Many classic books take marriage as their main subject, and no one doubts that marriage is rich territory for literary achievement. But dating? In the modern sense? Exchanging numbers and waiting for the person to call? Wishing and hoping to find someone to love in the long-term? That's the stuff of chick-lit novels. These stories are certainly in high demand--authors like Jennifer Wiener, Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, and Jane Green enjoy large readerships and lucrative book sales around the world. But reviewers and critics aren't usually clamoring to read their newest novels.

This Salon article explores this dynamic in what I thought was a really interesting way. There's a new book out, THE AFFAIRS OF NATHANIEL P., that explores dating, and all summer I've been hearing about how its author, Adelle Waldman, is the next big thing in Literary Fiction. What makes her book about dating escapades in Brooklyn different from Jennifer Wiener's books about dating escapades in Philadelphia? Is it because the protagonist of Waldman's novel is male? Or is it something more?

I'm always curious about conversations about gender and writing/publishing (I was a Women's Studies major, after all!), and I'd love to hear from writers out there who see themselves as writing "Women's Fiction." I am happy to write all day and night with women and women's issues as my main subject, but I also hate the idea that stories about women's experience aren't relevant to men. I mean, I've been reading (and enjoying!) stories about men's experience my whole life. Why doesn't it go both ways?

Any thoughts? As writers, is it important to you to see your work as having universal themes, or do you like the idea of writing for a specific audience that you know and relate to?

Back when I was in junior high school through college age...though I was interested in the dating thing somewhat...I had no interest in reading about it.   (I was an avid reader of mysteries, SF, historical fiction, and general fiction instead.  Nevil Shute was one of my favorite writers and not for On the Beach.)   I have noticed that if a man writes about something it becomes a subject worthy of great literature, and if a woman writes about a man doing something, it's more likely to be seen as literature than if she writes about a woman doing the same thing. So I would bet that this new rave is largely because the protagonist is male. 

With that out of the way...I still find dating stories boring, but then I also thought "Sex in the City" was boring.  And "Friends" was boring.  (So shoot me.)  The adolescent/post-adolescent time of life in which linking up with someone is the biggest new deal ever...doesn't last that long and exposes every awkwardness an individual has without offering anything in return.  I remember being the awkward teenager with acne, a stick-like figure, difficult hair, and a talent for saying the wrong thing.  I remember having impossible crushes on a few guys, the awkwardness, the uncertainty....what's to like?   Not much, aside from being able to write teenage characters into science fiction and fantasy stories. 

Now it's possible that a literary genius could make a dating story into great literature...Shakespeare almost did with Romeo and Juliet  (though I keep wanting to smack both of them upside the head with a clue-bat.)   But in general, and modern dating?  No. 

When it comes to gender and writing...oh, yes, great interest.  I've written both female and male protagonists, both young and old, different social/economic classes, different personalities.   I don't write women's fiction, specifically, but that's because of what I've read of it (except one terrific book by an Australian author whose name escapes me at the moment--bought it at the airport and a few years ago it disappeared to somewhere in this house...)   I prefer to write more adventurous books, which is why I do SF and fantasy.