Discussion posts are some of my favourite posts to read. New ideas get shared that way, or old ideas are revisited and given a new spin. And of course, I get to be my opinionated self as I hoist my views upon others, while pretending to be objective. Or maybe not. I do welcome alternate views and I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Genre confuses many readers. At least it confuses readers on Goodreads. It’s not a rare occurrence that fantasy is shelved as science fiction and vice versa, or that books set in the 1980s are shelved as contemporary and as historical fiction with equal frequency. I sometimes debate with myself if I should shelve a book set in the 1990s as contemporary or not. Where exactly are the lines drawn between contemporary and historical fiction? What happens to contemporary fiction when it becomes outdated? Can it be considered historical fiction then? If not, then what genre does an outdated contemporary book fit into?
There is a fair bit of ambiguity when it comes to genre classifications. Genre, after all is not absolute. Take horror, for instance. Horror contains books that provoke dread or cause fear in characters and/or readers. Yet some readers are more easily frightened than others, so what one reader considers frightful, another might just shrug at. On what scale then is frightfulness measured to determine which books should be classified as horror?
Ambiguity of genre however, exists mostly in those instances when we’re trying to delineate classifications. Separating similar books into differing genres is bound to cause confusion. Why one book is considered to be action while another with similar themes is considered to be adventure might just be a matter of dispute.
Genres in themselves are useful to readers, writers and publishers alike. Readers who enjoyed a particular story set in medieval Rome are likely to enjoy other books with the same setting. Where would they find such books? Under historical fiction. A writer who knows the elements of romance is going to be more focused in her writing if she too intends to write romance. Publishers can use genres as a guideline for future publications. Whether you consider YA to be a genre or an age classification, YA books have become popular among adults, so with the awareness of the expanding target group, publishers can have clearer vision in their marketing strategies. Anyone notice how many recent YA book covers could easily pass off as covers of adult fiction titles?
Point is, genre helps people find the books they want and with an ever growing catalogue of books, classification is necessary to navigate the book landscape. Without genres, it would be difficult to find books that one is more likely to enjoy. Never mind the ambiguity, even if it frustrates me when a book that is clearly realistic fiction keeps being shelved as paranormal on Goodreads.
How do you approach ambiguity in genre classifications?
To be honest, the only time I ever care about genre is when I am tagging my reviews, haha.
And in answer to your postulation about whether a book in the 1990s is contemporary or not, I think it depends on what issues it is looking at. For me, contemporary are novels that are set in the modern world (which includes 1990s I mean really except for smart phones and iPods nothing MUCH has changed) that deal with issues that face readers. So, for instance, Judy Blume wrote her novel FOREVER, which is about first loves and first physical experiences in 1989 but I would definitely class it in the contemporary genre because teen readers today are still facing first loves and first times and all of that stuff. It’s still the same, even though her character is going through it 20 years ago.
But ambiguity in genre doesn’t really affect me all that much :D
I think you make a very good point about the characteristics of Contemporary. And yes, I love reading books like those from Judy Blume because technology aside, they are still very relevant today.
I agree with you on the advantages of classifying books via genre, and I’ve had similar questions of whether or not contemporary fiction is still “contemporary” after a few decades, or if paranormal romance is more science-fiction/fantasy or romance, etc. Nowadays, I feel like some publishers or authors are trying to stake their claim on a whole bunch of genres at once so that they can get a wider audience, and that just adds to the genre ambiguity problem. And sub-genres and sub-sub-genres?! (I’m sure we can say the same for music genres, too!)
Don’t get me started on music genres! I was staring at my Genre folders on Spotify last week, trying very hard to decide what constitutes Country and what constitutes Country Folk. Then there’s Indie Folk, Folk Pop, Folk Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Southern Rock… IT NEVER ENDS!
For now book genres are a lot saner but yeah, if it goes the way of music genres, then reading synopses will be much quicker than trying to figure out what on earth Historical Science Fiction Romance might even mean. (I made that up, by the way.)
I don’t know… book marketers and publishers are always looking to take advantage of the system. If a category is hot — like YA — it seems that a lot of books start to show up in the YA category. That Amazon allows a book to be in so many categories/genre only exacerbates the issue. Almost makes any attempt at categorization impossible.
I think Shannelle has the right idea — perhaps there is no genre anymore. Just read the back matter and check out the cover and decide for yourself what it is…
I do agree with you that marketers and publishers try to take advantage of the system but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. While every book is different in its own right (even if it’s riddled with clichés), genres make it a lot easier to find books of particular interest. But yes, allowing books to be categorised in more than two or three genres defeats the purpose of categorisation because if every book starts to fit every genre, then that defeats the purpose of categorisation.
And yes, I agree with Shannelle in that content of a book matters more than any label that get slapped on it.
I personally don’t even check genre. It’s just like, oh, this book’s synopsis is like this, then that’s all I need to know. The only labels I would use would have to be contemporary, but that’s absolutely it. I just pick up whatever based on what I have and what I can get. I don’t even have a favorite genre, just some certain types that I love more than others. But I just widely read from whatever I can borrow.
I do check genre a lot of the time to get a quick idea of whether a books might interest me. It’s so much quicker because I do know that I’m not very interested in horror or paranormal, for example. But if I do read a synopsis and it interests me, I’ll still read it, even if I find out afterwards that it’s a paranormal book or something. Though I do agree with you, content matters way more than the labels do :)
I tend to have more issues with age grouping than genre; I’ve had a few disagreements with friends over a book being YA or NA before. I just can’t find that line, and then there’s the one between NA and Adult that I can’t pick out either!
Genre I tend not to think too much about, honestly. When I write reviews I usually end up throwing the main genre (like sci-fi, fantasy, or contemporary) in the tags, then when I talk about the book I’ll mention any deviations in genre.
Yeah, the NA-YA divide is very ambiguous as well. Doesn’t help that most of the books that are labelled as NA are hardcore romance, leaving very little room for other books like SF, Contemp, Mystery, etc. Personally though, I like to think of NA as those books where the MCs are 18/19 to 24/25. Basically, that age where they gain complete independence and all the responsibility that comes with it, yet they don’t feel like they’re quite adults yet.