He vs. she vs. it, and other tricks of the English language

[Feo Takahari]

More than half of my stories involve tension between gendered and genderless pronouns--in particular, characters using "it" to describe something that would normally be described with "he" or "she" (Humans calling demons "it", farmers calling raiders "it", a pimp calling a prostitute "it", etc. etc. etc.*) I've mixed this up a bit with the occasional story about transgender characters (who says "he" and who says "she"?), and I could probably write a story that reversed the tension between gendered and genderless (say, someone consistently referring to an inanimate object with gendered pronouns), but I'm thinking I need to get away from that whole dynamic, if only to seem less repetitive. What other tricks does the English language have in it that I can abuse to create tension between narration and dialogue?

* I am aware that this has a TV Tropes page, but it's something I've been doing since long before I discovered the page.

 

[Kit]

I really wanted to do exactly that and get away from gendered pronouns in my WIP, as gender is not very important in my world and I wanted to reflect that- but it turned out to be such an unweildy and awkward PITA narrative-wise that I abandoned the idea about 60 pages in.

 

[ShortHair]

There's this awkwardness in second person. If you refer to someone in a group as "you," does that mean one person, or the whole group, or a subset of the group?

Similarly, if you're with two people, your attention is on one person, and you refer to another, how do you do it gracefully? How many times have you heard someone say, "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"?

Then there are the obscure verb tenses. With perfect tense you're talking about something that's already happened, but from the vantage point of its not yet happening.

 

[Steerpike]

I really wanted to do exactly that and get away from gendered pronouns in my WIP, as gender is not very important in my world and I wanted to reflect that- but it turned out to be such an unweildy and awkward PITA narrative-wise that I abandoned the idea about 60 pages in.

I've seen a few attempts at this as well, and I thought the negatives outweighed any possible benefit.

 

[ascanius]

Can I ask what is the point?

More than half of my stories involve tension between gendered and genderless pronouns--in particular, characters using "it" to describe something that would normally be described with "he" or "she" (Humans calling demons "it", farmers calling raiders "it", a pimp calling a prostitute "it", etc. etc. etc.*)

These examples all seem to have a point. calling a person an object (it) serves to dehumanize the person reduce them to a status beneath a human. However from what you said this doesn't seem to be the purpose.

I've mixed this up a bit with the occasional story about transgender characters (who says "he" and who says "she"?), and I could probably write a story that reversed the tension between gendered and genderless (say, someone consistently referring to an inanimate object with gendered pronouns), but I'm thinking I need to get away from that whole dynamic, if only to seem less repetitive. What other tricks does the English language have in it that I can abuse to create tension between narration and dialogue?

Honestly I would find reference to a neuter noun through use of male or female pronouns confusing and very annoying especially since I cannot see any point to doing such a thing, though I may have missed something.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I've seen a few attempts at this as well, and I thought the negatives outweighed any possible benefit.

One of the few places I've seen it work is in Greg Egan's novels. He's had a few works that involved genderless characters (usually AIs where gender would be irrelevant), and he uses gender-neutral pronouns such as ve (he/she), vis (his/hers), ver (him/her), etc. It took a little getting used to but it was fine.

EDIT: Whoops. The idea was to avoid using "it" because (in the context of the story) that was considered a rude thing to call a sentient being.

 

[Steerpike]

One of the few places I've seen it work is in Greg Egan's novels. He's had a few works that involved genderless characters (usually AIs where gender would be irrelevant), and he uses gender-neutral pronouns such as ve (he/she), vis (his/hers), ver (him/her), etc. It took a little getting used to but it was fine.

EDIT: Whoops. The idea was to avoid using "it" because (in the context of the story) that was considered a rude thing to call a sentient being.

Yes. I think Egan does it in Diaspora. It didn't bother me as much there because the whole thing was a bit unconventional, and I think it fit in with that. In your average fantasy work I wouldn't care much for it.