Saturday, January 17

The Prose War

I probably should have mentioned this before I even started this genre series, but "genre fiction" is a genre term that actually doesn't refer to all fiction. There's also such thing as "literary fiction", which is a genre in itself.

Confused yet? I am.

In essence, anything that has asperations for a work to last the test of time seems to be called "literary". Anything evidently more interested in providing readers with a good romp is "genre". Anything in-between tends to also get tossed in the "genre" bin.

At least, that's the trend I've noticed. As with any of the genre stuff, there's some ambiguity in some aspects of the definition, and the line between literary fiction and genre fiction may be the most ambiguous of all.

It's generally summarized as literary fiction focuses on the prose rather than the plot, whereas genre fiction focuses on the plot over the prose. So literary fiction tries to do specific things with the technicalities of writing, and genre fiction plays more with the actual story itself rather than how it's written.

How, then, does Margaret Atwood qualify? The Handmaid's Tale is sci-fi (but the author prefers the term "speculative fiction"), a futuristic work, yet her prose is much lauded, particularly her description. She's listed in The Literary Encyclopedia, and university English classes often include her work.

So is she literary or is she genre? Either? Both? What?

Literary fiction fans can be snobs about it, calling genre lovers "unsophisticated". And genre fiction fans tend to sneer at literary fiction as boring. Both insults are likely true for some of the demographic and some of the writing within each side.

Note my some, please.

Frankly, to me it seems like a false line, created so writers of regular or experimental fiction can put their writing somewhere that sounds special. But it's a line that does exist, so it's possible that your writing might fall into it.

Does your writing's label automatically determine if it's a better plot (genre fiction) or prettier prose (literary fiction)? No. And don't worry about that. Just write and polish, and let people decide if they're gonna pick your baby for the literary picnic basket or not.

At least, that's the option that makes the most sense to me. Anyone else have a differing opinion?

at 8:22 PM
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2 comments:

  1. My opinion is that people who think that genre fiction is simplistic and unsophisticated clearly don't know the genre.
    And it really shouldn't matter what kind of prose you write. You should just write. If you want to write literary fiction, go for it. If you want to write SF, more power to you. It's about what YOU want to write, not what academic snobs or anti-literary geeks want. The writer is first; the reader is second (granted, once the writer gets a reader, a particular work in question no longer stays with the writer as a possession, but becomes the reader's).
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  2. Precisely! :-D

    If you write what you think the readers want, you'll be only mimicking what they want and not writing genuinely, sacrificing your ability to fit it in a mould that doesn't fit it.

    That's something that by and large can't be done well. (I daresay someone has pulled it off at some point, so I won't generalize.)
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