Why Genre Writing Matters

 Lithub published In Defense of Labels: On Genre as a Literary Conversation. 

Here is why its subject interests me. When I was younger, when I first thought of being a writer, I had certain examples of literary writers: William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut. I admired the style of Faulkner and his use of history; there was a sense of adventure in Hemingway (I had yet to read The Sun Also Rises and had seen For Whom the Bell Tolls.; Fitzgerald had glamour; and I nothing like Vonnegut's sense of humor. At the same time, I was reading Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, and Robert B. Parker. I understood the detective as an explorer of society, but I did not think what society I was living in worth much exploring. That I did not know much about crime put a crimp on writing detective stories. No, I had to lose my mind, go to prison, get a new perspective on where I had come from, and read two novels - The Mayor of Casterbridge and Blood Meridian - before I understood genre can be fluid. If you want to write, I think this is a good lesson to learn.

Here are my note from the LitHub piece:

So in an era when people increasingly want to dismiss genre labels, I’d like to argue we actually need them more than ever. That they can be extremely generative and rewarding to think about, at least if we understand them in the right way.

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 This is also why I love genre. Writing in a genre (or subgenre or sub-sub-genre) is a chance to join a conversation. A tradition. A chance to listen to others, and then add your own voice. To figure out what you can add to a conversation that stretches back through time.

Much of the pleasure of genre fiction is in understanding what is being homage, subverted, or remixed. That is, in understanding the conversation. Take, for example, recent works by Black authors like Victor LaValle and N.K. Jemisin that confront and subvert the racist legacy of Lovecraft in “cosmic horror.” One could read The Ballad of Black Tom or The City We Became without being familiar with the conversation of “cosmic horror,” but I think you’d get more out of them if you were.

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...I reread my favorite books in those genres and thought about what gaps I saw. Where I could add something. Far from being constraining, these genre labels made my brain buzz with ideas. What is a detective character in baseball setting? What is a femme fatale seen through a science fiction lens? What twist will conjoin the central crime with body horror? The genres helped inspire the characters, setting, and plot.

So, think about it, read, and do not give up on writing your stories.

sch

12/8/21