August 26, 2009
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Snobs
What is the problem with genre fiction?
3 of my 4 teachers spoke out vehemently against it today. Every teacher I had in undergrad told us, "don't you dare. Don't even try it."
Today, all I've heard is:
We don't even look at genre fiction.
It's not real fiction.
It's inferior.Blah blah blah.
There are a few things I agree with: beginning creative writing courses should not allow genre fiction. You're learning the basics here: plot, narrative structure, story arc, characterizations, narrative/psychic distance, tone, style, subtext, the whole shebang. You don't need to muck up the waters with a bunch of "genre rules" (that beginning writers usually get caught up in). I was absolutely guilty of that once upon a time--relying too much on the genre itself.
But, telling advanced students not to bother? That frustrates the living heck out of me.
It's not that I want to write it at this point in my MFA program. I don't--at least not for workshop. But, when instructors become so incredibly biased against genre fiction, (without ever really being exposed to it) then that just comes across as ignorant and narrow minded. Many writers transcend their genre . . . if they're any good. The ones who aren't never really attract the non-genre crowd.
Hell, even Kazuo Ishiguro (who wrote Remains of the Day) came out with a little book called, Never Let Me Go about clone children whose organs were harvested and refused to call it science fiction. Heck, he refused to call it speculative fiction.
Why is genre fiction such a "four letter word?" It's like these people pick up a copy of some cheap trash sci-fi and assume it represents the entirety of it.
I just don't get it.
Comments (3)
Maybe they are concerned about some publishing houses that will pigeon hole your work because you are known for one type of writing? Then if you change to a more main stream, they will not even read it or they will give it to an intern who reads it as your "type" and rejects it as it does not fit the genre?
Maybe cuz they don't like your creativity. After all, they're teaching and not writing.
Well, apparently these undergrad teachers don't know a thing about 'marketing'.
Its understandable that 'genre fiction' adheres to a certain conservative boundary as far as how the story and the context should act, and perhaps it at first seems less than admirable when a writer wants to abide by those rules with the intent on forwarding a set genre or targeting a market that has a demand for said genre/book, but at no point should 'genre fiction' be placed in a little box where these overzealous and self-proclaimed 'literary elites' can poke at it with a sharpened stick and scream profanities at it.
Should the creative process have set limits?Maybe a better understanding of the 'business' of writing/publishing would enlighten them a little?
Overall, I'm outside this argument, since I myself have never published a book, or wrote its entirity. I'm all about breaking creative barriers, but those who want a foundation of set rules shouldn't be burned at the stake.
... In my Poetry class in college, the teacher seemed a little biased on the 'quality' of others poems (mine specifically), and yet, isn't poetry dominantly free-form anyhow? Who should care what the 'poetry critic/pessimist' says, when I decide to write a poem in my own fashion? Perhaps opinion can augment a piece, but it should never control a piece.
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