Naming Conventions

In an ideal world, a good story would be all it took to hook an audience.  In such a world, the name or identity of the author would be wholly irrelevant.  Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world, and a recent/revelation/practical joke revealed that in spades.

A Spanish writer that went by the pseudonym of Carmen Mola wrote several aware winning novels about a female detective named Elena Blanco, “peculiar and solitary woman, who loves grappa, karaoke, classic cars and sex in SUVs.”  The author’s name was well known to be a pseudonym, and it had been publicized that the author was a university professor in her late-40s and a mother of three who chose anonymity to protect life outside of writing.  Seemed fine to most folks, since this kind of literature was largely consumed by women looking for a strong protagonist.  However, the Planeta Prize, an award worth over 1 million euros, drew the actual author out, and that’s when the fun began.

Or should I say the authors.

Seems like the author in question was not a middle aged mother, but three scriptwriters who’d previously worked on soap operas and movies.  And oh, did I mention they were men?

Depending on your worldview, this was either an incredibly clever marketing gimmick or an egregiously offensive way to crowd out women authors.  Some chuckled, and others were outraged.

Of course, lost in all of this has been whether the stories were any good.  Apparently they were good enough to win a prize strong enough to draw the writers out of anonymity.  That lone should speak to the strength of the work.  Unfortunately, everything has become political, and now folks have retreated to their respective corners.  It makes one wonder if the extra publicity will draw new readers, or if it will alienate the current audience.

I think this shows a weakness in our perceptions about what makes good writing.  JK Rowling, for example, used a form of this gimmick when she first wrote and marketed the Harry Potter novels using “JK” instead of “Joanne” since there was worry that boys would not buy a novel written by a women.  That’s insane since the Harry Potter novels are among the best written in modern times and appeal across genders and demographics.  The same should apply to the Carmen Mola moniker(Carmen Mola translates to “Carmen’s cool").  If the story is good, then folks should enjoy it; who wrote it shouldn’t matter.  But of course it does because we all have a) our preconceived notions about who can and who cannot write certain genres, and b) when we find out something politically upsetting, we sulk and mope like a child who didn’t get his or her way.  It’s a sad commentary on modern society that one would hope we can all get past.  After all, isn’t enjoyment of the story the point?