@SteveClough@jules@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon If the speculative part of the fiction has to be science-based, you knocked out some of the biggest selling subgenres, including urban fantasy, paranormal romance, Lovecraftian horror, and Weird Westerns. JS, that's a pretty rigorous line for someone with your stated POV (opposed to rigorous use of genre boundaries).
Edited to make it clearer who I'm responding to here.
But this is why I am not a fan of genres, because it excludes some that should be included, and means that gross-genre work - which can be so incredible - is problematic.
@DarkMatterZine@SteveClough@jules@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon Magical realism is another example of what could be called SFF, but the publishers want to keep it in literature instead of the genre. It's an excellent category to show that the publishers define the boundaries between our genre and the rest of the fictional world. Fiction is all speculation. Everything written is fantasy to one degree or another. Genres are marketing decisions much more than anything else. IMHO
@timgatewood@SteveClough@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon I agree about magical realism and I am frustrated about it. I generally loathe what is marketed as “Literature” so I want to know “Is this more Literature than enjoyable fic? If so, HARD PASS” lol. But some magical realism is great storytelling and IMO marketing as magical realism undersells the book while pandering to Literature biases.
@DarkMatterZine@timgatewood@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon Yes agree there. I have called my book "Magical Realism" because it involves magic in the real world. But it is much more fantasy/humour than literature (nobody has ever accused me of writing literature).
I guess this is the problem with a genre - so often, it is really wide. It covers radically different areas. Or it is so niche as to be the purview of one or two authors, wnd inpregnable.
@SteveClough@timgatewood@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon All of the above. Generally I think of “Literature” has unpleasant, a chore, or psychological torture. Jane Austin excepted, of course. But anything by the Bronte sisters and anything that intends to evoke their books is as pleasant as cleaning vomit IMO. 😄
@DarkMatterZine@SteveClough@niten@betaquarii@bookstodon What I referred to as Literature in earlier toots is more properly called literary fiction, which I tend to see as a genre of its own but the publishers seem to view as any fiction that is not in a genre. In their POV, it's genre or literary. IMHO this devalues the literary aspects of romance, horror, SFF, westerns, and other works that they relegate to the genre shelves. But, again, this is a marketing decision for them.
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