Marian’s ‘no books written by men’ stance is ridiculous
THERE are a number of comments I would like to make in relation to the article by Jennifer Ruby (Mail, Friday) headed ‘Marian Keyes: I’ll only read books written by women’ and subheaded, ‘Men’s lives are just too limited,’ says author.’
Firstly, if a male author came out with this kind of twaddle about women, he would be an instant pariah. Ditched by his publisher. Career over.
Secondly, Ireland is a country where suicide is a huge issue for young men – and here we have a celebrated Irish author, someone in a position of some influence, declaring that men’s lives ‘are so limited’ and that a man’s life is ‘such a small and narrow experience’. She makes it sound like a life hardly worth living.
Some women may well agree with this totally unacceptable claptrap, some may even be mothers to young boys.
Can you imagine how psychologically damaging it would be for a boy to hear statements like this from his own mother, or for a man to hear it from a woman he is in a relationship with, or – God forbid – married to?
There is a lot of lip-service paid to improving mental health in Ireland, but if people are really serious about saving young men’s lives then this kind of stuff is hardly helpful.
Remember, it could be your son, your grandson, your brother, your boyfriend, or your husband.
This constant denigration of boys, men, fatherhood, and masculinity must end, and young men need to stop lying down and accepting it, as they are being conditioned to do.
PETER KEATING, Charleville, Co. Cork.
... FAR be it from me to criticise anyone’s literary tastes, but Marian Keyes’s criteria for selection seem dubious in the extreme.
I suppose churning out highbrow literature on a regular basis does lend some credibility to your opinion, but excluding writers on the basis of their gender seems arbitrary at best.
Were I to apply the same method, I would be excluding some of my favourite authors: Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Willa Cather, Flannery O’Connor and many more. On the same basis, presumably Ms Keyes would consider as unworthy William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, etc.
Can I suggest that Ms Keyes is indulging in the literary equivalent of petulantly cutting off one’s nose to spite the face.
ERIC CONWAY, by email.
Robots to the rescue
I’VE picked up tons of cans and plastic bottles over the past ten years, but there’s some litter that’s impossible to clear up. I have a suggestion for clearing up the motorway verges, which are too dangerous for volunteers to tackle: litter-picking robots!
Could there be a competition for high-tech whizz-kids to come up with a simple machine that follows the white line or barrier, sucking up every bit of rubbish it encounters?
ANDREW JARVIS, by email.
Shake it off? No!
YOUR reader (Letters, Thursday) takes exception to the fact that President Trump didn’t shake hands with the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at Trump’s State of the Union speech.
Let’s not forget all the abuse she has heaped on President Trump during the impeachment trial, and also note she tore up the speech given to her by Trump. To be honest, I would have a hard time shaking her hand.
JOHN FINN, Ballincollig, Co. Cork.
Looking back in anger?
THE Oasis Gallagher family: are they all in a permanent state of dourness? There never seems to be a photo of one of them smiling.
HOLLY BARRETT, Mallow, Co. Cork.