Genre is just a word
Alert Janeite Karenlee sent us a link to a blog post about a talk on chick lit and literary genres at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
She began by reading some extracts from a number of clearly romance novels and asked the audience if anyone could identify which books they were from. The quality of the writing varied, the purpleness of the prose varied, but they all involved a love story of some description. It turned out she had read us extracts from a modern literary novel, modern chicklit, great European literature (Anna Karenina), great English literature (Jane Austen), ‘classic fiction’ (DK Broster), and finished with some modern Mills & Boon. In simply listening to the extracts there was really no way of telling which was which. There are good books and bad books everywhere.
Hear hear! Though we are on record as becoming twitchy when Jane Austen is referred to as “the godmother of chick lit” or “the grandmother of romance novels” or similar, we think this speaker had an excellent point. We don’t like these sort of ersatz titles because we feel that they put Jane Austen’s work into a box unnecessarily. Certainly there are elements of chick lit and/or romance novels in her work, but it’s the labeling that annoys us–and we would be equally annoyed if her work were labeled as science fiction, or fantasy, or mystery, or anything else (with perhaps the exception of “classic literature” because, let’s face it, they ARE 200 years old). The Janeite diaspora is extraordinarily diverse. That chick lit and romance authors find inspiration in her work surprises us not at all; no more than authors who write books about dragons, or about magicians, or high school students, or a hundred other subjects. The beauty of Jane Austen’s books is the universality of their themes. We would not be reading and discussing and blogging about them 200 years after they were written were that not the case.
(And while we’re here, let us put in a good, albeit off-topic, word for Naomi Novik’s wonderful Temeraire series–they are fantastic!)
November 30th, 2006 at 10:36 am
I’ll second your praise of the Temeraire series! Of course, Naomi Novik admits to being a Jane Austen fan so is it any wonder we like her work?
November 30th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
This is the second time in as many days that I’ve that Novik’s books recommended. I will have to seek them out.
November 30th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
It’s interesting, I would not say I’m a big reader in the fantasy genre, though I adore Tolkien. It’s like Jane Austen–everything else is a pale imitation so I generally don’t bother. But I thought the premise of Naomi Novik’s series was a clever idea, and I enjoy novels set in the Age of Sail such as those by Forester and O’Brian, so I decided to give them a try, and really became caught up in the world she created. I adore the dragons! They all have such individual personalities and their characters are as well-drawn as the human characters. The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire is as intense and complex and compelling as that between Darcy and Lizzy, or any other pairing you’d care to name. (And I confess I can’t WAIT to see what Peter Jackson does with them on film!!!)
I guess that’s why, in general, I don’t get hung up on genres when choosing my own reading material. A good book is a good book. Genre is just for marketing and shelving purposes. I wish bookstores would just shelve “fiction” and “non-fiction” like libraries do. Although our local libraries tend to separate out mysteries for some odd reason. I don’t get it. Why would Dorothy L. Sayers, for example, not be shelved with “literature?” Yes, she wrote mysteries, but they’re as “literary” as can be.
December 1st, 2006 at 3:48 am
Reading your comments above yesterday morning was the first time I’d heard of the Temeraire series. I looked up Novik’s website at lunchtime and read the first-chapter excerpt posted there. I stopped in at a bookshop on the way home from work and found (YAY - I’m in Holland so was not sure how easy it would be) Her Majesty’s Dragon. At almost 1am I finally managed to put the damn thing down and go to BED (like any sensible person should who had to get up at 7am). I think I’m hooked.
December 1st, 2006 at 11:47 am
Like you Mags, I was never really into fantasy novels (at least I had never picked them up and tried them out) but I was a fan of Horatio Hornblower and Richard Sharpe novels so the setting of the Temeraire books appealed to me. I didn’t know how I’d react to the fantasy element but found myself so caught up in the characters and their interactions that I couldn’t put it down once I had started. I’m looking forward to more installments and know they are at least in good hands with Peter Jackson.
And a hearty “Amen” to your rant on genres. I remember going to every book store around me trying to find Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes” only to come up short every time. When I finally caved and asked someone at the store to order it for me they told me it was in the SciFi/Fantasy section. Considering the rest of his novels were in “Literature” it never occurred to me to even check that section! So that’s an issue I have with them dividing up the genres like that. Sometimes one author could get spread out across the store.