4. What are some common myths that people have about genre fiction in general?
I probably should have stuck #3 and #4 together, since this post is going to seem slightly anticlimactic. Regardless, Delmater makes both a false and a correct assertion about the myths about science fiction and its connection to television and film. I'll tackle the latter first.
Look, a giant smurf! |
But Delmater also makes two rather interesting points:
- Potential readers assume that SF and F literature is no different than its film equivalent AND
- That the viewing public refuses to acknowledge that good genre TV or movies are actually genre to begin with (a kind of Atwood-ian reality denial, if you will).
Both are false for rather complicated reasons. In the first case, I would argue that the reason SF/F viewers don't read the literature has more to do with the fact that they know the literature is not like the film equivalent at all, except when it is made clear that a particular show or film is an adaptation of a book. There are Star Wars novels, of course, but the vast body of SF novels are not high-adventure, popcorn monstrosities, but forays into the serious side of things, to varying degrees. The sad reality is that most people do not read because they want deep messages or beautiful prose; they read because they want to be entertained. Genre fiction largely gets a bad rap in this department (particularly in the case of SF) because it tries so hard to be "legit." There's nothing wrong with high-brow genre fiction, but we shouldn't be surprised that the general reading public is not necessarily interested in such things in book form, per se (why they are interested in the film versions is a different question). Still, there is a clear disconnect between genre literature and genre film, and I would argue that another contributing factor is the same factor that has led to decreased reading numbers: film is simply the desired mode of storytelling. We don't have to like it, but there it is.
Michael Bay kills this guy with a lens flare... |
But if we're to take anything away from Delmater's answers, it is that there are a lot of questions left to be answered. The bimonthly obituary for science fiction has proven one thing to me: that most of us have no idea what is causing the decline in SF readership. Figuring out what is causing the various problems that plague genre fiction will be beneficial to the genre as a whole. It's time to stop guessing and start getting some answers. Once and for all.
And that concludes my short series on the literary vs. genre fiction line. I hope you enjoyed them!
And that concludes my short series on the literary vs. genre fiction line. I hope you enjoyed them!
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