|
The Genres Children's books There are also the unclassifiable novels which do not fit
into any of these categories, and are published as General Fiction.
Books considered as Literature are more likely to come from the
General Fiction category than to be one of the genres, though
a genre book can be well enough written to be worth reading more
than once, and a few might be good enough to be studied as literature. |
books which people will buy - even though a book
which is obviously one of a kind is often not very good when
considered as literature - just as wood carvers will produce
carved animals for the tourists, even though these are not good
as sculpture. To some extent the genres, therefore, are books designed for particular markets. Not entirely, because some of the books which began the genres and which later writers imitated were not written for the market but to explore the writer's imagination. This is especially true of the first genre - Science Fiction. Much of genre writing is very bad. Some of the worst of all writing is found among the genres, but there are also books with good writing in them and a few books which may well survive long enough to be generally recognised as literature. Some literary critics label all genre writing as worthless but the student of literature should be aware of all the different kinds of writing which exist. Genres are a perhaps unfortunate feature of all creative work. As with books the original work is often followed by imitators. This is particularly striking in the film industry. When a film is made no-one knows whether it will be successful in the cinemas. However if a film is made of a new type which brings in lots of money at the Box Office, producers find it difficult to avoid making another film just like it. Thus the film Jaws was very successful. It was soon followed by Jaws II and Jaws III. The pop music industry also works in the same way. A popular group will be followed by imitators making a similar sound. In all creative fields however it is the original which does best and is remembered. 1. Science Fiction This genre consists of books in which imagination can make up anything at all. The story can be set in a future time (which we cannot know anything for certain about). The writer can imagine that people can travel to other planets in other star systems. He can thereby imagine anything he likes. Science Fiction (often called SF) is sometimes used by writers to work out what kind of changes might happen in society if new inventions are introduced. They can also consider possible changes in social customs. This does not mean SF writers are foretelling the future. They are not prophets but they can help people exercise the imagination and think about possible futures. It has been said that SF is the writing produced by asking the question "What if ...?" For example: What if there were people on the moon? What if |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Home |
