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

[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