Debating genre – is it so bad?

So, I suppose some of you are wondering why I’ve been asking writers this week: in how many fiction categories do you write? Well, I had a theory I wanted to explore… about genre.

Now, don’t roll your eyes. Yes, ‘genre’ is a topic that’s so often debated these days there’s hardly anything new to say about it. (If you don’t know what I mean, peruse this post here)

But I was supporting my author buddy Alan Baxter, at a talk he was giving at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts called “Genre Fiction and the Advancing World”, and he summarised for the audience some of the usual grumbles. You know the ones:

Photo © Zena Shapter.
Inspired by cartoonist Tom Gauld.

• In certain publishing circles, ‘genre fiction’ is considered less clever than literary fiction.
• Literary fiction writers don’t even think they’re in a genre (ie. category) of their own, despite the fact that their stories share certain characteristics or features.
• Two common features literary fiction shares are (a) beautiful writing that (b) questions the human condition.

A fair enough summary – only, after listening to it, I found my pen writing:

But my writing is beautiful

That’s why I write. I love the beauty of weaving words together until they create meaning and story. It’s also why I read. I love the magic others create with their words. And I read everything and anything. To me, it’s all beautiful – just in different ways.

Literary fiction stories do seem to share certain characteristics – not that I have the personal expertise to identify the right ones – but there’s no monopoly on what is or isn’t beautiful writing. Any well-written story is a work of writing art. Strolling through a museum or art gallery will illustrate that sentiment visually. All art is amazing. What’s beautiful to one person just might not be beautiful to another. It’s a question of taste. Taste alone chooses between literary fiction and genre fiction, just as taste alone chooses between romance and horror; sci fi and thriller.

So then if preference, and its interpretation, is all there is between fiction categories, and if no single preference can ever be ‘better’ than another (as that would go against the very nature of preference!), surely no debate wherein one fiction category is set against another can ever be fully resolved?

And yet, that sits fine with me, because I write in multiple fiction categories anyway. To me, discussions about genre fiction, literary fiction, sparkly vegetarian vampires or fifty shades of whip-cracking whatever are good, because they’re a way of keeping alive discussion about books. Yes, stigmas exist. But only because readers are so passionate about their preferences. Yes, fiction classifications can challenge the publication of cross-category writing. But anything that inspires the marketing department into launching something unique has got to be good, right? Because unique sells (when it’s good quality). And anything, anything that stimulates discussion about books, and stokes the fire of passion in readers is to be applauded in my view.

So you love sci fi but hate crime? Yay, let’s talk about it! What are the similarities between those genres, what’s different?

So you hate literary paranormal romances but love high fantasy? Yay, there’s another debate right there!

Am I alone in applauding such debates? Am I even alone in writing in multiple fiction categories?

I figured not but wanted to check, hence my Facebook poll (be a fan of my page here!). As it was, I was amazed at the number of writers who create in multiple fiction categories:

Facebook Poll, as at 10 August 2012

Thank you to the bunch of very clever and very talented writers who responded to my poll: Richard Harland, Pamela Freeman, Ian Andrew Irvine, Michael Pryor, Greg Barron, Mary Victoria, Kirstyn McDermott, Tracey O’Hara, Margo Lanagan, Jason Fischer, Felicity Pulman, Nansi Kunze, Gillian Polack, Alan Baxter, Laura E. Goodin, Jodi Cleghorn, Andrew J McKiernan, Graham Storrs, Kylie Scott, Beatrice Yell, Leigh Blackmore, Elizabeth Ottosson, Martin Livings, Lorraine Clarke, Hannah Raspa, Adrian Bedford, Sarah Bourne, Ashleigh Oldfield, Yvonne Horton, Colin Chadwick, Elaine Hillson, Füzzy Mijmark, Ciara Ballintyne.

From some of the comments made on Facebook, it’s clear that most writers love creating in multiple categories, experimenting across them even (which is why there are so many sub-genres). So I think it’s fairly safe to say that most writers aren’t themselves prejudice against rival fiction categories (otherwise they’d be battling against themselves).

Which leads me now to ask… do you think that genre debating is good for the discussion it provokes? Is it really so bad? Or do you think the disadvantages outweigh that benefit?

Let me know… in the comments below!