Sunday, June 12, 2011

Can you tell an author's sex?

In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society this week, VS Naipaul (winner of a Nobel Prize for literature) provoked fury by suggesting that women writers are 'sentimental' and 'unequal to me'. He also claimed that 'I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not.'

Can you? To prove a possible point  this quiz was created. Why not try it?
 
I got 7 out of 10, so I'm not up to Naipaul's standard. The quiz includes a passage of writing by Naipaul as well as an excerpt from a Harlequin novel.
 
 

1 comment:

2paw said...

I scored 8 out of 10. I have no idea how. He sounds like a lot of hot air from the 18th Century!!