Kit Whitfield's Top 10 Genre-Defying Novels
Kit Whitfield lists her Top 10 Genre-Defying Novels over at The Guardian. Click on the link to see her list, but in the meantime, here's the first paragraph of her article to whet your interest:
"Genre is all very well, but it's a cage as much as a support. Who knows how many books a person who won't touch women's fiction or only reads sci fi is missing out on that they'd otherwise love? But for a writer, the effect is more insidious. A work of art needs to be complete on its own terms: it needs to ring with internal rightness, never mind whether it makes sense in terms of genre. A writer who forces a trope in or leaves an idea out because they're worried about genre categories has mutilated their book. The best novels are those that are so effective in themselves that they let genre go hang: use what works, leave out what doesn't, and come up with whatever's fresh and vivid that serves the story you're trying to tell."
"Genre is all very well, but it's a cage as much as a support. Who knows how many books a person who won't touch women's fiction or only reads sci fi is missing out on that they'd otherwise love? But for a writer, the effect is more insidious. A work of art needs to be complete on its own terms: it needs to ring with internal rightness, never mind whether it makes sense in terms of genre. A writer who forces a trope in or leaves an idea out because they're worried about genre categories has mutilated their book. The best novels are those that are so effective in themselves that they let genre go hang: use what works, leave out what doesn't, and come up with whatever's fresh and vivid that serves the story you're trying to tell."
posted by pgenrestories at 11:14 AM
4 Comments:
i've read 1, 4, 5 and 9 and i've seen the movie of 7. must check out the rest!
(i'm uncomfortable with the term "genre-defying," actually... i think a lot of the fiction i consider my favorites transcend the genres they've been boxed into, so the term sounds a bit... tricky for me.)
@bhex: Hi, Bhex. How about "genre-transcending"? :)
ahah no i mean er... i'm not expressing myself very well, i'm afraid. i think what i want to say is, i don't believe the "goodness" of a work of literature is dependent on genre. so if a piece of fiction is something that is widely recognizable as "good," you don't say "in spite of it being a sci fi story" or call it "the best of its kind" - it's just GOOD. genre just doesn't matter. but maybe i fail to see the article writer's point...
Well said, Bhex. :)
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