Genre is a straitjacket.
It’s the boundary wire linked to the electrified collar around writers’ necks.
It gives readers (and writers) a choice of flags to salute before those flags are braided into leashes looped around their ankles and tied to pegs hammered in the bookstore floor.
I’m not a fan of genre distinctions. You might have picked this up.
What surprised me is that, while I’ve not kept my opinion to myself in various media, apparently I haven’t written on the subject in all the years I’ve maintained this blog.
Let’s fix that.
This is Part Now in a series of As Many Parts as I Feel Like on the subject.
Who Decides How to Categorize a Book?
Recently I read a social media post from a writer, Henry Neilson, who wondered if he should call his work (science fiction yarns with, by his paraphrased account, not much obvious action, political overtones, and a focus on specific themes) “literary science fiction.”
This writer seemed worried about it. They weren’t sure it was up to them to apply that label; that maybe that was the domain of the reader or, I imagine, critics. That self-assigning was self-aggrandizing.
Assumed Value
That last concern reminded me that writers often buy into the propaganda that the books in the Literary Fiction section of the (online or brick-and-mortar) bookstore are somehow superior to the books in the science fiction section. That attention to beautiful prose and an emphasis on characterization, theme, and tone over plot and Big Flashy Ideas was the sole purview of “literature.”
That science fiction (and, one presumes, other “Genre” genres) didn’t cross into those lanes, either through intimidation or by choice.
Which also tells me that perhaps… perhaps… a writer hasn’t read a whole lot of stuff from the Literary Fiction section, or the applicable genre section. Which is to say, they may not be familiar with the variety and variation on display across those catalogs across time.
Take heed: there is beauty, and strong characterization, and profundity, and resonance in books on every shelf of every bookcase in the store, front tables to back wall.
Just as there are, certainly, vapid and hackneyed, forgettable books in the Literature section.
Genre is Marketing
Because above all else, “literary fiction” — as with “science fiction” and “horror” and “romance” and “western” and all genre labels — is a marketing tool.
It’s how publishers tell booksellers where to shelve a thing, and how booksellers train readers to buy the things they like and are used to.
If It Fits, It’s Lit
Given that, if, as a writer, “literary” means a certain thing to you, and the book you’ve written matches that thing, and you’re looking to attract readers with a similar sensibility, then tack that word in your descriptor, include it in your categories, and lead with it, unashamed and unapologetic.
If you’re not sure it applies, compare it to books you think deserve to have the “literary” badge pinned to their sleeves. (Make sure you actually read them.)
Don’t be shy. You’re trying to sell your book, after all, and truly, no one is going to try to sell your book with more energy and passion than you.
If it fits? It’s Lit.
Feature image credit: Vinoth Chandar on Flickr via a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
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