Genres of Literature

People talk smack about certain types of book. Well, I'm here to tell them to shove it. Because you never know what might be a good book.

For instance, many people denigrate science fiction and fantasy (lumping them together as I just did is pretty nasty in and of itself, since they are two separate genres). The problems cannot be denied: there are a lot of crappy science fiction books out there (ditto for fantasy). Guess what though: there are a lot of crappy books out there in general.

Just because some genre might have its roots in pulp doesn't mean squat. If you read "classic" literature, you'll probably find more than a few "great books" which are nothing more than pulp, albeit with less attractive cover art. Romances have a long and storied tradition, and just because the genre is replete with examples of terrible, hackneyed writing is no reason to write the genre off as a whole. Mysteries too.

In fact, the very fact that genres are separated from the mass of "general fiction" is proof that they deserve recognition. There are enough of that type of book to warrant a few examples of terrible writing, but that doesn't invalidate the genre. People play to stereotypes without examining the qualities of individual works.

This is not a defence of any particular genre, despite my mentioning a few. This is simply a defence of books in general. Regardless of the section of the library in which they happen to be located, books can be good, bad, or indifferent, and the only way to tell is to read them. And just because a particular author liked to make up stories about the Old West which might not ever have had any chance of happening, it doesn't make that author inferior to another author who writes personal narrative with embellishment. Unless it's nonfiction, it is to some degree imaginary, and imaginary covers a lot of ground.

At the moment, everything in life seems to be about categorization. Mark my words though; in a while (I'll couch my prediction in that incredible vagary so I can seem prescient without trying) people will start to see that you can't define something solely by labels. Since the entirety of human history thus far has been leading up to that, and will presumably continue leading up to it, that while might be a long time coming. I hope it comes eventually.