Genre Lit Fic

[prusik]

avocadovpx had an interesting entry about Not Science Fiction. There's a favorable review in today's Washington Post of Soon I Will Be Invincible. The review says that it "takes the genre of the superheroic into the realm of literary fiction, where navel-gazing is an established art form." The review also references Michael Chabon and Jonathan Letham. So, my question is that is this Science Fiction, or is it Not Science Fiction?

Clearly, it's being marketed as Not Science Fiction. But review makes it sound like the more the book explores genre, the more literary it is. I'm left with this weird conclusion that exploring genre "within its traditional limits" is literary. Well, if the review insists. (But this makes me wonder is there any writing within genre then that isn't also literary?)

I feel like instead of categorizing books, we ought to be tagging them instead. If someone thinks of a book as literary fiction, that shouldn't mean it can't also be genre fiction at the same time. And the review shouldn't give the impression that this is taking something from the realm of children and making it appropriate for adults. *sigh*

Comments

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

I was surprised. I had no idea that we were loathed. The argument seems to be that "You people pound out crap about dragons. Our stuff, on the other hand, is character driven."

Say what? Believe me, my stuff is character driven. That's the point.

But the problem is that of course we genre writers will say that it's all the same toolkit. We get it. There's a faction of folks, though, who confuse 'genre fiction' with 'bad fiction'. And JPK said in a workshop on genre writing (which, by the way, was attended by only one lonely 'mundane' fiction writer) that if you're writing genre fiction, the bleak truth is that you're going to be looked down on.

How silly.

[drumiller.livejournal.com]

and to be fair, my characterization is rather mean spirited. but I just had an exchange with one of the aforementioned types, so I'm still blowing off steam.

an interesting challenge is to have have the lit fic fan grab the best seller/award winners lists of the past 5, 10, 20 and 30 years from the current year. then repeat the process for your genre of choice then hit the stacks at a major book seller and see how many of each you can find. My bet is as you go back, the more the two groups converge.

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

I use "Shakespeare was pop fic" as my argument. Not that I argue. I just nod and smile. Because if somebody doesn't get it, nothing a peon says is going to make them get it better. =D

[krylyr.livejournal.com]

I remember talking a little bit to JPK about this at VP. There is a huge sense of snobbery from literary fiction writers toward SF/F/Horror writers. He reckoned that's why genre writers became so tight with everyone else, because the other group wouldn't let us back in the day and so we said screw them. We'll start our own club.

The whole thing is silly. I bet people who say we "pound out crap about dragons" haven't read "Burn" or "American Gods." And even if they had read "Her Majesty's Dragon," hopefully they'd realize having fun isn't such a bad thing.

Alright, I'm channeling Dru's mini-rant. Sorry, the snobbery of the whole thing annoys me.

[orogeny.livejournal.com]

It was JPK who pointed about the bit about 'transcending genre'.

One of our poet friends was in a class with a lot of lit fic people, and one of them referred to us as "our dragon-loving brethren." When he found out the person next to him was in genre fic, he apparently blushed scarlet.

[prusik.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's silly. (I also agree drumiller that his characterization takes it a bit far.) However, the situation is that there really is a faction who want to consign genre to the ghetto, unless it's a good book. In that case, they want to claim the book for their own. (If nothing else, it allows them to maintain the pretense that 'genre fiction' is 'bad fiction' since they've claimed all the good books.)

I have no idea how to convince people that the CrossOverTitle they like so much is absolutely reeking with genre cooties, and that reeking with genre cooties is perfectly fine. I mean, if nothing else, realizing this would let them find more books they might like.

I wonder, sometimes, if the advent of online bookstores (which have no bookshelves) and computer generated recommendations based on customer buying habits will cause more crossover. I mean, if you're someone who "doesn't read" genre, but pays attention to Amazon recommendations and it keeps recommending strong, character-driven genre fiction to you... (Of course, this doesn't work for short fiction...)