Novel examines rape culture
Actress and author Amber Tamblyn started writing “Any Man,” her debut novel about a mysterious female rapist who preys on men, three and a half years ago.
That was before #MeToo and Time’s Up, before she became a prominent advocate for those movements, and before she shared her experience of sexual assault on her Instagram account.
So while the book is not a direct reaction to current events, it does reflect a climate that’s been brewing for several years, says Tamblyn, whose book hits shelves Tuesday.
“Like most women, not just American women but around the world, we are forced to sit with a lot of our anger for the wrongs that we’ve experienced in our lives — whether it’s in the workplace or at home or culturally — and I think that this book happened for me because it was in the zeitgeist,” Tamblyn, who lives in Brooklyn, said in a recent phone interview.
“It’s living in the ether of the world and certainly for our country, with the election of Donald Trump and all the subsequent things that have happened in the last several years — and also the racism and demonization against our previous, wonderful president — I think for many women, a sense of allowing your rage in whatever creative capacity to show through, no holds barred, is how a lot of women are feeling right now, a lot of creative women.”
For Tamblyn, the creative spark came from the idea of a woman who had no consequences and was untouchable — who lives “as predatory men sometimes live,” she said.
“Especially if it was somebody who wasn’t doing it to get revenge on somebody, which I think is often the norm for dangerous, volatile, female characters — that they’re trying to get back at an ex-boyfriend or a john or their dad.”
The Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress, who published the poetry collection “Dark Sparkler” in 2015, shaped the victims after men she knows.
One of her goals was to explore the stereotypes and archetypes of men.
“I also wanted to explore masculinity, both the toxic type and the protective type, and even the nurturing type, and find different ways to explore the male mind,” said the star of “Joan of Arcadia” and “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.”
Some men who’ve read the book have been “really upset” by it but also admitted they “can’t take their eyes away,” said Tamblyn.
“I basically took a lot of the same stories that women have been through in the last several years, certainly some big cases that we’ve seen here in America, and really did apply them to (the men’s) stories.
“So while it’s very upsetting for them, it’s an everyday experience for women. And especially for trans women and women of colour, I think in our country and culture, certainly, it’s even worse for them.”
Depicting how the victims felt took a physical toll on Tamblyn.
She said some of the ailments she had as a child actor — when having to pretend “to feel things for a living” affected her central nervous system — returned.
Those ailments included two painful conditions that affected the tendons in both hands and arms (bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and De Quervain’s tenosynovitis) all while she was expecting her first child.