Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

On alternatives to genre categories:

To give each reader an annotated author-list of whatever their fiction addiction is, so they can go find the books on the shelves, is a perfectly fair solution, offered by many libraries. But addicts don't like it. They want books to be easy the way fast food is easy. They want to go to the shelf and stick out their hand and get a fix.

-- Ursula K. LeGuin, "Genre: A Word Only a Frenchman Could Love", from The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm on both sides of the genre issue. I mostly pull from the big section of bookstores labelled "Fiction," or, "Literature," and I particularly like books that are hard to sort into a genre. (I don't like them for that fact, I just find that a lot of books that I particularly like have that trait.) By that I mean, books where you think, "Where would I find that? It could be under fiction. Maybe it's under science-fiction. Or is it fantasy?" and then you find out that they actually filed it under Mystery. That sort of thing. So that part of me is down with the idea that 'genres' restrict and hurt the art of writing and selecting books, and pidgeonhole people into mass-produced pabulum in many ways. However, I also find that it's really, really overwhelming to go into a bookstore and stare at the incredible wall of books. I like smaller bookstores not only because I like quirky, independent shops, but frankly, because I like having to content with fewer choices. I find selecting from 100,000 options next to impossible, but selecting from 200 is more managable. So in that sense, in a big bookstore especially, having a genre to choose from is handy.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

If you mentally lump Jane Austen in with Harlequin romances, or Isaac Asimov with the hundreds of watery, substanceless Star Trek spinoff books, you'll never read any of the greats.

But if everything's shelved by author, you'll still have people who only read certain authors, or who won't read anything that's not on their annotated author-lists because they prefer this specific range of subject matter.

No matter how the books are marketed, there will always be categorization in people's heads. There will always be people who will only read what they know they already like, or who are afraid of trying new things. (I feel sorry for a friend of mine who isn't comfortable with anything but meat and potatoes and soggy veggies on his plate-- he's never had sushi, or a curry, or white pizza...)