“Genre is a confining madness; it says nothing about how writers write or readers read, and everything about how publishers, retailers and commentators would like them to.”
I can see why some authors might find them annoying (see Vonnegut & SF label), and granted some books are too complicated to categorize comprehensively, but readers need some parameters when browsing.
To this end, I’m always thankful to fellow readers who take the time to comment on novels upon completion.
Edit: This is **NOT** my suggestion. See article by Alex Clark at:
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/27/the-big-idea-should-we-abolish-literary-genres?utm\_source=Sailthru&utm\_medium=email&utm\_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Weekly:%20November%2027-December%201%2C%202023&utm\_term=lithub\_weekly\_master\_list](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/27/the-big-idea-should-we-abolish-literary-genres?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Weekly:%20November%2027-December%201%2C%202023&utm_term=lithub_weekly_master_list)
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by dervishman2000
19 Comments
Yes, I’m sure American Republicans would just love to jumble some fiction and nonfiction together because Dewey was decimated.
Please don’t I already have trouble finding a good book to read and want more genres I want more labeling. Don’t take my search possibilities away from me. I need them to narrow down what I want from what I don’t want.
Please no.
How about you read more books instead of caring about genres
no.
although if we have to replace them, i would go with tags. i have seen several interesting discussions around the usefulness of tags on fanfiction sites. this would allow for authors/books that do not fit neatly into this or that category to find their readers.
If you don’t like labels, don’t use them.
Most of us appreciate having some clue about what we’re thinking about reading, not because publishers (libraries, bookstores) force labels on us, but because we’ve found what we enjoy most, and look, there’s more with similar tropes and themes!
Hands off genres. This is your only warning. (not really kidding)
If it bends genres categorize it as both.
posting this stupid article is kind of rage-baity.
An evergreen read: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/blog/54-le-guins-hypothesis
Hey bookstores and giant municipal central libraries, please stock books alphabetically by title.
I rarely look at genres and usually dont even know what genre the book i am going to read is considered to be. I often dont have any idea what the book is really going to be about. I have a kindle and i put every book i have ever thought possibly interesting in my queue on libby. When i finish a book, i just kinda scroll and press and see what i get.
Basically if you dont like genres, there are ways to completely forget they even exist.
Genre labels are like political parties: people think they’re so smart to suggest abolishing them, but if we got rid of them, people would just independently invent them all over again — maybe not exactly the same ones as before, but people would still invent *some* kind of labels even if we got rid of the old labels.
The problem with genre labels is the same problem with all language: it imperfectly describes a complex world, but it’s better than zero description. People want ways to describe the world. If you got rid of the current descriptions, people would just invent new ones.
Even if a book defies categorization, it’s still going to be more of one category than the other, it’s just a quick and useful superficial tool to bring some order to chaos.
Besides, how else am I gonna order my bookcase, by alphabet? Now *that* would be madness.
No because it is up.to the author to make a book filled with trope filled bullshit.
Also its pretty clear what genres are what and whether or not it fits in two places is up to store owners.
> It says nothing about how… readers read
Boy, citation needed on that one. Readers definitely use genres to navigate to stuff they like and avoid things they don’t think they’ll be interested in.
I think some of this comes from an anxiety to be Unique and Interesting, rather than a true stifling of artists. If you’re good at what you do, then you aren’t afraid of rules. The constraints of rhyme and meter inspire creativity in a poet by making them solve problems in interesting ways. Limitations and structure can be followed, played with, or abandoned by the artist as the work demands.
My favorite art teacher was adamant about his students mastering the techniques of realism before we ever attempted anything else. It was his belief that you should deviate from the structure only when your work required you to do so, never because you were unable to do otherwise. I think this concept works well in many areas of life, but especially the arts.
>it says nothing about how writers write or readers read
and yet because of genre I have never been duped into purchasing a Danielle Steel or Mills&Boon book. That may be my own failing that I’m discounting large swathes of popular published books, but no matter how well written I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t enjoy them because that genre doesn’t appeal to me.
This never holds up.
* No one is confined to reading or writing within a specific genre.
* Genres are not collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
* There’s mixed incentive at best for a publisher to lie about a book’s genre (this is never top of the list of “problems” with genres, though)
* The conjecture that marketing frameworks always hurt the consumer is absurd.
Ask a genuine question…get mauled with whatever is nearest at hand.
What ever happened to civil discussions?