The Tyranny of Genre

So I like to pretend that I'm a writer, which basically means that I feel guilty about spending all my free time watching reruns of Burn Notice unless I've spent about twenty minutes staring at the blinking icon on my word processor. But I still talk a good game, and so my writing does sometimes come up in casual conversation.

Most of the time, when I mention that I'm an aspiring novelist, I get usually get polite nods and an occasional "Oh, that's nice." The topic of conversation is usually changed quickly thereafter. Every now and then, though, someone will be genuinely interested in finding out more about what I do and will ask some follow-up questions.

Unfortunately, the most common question I get is "What kind of books do you write?"

Okay, the question in and of itself isn't a bad one. In fact, it's one of the few follow-up questions that makes sense ("What does your mother think of that?" is another appropriate choice). However, and maybe this is just the circles I run in, but the question "What kind of books do you write?" USUALLY is code for "Do you write fantasy or science fiction?"

And the answer to that question is usually "Phbphbt!"

The books I have written (and, of course, not published) are each in wildly different genres. One is something of a suspense/murder mystery with elements of urban fantasy. One is a straightforward coming-of-age tale. One is about cowboy pharmacists. So they don't really fit very neatly into any of those fairly narrow genres.

See, cuz when someone says they write "Fantasy," what they actually mean is they're ripping off Lord of the Rings.

When they say "Science Fiction," they mean they're writing Star Trek fanfiction.

Or, rather, Star WARS fanfiction, because nobody understands what sci-fi is actually about.

And, really, there's NOTHING WRONG with these individual stories. LOTR, Star Wars, and Star Trek are all used as prime examples of their respective genres because they happen to be REALLY GOOD.

The problem I have with so-called "genre fiction" is that it tends to ape what came before without bringing anything new to the table. Fantasy stories are all about rugged humans and fat, comic-relief Scotsmen looking for mystic Macguffins. Romance is about horrible people being selfish with each other. Science fiction is about humina bumina boo BUT IN SPACE.

Either that, or they're writing self-referential literature. That's all well and good, but it's really only enjoyable for the initiates. Trust me - you may think your satirical fantasy epic, Lord of the Bling, is HILARIOUS, but it's really only going to entertain those who already love fantasy literature and/or hip-hop.

I think there's a reason college programs frown on genre fiction, since it seems most genre fiction is a simple regurgitation of tropes that were implemented better elsewhere. But, of course, that's not always the case. Some of the greatest novels of the 20th century can easily be lumped into genres: 1984 and Farenheit 451 are both science fiction. The Maltese Falcon is crime noir. You can even make the case that something like Lolita falls into the romance genre, if you're a terrible person.

It seems to me that, while genre is a fairly useful classification for the reader (as long as they don't get into narrow-minded reading ruts), it's less helpful for the writer. Writers should just focus on their story and let the librarians worry about classification. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that writers who write to genre conventions come across as uninspired or derivative. Or maybe I'm just jealous that I've never written anything as wildly successful as Twilight.

Hmm... Twilight in Space... "And so the lamb fell in love with the flesh-eating Martian"... "You're EXACTLY my brand of Plutonian heroin"...

(As it turns out, I'm not the first person to use the phrase "The Tyrrany of Genre." So I probably have some homework reading to do.)