I'm very tired of hearing that works than some people deem to have literary value are exempt from genre classifications. "If it's in a genre it must be bad, right?"
Genre is just a set of tropes or themes, structures and conventions, and 'ungenred' works have these, too. At the end of the day, that's simple close-minded snobbery. The shelves are full of bad work, no matter how it's shelved.
Then again, you could argue that the cultures that evolve around certain genres exclude certain people. I don't wear a beret, I can't read Proulx. I don't wear thick enough glasses, I can't be a fan of SF. Klingon speakers embarrass me just as much as emo haircuts and coffee-shop writers who wear their grandfather's clothes.
no subject
I'm so with you on that.
I'm very tired of hearing that works than some people deem to have literary value are exempt from genre classifications. "If it's in a genre it must be bad, right?"
Genre is just a set of tropes or themes, structures and conventions, and 'ungenred' works have these, too. At the end of the day, that's simple close-minded snobbery. The shelves are full of bad work, no matter how it's shelved.
Then again, you could argue that the cultures that evolve around certain genres exclude certain people. I don't wear a beret, I can't read Proulx. I don't wear thick enough glasses, I can't be a fan of SF. Klingon speakers embarrass me just as much as emo haircuts and coffee-shop writers who wear their grandfather's clothes.