The question this time is all my own, after having a heated discussion on a Facebook Page:
These are mine personal opinions. I do not expect anyone to agree with anything here, and in fact, I’m certain that many will disagree and/or even hate many of the things I’ve written below. Sorry about that, but you are always welcome to express your own opinions – be they contrary or comparable – in the comments section. So, with that out of the way… let the controversy begin!
What made me think about this topic?
As noted above, I got into a discussion (bloodless fight, more like) on a Facebook page! You see, lots of times I see people posting that they love historical fiction and could members recommend their favorite books in this genre! I argued that this was an era, and not a genre, and we need specific genres to better recommend appropriate books to these posters. Well, that didn’t end well! But to be honest, they never do.
My Thoughts…
These types of discussions have really gotten me thinking lately. If you’re a regular to this blog, you’ll see that I in my book reviews, after the summary, I categorize the book as best I can. I start with age (usually adult), then I go onto genres, then settings, and then other categories. I recently started breaking down the settings into two subcategories – era/s and locations. But…
Most people would say for instance, that Historical Fiction is a genre all on its own. But… that doesn’t make sense to me. Historical, or contemporary, or futuristic are eras, not genres. What they all have in common is that they indicate WHEN the story of the book takes place (in relation to the publication date, obviously).
For me genres are things like fantasy, romance, thrillers, mystery, horror, etc. What they all have in common is the style in which the essence of the story is told and the basic essential tropes that go with any of the genres. A romance novel must have a romantic relationship; a fantasy novel must take place in an imaginary world, and; a horror story needs to have some scary stuff happen. Any of these could take place in the past, the present, or the future. If you think of it that way, you’ll see that you need BOTH the era AND the genre to categorize the book properly.
That said, we could also say that the age of the intended audience is also separate from both the era and the genre. I therefore think that YA shouldn’t be considered a genre, either. WHO the target audience the book was written for does not indicate the style of the novel.
I know, I know… no one will agree with me about this. Just like no one seems to agree with me that books set during the same era as the publication, but which were published 40+ years ago, shouldn’t be called historical fiction, but rather vintage contemporary fiction. But the book published in 1946 about WWII is still dumped in with all the WWII novels being published today. WHY?
Look, think about it this way. Take the dystopian novel “1984” by George Orwell. Relative to today, it is set 39 years in the past. But it was published in 1948, which is over 50 years ago. At the time the book was released, it was set to take place 36 years in the future! If you ask me, it is an adult, vintage, futuristic, dystopian novel (and a classic, but that’s beside the point). By my logic it is: adult = target age group; vintage = published at least 40 years ago; futuristic = set in an era after the publication date; dystopian = genre! I mean, how could anyone call that an historical fiction novel? And yet, I have seen it called that by some!
Something to think about, right?
This post is my 2nd entry in the 2023 Discussion Challenge & Giveawayhosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!
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