arxbooks.com/literary/Angels/AngelsinIron.html
I have read a couple of books written by a woman. If she keeps it up she might just catch on someday. She spells her name funny though, as many women do. Ann Rynd or Ayn Rand, something like that. Mark my words though, she might even make it to the Wilmington Gazette Best Seller List. (lower end of the list, of course)
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