Rachel Fraser has published an interesting essay, described at Daily Nous this way: What’s so bad about the literary dominance of white men? The essay (in New Statesman) has a slightly different title: Do We Have A Duty to Read Women Writers? The second is, I think, better -- more accurate about the essay and a lot more interesting a proposal. Fraser does not quite conclude that we have such a duty, but doe slay out a case for thinking that there is some injustice in the current state of literary affairs, understanding 'literary affairs' to mean the USA and UK (and maybe the EU?). She does not say much and cites nothing showing white men dominating literary affairs in other parts of the world, e.g., India, China, Argentina, and so on.One could go on about that sort of oversight or gap, but it is not what I am interested in, which are two topics. What is a duty to read some set of authors? How widespread is an inability to name authors who are not men or not white (an opening gambit in the essay)?
A duty to read works by women....is there a duty to read at all? That caused me to stumble. When I stopped reading for some months, was I doing something immoral? Would it matter why I stopped reading? I suppose if there is such a duty, then, say, loss of eyesight might excuse not reading for a bit (while developing other skills for accessing literary works). Would a challenging emotional event be sufficient excuse, or just fatigue? It seems odd that one could a escape a moral by fatigue. How serious a fatigue would it need to be? Is the duty to read women at the same time a duty to buy books (or other works) by women from bookshops, etc.? I mean, new volumes, is the duty one to buy books or read the books, or both? I think it has to be one of the last two for Fraser because part of her case for a duty is an argument about the economic disparities of men and women authors. (That part of her argument would apply quite broadly, in support of duties to buy motorcycles designed or manufactured by women (or maybe just sold by women?), clothing designed by women, restaurants owned by women, fly as a passenger in planes piloted by women.) My point is that if there is such a duty, it is pretty complicated duty to delineate.
If there is a duty to read works by women, what it call for us to do? Read just anything written (or published?) by a woman? Do I have to read Jane Austin or Virginia Woolfe, or is it enough to read Rita Mae Brown or Donna Leon? (The economic part of Fraser's argument suggests that Austin and Woolfe are not in the game because no money flows to them from book sales.)
I do not think, however, that there is a duty to read nor a duty to read literature by women. I do not think there is a duty to buy art, or to listen to music (or particular sorts of music), or a duty to dance for that matter. I do not have to attach duties to these activities to think them valuable or to think that they deserve social support, including state support.
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