Genre Snobbery
February 15th, 2007 at 12:15 am (Books, Thoughts)
I just recently finished reading The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and it made me think about genre and the way genre categories color our opinions about books even before we know anything about them. I work in a book store and it amazes me how much genre matters to people and yet how random it is which books are shelved where.
People will ask for books that were recommended to them or that their book clubs are reading or that Oprah recommended or whatever with no idea where in the store it is but fully intending to buy it when I hand it to them. Then I’ll walk them over to, say, Mystery or Biography or Science Fiction and hand them the book. Usually the book looks perfectly benign, like anything they might have found in the regular fiction section. If they weren’t standing under a sign that said “Mystery” they never would have known. But they do. So they say “Oh, it’s a mystery? I don’t like mysteries. I don’t want it.” and walk away. Or they wrinkle up their nose like something just died and say “Ew! Why would she suggest a fantasy book to me? She knows I hate all that elf crap!” and huff off, offended.
This happens all the time.
At the same time, there are all kinds of strange things you wouldn’t expect shelved in “Fiction”. Stephen King is entirely shelved there. This includes the “Dark Tower” series which really should be in “Fantasy/Science Fiction” if you get right down to it. The “Dune” series by Frank Herbert is in “Fiction” too. Don’t ask me why. Wicked by Gregory Maguire could certainly be in “Fantasy/Sci-Fi” too, but it’s not because they don’t think it will sell there. You would think that Danielle Steele would be in “Romance”, right? I mean, that’s what she writes. But she’s in “Fiction” with Nora Roberts (except for her mysteries). There are mysteries everywhere and romance is all over the place. Vampire romances are split evenly between “Romance” and “Fantasy/Sci-Fi”, but Anne Rice gets special dispensation and gets to be in “Fiction” for no particular reason. None of it makes any bloody sense. Clearly genre isn’t that cut and dry.
Why are there people who are so afraid of genre? What is so scary about it? The most common rational excuse I hear is “I like books about real people”, but I have trouble understanding how half of the fiction books I see are any more real than anything else. And if you give a really good fantasy book a chance you might find that it’s more realistic in terms of characterization than many mediocre fiction books you’ve read. There’s bad apples everywhere. Most of the “Fiction” section is mediocre at best, but so are most of the other genre sections. The key is listening to recommendations and finding out what you like and taking risks once in a while. Don’t be afraid to try something new or you’ll find that all you read is books about quirky 30-something women who are trying to get married to 30-something men but can’t find the right guy. One in a great while is great, but most of them are pretty forgettable. So change it up! Try something new! Or, if you really like that story, try it with 300-something elves or 30-something detectives or something. At least it’s variety. I guess I’m just tired of books being judged by the sign above their shelf.
I guess I just wonder when genre became so important in our lives and in our book reading choices. Is genre so important that it really trumps the recommendation of a good friend?
Eva said,
February 15, 2007 at 11:23 am
Honestly, I think a lot of what you’re seeing is particularly closed-minded people, and I’m guessing this is not just about how they treat books. There are a lot of people out there who won’t take any sort of risks, who have opinions which are not backed by experience and refuse to challenge them.
For example, how many people in their 30’s do you think absolutely refuse to read anything that even smells like a comic? How many people would flat out refuse to have sushi for the first time, just because it’s too scary and different?
New things are scary and a lot of people are more comfortable with mediocrety than taking a little risk. Also a lot of people place more value on relatively arbitrary labels (like genra or race or fashion design house) than they should.
That said, there are people out there who are comfortable with taking risks, who have been exposed to more and varied things already. I suspect those are the people who would ask you what section the book is in and then go find it themselves (or just have a better idea where to look without asking).
I agree that the behavior you’re describing is stupid and arbitrary, but really if these people aren’t willing to take risks, maybe they don’t deserve the best books that the store has to offer.
Kristin said,
February 16, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Because people are stupid.
This is one of the reasons why I teach sci fi/fantasy in my classes whenever possible. And I don’t tell my students what they’re getting into until after they’ve started it. Some of them are shocked. I’ve even gotten evals that say “I think maybe I’ll try reading some science fiction now.” It’s the same reason people won’t try new foods or won’t see a movie in another language or are afraid of Shakespeare.
And, for the record, I teach graphic novels, too. Yay for Neil Gaiman and “Murder Mysteries.” And yay for the students who not only gave it a chance, but who then went out seeking more of it because they “had no idea what I was missing.” Sometimes, just sometimes, education works.