Genre Stew
When I was asked to do a Rants-N-Scribbles guest blog post, I asked what Gwenyth wanted me to write about. She said that she would be interested to know how I would compare Children of Paranoia to the Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, Battle Royale or other dystopian fiction. However, she also said that I could write about whatever I wanted to. So instead of simply comparing Children of Paranoia to other (admittedly awesome) dystopic books, I decided to write about genre stew.
I want to start by saying that there’s an enormous difference between genre stew and a book that sits outside of the genre universe. I hate the term “literary fiction” because I think it’s demeaning to genre books but it’s the term that people in the publishing world use to describe books that are the antithesis genre stew. That’s all well and good. There’s plenty of great “literary fiction.” But even the term “literary fiction” misses the entire point of genre books. To me, a genre, its tropes and idioms, are simply an extension of language the same way that a figure of speech is an extension of language (“shooting fish in a barrel” doesn’t really make any sense except that, because of our shared linguistic history, it does). Similarly, certain things means something in a genre piece that mean something entirely different outside of the genre universe. When you write within a genre, you have built in expectations. What makes for great genre fair is how you play with those expectations, meeting them at times and subverting them at others. To dismiss writing genre specific (or at least genre-influenced) work is, to me, akin to dismiss writing in the language in which a huge mass of readers prefers to read. It’s as if “literary fiction” writers all decided to write in Latin even though millions of people want to read in English. I fear I may be getting a bit esoteric so I’m going to bring this back around to talking about genre stew. Children of Paranoia is genre stew. Instead of dismissing genre tropes, I’ve tried to embrace them. The problem is, I have had a hard time sticking to a single genre. So, my publisher, myself, readers and critics end up calling Children of Paranoia, at various times and in various settings, dystopian, a thriller, a conspiracy book, a romance, a chase story and even, at times, science fiction without the science. The truth is that it’s all of these things, but none of these things in their purest form. I think a lot of people get excited by genre stew but it also risks alienating hardcore fans of any one genre. I guess I just have to be okay with taking that risk. To me, mixing genres is simply taking full advantage of the various languages that readers know and love to hopefully entertain them and, sometimes, surprise them. As a fan of genre fiction, I don’t think I would know any other way to write.
Finally, as far as comparing Children of Paranoia to The Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, and Battle Royale: I’ve never read Battle Royale, even though I’ve heard great things, but The Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games are awesome. I have to be honest with all of you though, I think that Children of Paranoia is pretty awesome too.
Well, I am glad you sent me over, what a great guest post. I usually like that a book can fit into numerous categories and not strickly one. I think my issue is i'm not a fan of dystopian so I was turned off with trying, but........ you have me more intrigued, it will remain on my Wishlist until the end of tour and I will make a final decision, lol
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