Yes, I’m slightly bugged now by the Genre debate. Yes, we understand the need, but … but …
What about Life of Pi? Or Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-Time? The Kite Runner? And novels with social comment like Small Island by Andrea Levy or Brick Lane by Monica Ali? Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Quicksolver? Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks? Just a tiny sample of popular books that perhaps do not slot easily into an existing category, but had they not been taken up by a publisher, the reading public would be the poorer. They all have ‘something to say or show’. Are they just 'general fiction'?
Since my post on the vexed question of Genre, many more classifications – and is classification synonymous with genre? – have popped into my head. So is there room for another I wonder? I would love to hear from publishers or anyone else who is knowledgeable on these matters. A term that captures real issues/ethics/substance within the framework of a captivating story. Thus the reader is both entertained and enriched. Such novels may or may not be ‘literature’ – perhaps the most challenging term of all to define. They may or may not be exploring ethics or politics.
‘Faction’ does not quite do it for me. ‘Social comment fiction’? ‘Reality fiction’? ‘Themed’? Sue Cook on The Write Lines suggested ‘intelligent story-telling’.
Perhaps the elusive genre already exists. If so, please tell me.
Showing posts with label classification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classification. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Thursday, 5 November 2009
A Question of Genre – is it vexed?
I am sure many writers, agents and publishers can quote chapter and verse at me on the thorny issue of genre; it is commercially vital to brand and pigeonhole books so that potential readers know what they are getting. Targeting and demographics are key.
So ‘modern/contemporary fiction’, as per BIC classification for ‘non-genre’ novels, does not perhaps cut the mustard. But what if your novel is neither romance, crime, sci-fi, historical, fantasy, erotic, thriller, nor literary? Not adventure, saga, chick-lit, grit-lit or whatever term is knocking around at the time? Nor is it the more esoteric metafiction or allegory? Perhaps it is a cross-breed, like historical romance. But if it cannot claim to fall under any such labels, does this mean it should never have been written? If so, is this not the tail wagging the dog?
A reader described Gypsies Stop tHere: “…a good read, this story provides an entertaining way of understanding a very important social issue ...” Well, is there a genre that covers this? I don’t know. Socio-rural reality page-turner? Prejudice-challenging fiction? Or perhaps simply ‘other’.
Focusing on the Gypsy theme, an academic writer recently said, “Miriam Wakerly's books Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served (coming out March 2010) are a window to the bigotry that a race of people in the UK still experience. Textbooks illustrating statistics of what racism is like are all well and good but what Wakerly adds is an accessible and readable 'way in' to the situation for the general reader, and the storytelling approach reinforces we are talking about real people here, not statistics. I would recommend that people read these books as a reflection of the reality of contemporary Britain.”
This all sounds terribly grave but there are many other happenings within my pages, I promise you! Relationships and various interconnecting storylines in an English village seem to ‘captivate’ a wide-ranging readership, so they tell me.
I could define my novels as a ‘village-novel-with-edge’ or something like that. It’s not Miss Read or Rebecca Shaw. I cannot think of a word that single-handedly encapsulates it. Can you? If so, please let me know!
If anyone wants to quote from this blog then that’s fine but please credit me! Thanks.
© Miriam Wakerly
So ‘modern/contemporary fiction’, as per BIC classification for ‘non-genre’ novels, does not perhaps cut the mustard. But what if your novel is neither romance, crime, sci-fi, historical, fantasy, erotic, thriller, nor literary? Not adventure, saga, chick-lit, grit-lit or whatever term is knocking around at the time? Nor is it the more esoteric metafiction or allegory? Perhaps it is a cross-breed, like historical romance. But if it cannot claim to fall under any such labels, does this mean it should never have been written? If so, is this not the tail wagging the dog?
A reader described Gypsies Stop tHere: “…a good read, this story provides an entertaining way of understanding a very important social issue ...” Well, is there a genre that covers this? I don’t know. Socio-rural reality page-turner? Prejudice-challenging fiction? Or perhaps simply ‘other’.
Focusing on the Gypsy theme, an academic writer recently said, “Miriam Wakerly's books Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served (coming out March 2010) are a window to the bigotry that a race of people in the UK still experience. Textbooks illustrating statistics of what racism is like are all well and good but what Wakerly adds is an accessible and readable 'way in' to the situation for the general reader, and the storytelling approach reinforces we are talking about real people here, not statistics. I would recommend that people read these books as a reflection of the reality of contemporary Britain.”
This all sounds terribly grave but there are many other happenings within my pages, I promise you! Relationships and various interconnecting storylines in an English village seem to ‘captivate’ a wide-ranging readership, so they tell me.
I could define my novels as a ‘village-novel-with-edge’ or something like that. It’s not Miss Read or Rebecca Shaw. I cannot think of a word that single-handedly encapsulates it. Can you? If so, please let me know!
If anyone wants to quote from this blog then that’s fine but please credit me! Thanks.
© Miriam Wakerly
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