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

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

>> Barry Malzberg talks about picking up a recent issue of Asimov's and not finding a story which a 12 year old who doesn't know anything about SF could understand.

I agree with your two stated answers to this, but I'd also add that there are plenty of gateway texts.

Some of them are not-so-well written genre titles. From the reviews I've read, people who hadn't read Tolkien or even Terry Brooks, especially if they were youngsters, didn't mind the cliches in Eragon.

Some of the gateway texts are Not Science Fiction / Not Fantasy titles by writers who are using second or third-generation versions of the genre tropes, rather than the Peter Watts / Charlie Stross / Elizabeth Bear-type who is using the post-Singularity version. So, in this way, NSF/NF might actually bring readers into the genre, if they aren't already so prejudiced against books with rockets or dragons on the covers.

(Maybe we should talk about fixing the book covers, too.)