fandomhigh | Literature, Class 10: Period 3, Thursday, November 13

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Literature, Class 10: Period 3, Thursday, November 13

"Today, we are going to be speaking of genre," Miss Bennet said. "Literary genre, that is. There are other varieties, but they are hardly relevant to a literature class."

"Genres are, essentially, categories of literature. Literature can be defined across many aspects. If you remember, we have discussed form in previous classes; poetry, short stories, plays, all of these would be specific genres. But length and composition are not the only means by which we delineate works.

"A biography, for example, is a historical work which truthfully tells the story of one individual's life. It is, by necessity, quite a bit different when the author and the subject are the same; if you write your own biography, it is known as an autobiography, and the truthfulness becomes slightly more suspect." There was a playful smile to accompany this. "Memoirs are a subgenre of autobiography: more focused on a mood, or feel, or a specific event that one remembers, and less inclined to rigorous historical research."

"Fiction is filled with genres. Mystery, for example, is a category which typically follows a set pattern. The protagonist might be a policeman, a private detective, or simply a little old lady who notices quite a lot about life. The protagonist either stumbles onto the crime, or is specifically hired to investigate. The story is a puzzle, with misleading clues laid in plain sight, and the story ends with all questions satisfactorily resolved by the protagonist, and a reveal to the audience how the case was solved."

"No less structured is the genre of romance. The protagonist in this case is usually a young woman, somewhat of an ingenue, who encounters a gentleman and is quickly swept off her feet. Sometimes, he leads her into indiscretion, but in all such cases, the young woman is perfectly safe, for he means to marry her honorably, and by the end of the novel, he does."

"It is setting and not structure which designates fantasy. The basic rule is that the world must be different from our own, markedly so, by the inclusion of something which typically is believed to be mythical and not real in our own world. Unicorns, magic, elves, such creatures populate the worlds of fantasy, which immediately sets the tone: this world is not our own. Which, I confess, is somewhat muddied when one considers a world such as Fandom, with inhabitants who may very well practice magic and befriend unicorns, but sadly, literary genres are dreadfully behind the times.

"Setting is also key in science fiction, but in a far different manner from fantasy. The world is quite different from our own, but in ways that science would find to be plausible. There has been a technological advancement, or invention which changes the world. Perhaps the setting is a colonized world with alien creatures, either battling humans for survival or co-operating with them for the mutual good. Again, this genre is perhaps harder to classify to those who interact regularly with such scenarios, but the key is that developments in the story have not occurred for the author. He is merely engaging in a thought experiment, which explores how such an advancement might have come about, and how it might change the world as he knows it."

"Suspense novels -- sometimes called thrillers -- are characterized by their tone: which is, as you may imagine, suspenseful, carefully building tension towards a climax. These stories are generally high on action and dramatic sequences, though psychological thrillers may focus more on one character, and his doubts as the world around him seems to change. Legal thrillers might center instead on trials within a court system. Horror stories are also noted for tone, but in that case, the tone is darker. The macabre is ordinary, and good does not always triumph over evil."

"As one may imagine, there are far more genres than I could list, even if I were to speak until our time today was up: westerns, epics, historicals, even, yes, erotic." She did flush bright pink, but she managed to say it. "Not that all literature fits into a genre. Much does not. Furthermore, some literature is not easy to classify, and may seem to cross the boundaries of several genres at once. We will be discussing that today, as well."

"Lastly," she said, "I would like to ask you all to meet me next week, not here, but in the library. I will hope that, by now, all of you can at least locate it successfully." The smile that accompanied this was very playful, indeed.

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What genres, if any, do you read regularly? What genres, based on the descriptions above, do you find yourself interested in? Has your time in Fandom changed your perspective on certain genres? (E.g., one's view on fantasy might be changed by meeting elves, or science fiction by befriending aliens.) Have other personal experiences lead you to appreciate new genres in new ways? Does background influence what sort of genre one is likely to enjoy?

Edited 2008-11-13 19:59 (UTC)

"I was... unfamiliar with fantasy as something to write of, as it is here, and I found it very entertaining to read when I did," he offered, feeling once more out of depth with his relatively small reading list.

"Because what you consider to be normal, might be called fantasy by inhabitants of this world?" Eliza asked. "Does your world therefore not have a genre of fantasy, or is your fantasy something different entirely?"

"The whole idea of it, I suppose. There are... faerie stories, of course. And the Unionists will tell you that the Lurlinists are in their own fantasy world," and he smiled at the joke even if he would be the only one, and thought them both wrong, "but nothing like what I read about here."

"Faerie stories would presumably count as fantasy," Miss Bennet mused, "or do you mean that they were children's tales, like the myths we discussed previously? I'm not certain that the two are mutually exclusive."

"Closer to myths. Or, er, religion, really."

"Religion being its very own category," Miss Bennet smiled. Incorrect, but proper nonetheless.

"But I suppose, even if there are things in the books I've read which aren't in Oz, that the fantastical has very little to, er, recommend it with magic and all."

"I'm not certain that I follow," Miss Bennet confessed. "You find it to be charming, but you feel it lacks accuracy?"

"Just that magic works in a certain way," he said, "in Oz, anyway, and so magic in a book simply seems mistaken or silly instead of fantastical."

"Which would, indeed, seem to break the suspension of disbelief," she supplied.

Re: Discussion #1: Genre and You (LIT-10)

new-to-liirness.livejournal.com - 2008-11-14 18:06 (UTC) - Expand

"I like fantasy," Anemone said, "and mystery and suspense. And I do think background influences what you like... it's hard for me to get into what a lot of you would term science fiction, because to me it is science-fact, and not that interesting."

Really, books about pretend aliens didn't hold much fascination for her.

"It would be frustrating, one would imagine," Eliza mused. "Some of it would be dreadfully incorrect, both scientifically and extrapolating how science affects individuals, would it not?"

"A lot of it is incorrect," Anemone said, mouth twitching with amusement.

"Space colonization doesn't go half as well as you'd think, because people get lost and lose entire planets, which is really a new level of dumb, human culture doesn't change as much as you'd think it would, even with all the shiny new toys, and I am not a little green man trying to take over the planet. There's other reasons too, but those are the big ones that make it hard for me to sit through those books."

"Nor should you," Miss Bennet said calmly. "I should hate to read a book discussing my life in ways that were completely and hopelessly false. The impulse to argue with the author would be overwhelming; I should imagine myself flinging the book angrily at the nearest wall."

"I love a good romance," Blair said. "Probably because I'm a romantic at heart."

"As am I," Miss Bennet confessed. "I've a friend who claims she has no romance in her at all; I simply cannot believe it of her."

Lizzy was dreadfully wrong on that point, but that was a story for another day.

After thinking about it a bit, Chad realized, "Most of what I read is nonfiction, unless it's poetry, and even then, it's usually poetry by a musician."

"Would poetry by a musician be similar to song lyrics?" Miss Bennet asked. "One would imagine their louder poetry to be somewhat related to their poetry, when performed a capella."

"I always kind of wondered," Chad admitted, "what makes a musician look at something and think, 'this is a song,' or 'this is a poem.'"

"Perhaps one could ask a musician," Miss Bennet smiled. "Maybe the matter is simply, 'this is a poem, for now, as I have yet to find music which suits it.'"

Sokka scratched his head. "Where do ninjas fit, in terms of genre? Or secret agents?"

He considered further. "And can you even CALL something science fiction, or fantasy, anymore, if you know someone whose life is similar?"

Miss Bennet laughed, not unkindly. "Ninjas and secret agents. I believe those would be suspense, or possibly adventure, depending on the story itself. And it is certainly science fiction or fantasy, if the author wrote it as such. For nothing else than the certainty that the author would have gotten some of the details wrong."

Sokka nodded. "Okay, then I like suspense and adventure. And... Yeah, that's a good point. It should count as what they wrote it as. Author's intent and all that."

"Though I should hope by now we do not place too great an emphasis on author's intent," Miss Bennet smiled. "But at least it should go to categorization, in that light."

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