Noting that JABberwocky sent me my rejection yesterday afternoon.
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On our way to the break out novel so far, we’ve discussed the “good” book, what makes a book good for discussion, and what the heck literature is anyway. I try to keep this discussion very accessible to my college students.
I’ll admit, the genre discussion is one that we don’t have in class. My colleagues at the college and I *do* teach genre books frequently in our classes. Two of us use Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale for example. At its core, another book I teach, Native Son is a murder mystery as well as a social commentary. The separation of literature from genre is often artificial. Speculative fiction, a “new” field of writing, suggests that it is novel to combine genres. I have friends that are currently publishing “forensic fantasy.” Alternative history has been accepted as fantasy, but is really a happy marriage of fantasy and historical. Urban romance combines the fantastic with gritty action-adventure.
Genre divisions are very artificial indeed. How do we decide what a genre is? After all, we can break out of a genre with our break out novel if we don’t know we’re trying to break out of.
Usually the genre reader expects certain bells and whistles to be rung. Romance, for example, expects sex and kissing, depending on the subgenre. In general, readers want the couple to get together after several scenes of dramatic tension. There should be some obstacles, and even a red herring romance, but our heroine in the end gets her man. We can boil most genre writing down to conventions. Readers enjoy twists on those conventions, but equally, readers want their expectations met.
As a reader (and a cursed reader–both a writer and a literature teacher!), I find myself avoiding genre fairly often, because the repetition (those signature bells and whistles) are not something I want to read. Often writers fall into the genre trap, walking in the same ruts as their fellow genre writers, using well-worn cliches. Again, many of their readers want this, and that helps books sell. This is in NO WAY to suggest that genre writers are bad writers. But you need to ring those bells if you want to sell in that genre. Even the publishing industry will tell you that you need to classify your book, tell them how to sell it, tell them where it goes on the shelf. This makes sense in many ways.
Can we write a break out book that’s a genre book? Now, that’s the question. A book can be popular and be genre, but not be a break out book. Mass audiences flock to a Rowling (boy wizard) or a Gabaldon (time traveling romantic Scotsman), or a Novik (fantasy with historical overtones). Are any of these books break out? They are popular and sell well. A couple of them cross genres and make something new. Does that make them break out?
Only time will tell. Why? Because I contend that not only does the break out novel offer a new recipe (genre busting and crossing is a way to create a new and tasty product!), but also the break out novel must do something beyond that. It, like literature, also needs to speak to the human condition over time. I think that’s the way to get a reluctant genre reader to check out a genre or cross genre novel. The more who continue to do that, the more the novel sustains itself, takes on a life of its own, and truly breaks out.
Next: some coherent (I sure hope!) discussion of the break out novel.
Catherine
ps Feel free to disagree. My literary roots are showing, and I don’t get back to my hair dresser until the 2nd of June
