Yesterday on Twitter, Kat Meyer hosted a #followreader discussion inspired by a question posed by Jane,: Are genre labels helpful or limiting? Who defines the scope of the genre?
The write up will be at Kat’s blog, and you can read the hashtag record online if you’re interested in the full conversation. It was definitely worth pondering, as it’s a question of nomenclature and ownership of a classification – even if no two people can absolutely agree what the boundaries of that classification are.
I was pondering, however, the options for renaming all genre headings for ease of Twitter, and posted part of my list during the conversation. Got more? Share! My list is below the fold.
Mystery: Who?
Thriller: WHAT?
Crime fiction: OUCH.
True Crime: NOWAI!
Romance: YES!
Self Help: No!
Psychology: Huh?
Literary Fiction: Oprah!
Fantasy: Wow!
Science Fiction: 01101111!
Computers & Technology: Geek!
Fantasy Sports: Roto!
Biography: Who me?
Horror: EEK!
All of your new genre tags are made of awesome, but…
SCIENCE FICTION FTW!!
That one’s the best.
Me, I’m going to start right now writing promo material for my upcoming urban WOW! novel… 🙂
(verification tag is reason43. That’s just one number off…)
Paranormal romance: s*ck! (vowel of your choice)
I love them and I don’t even twitter. Tweet. Whatever.
However, shouldn’t “Who me?” be reserved for autobiographies? Or maybe those could be “Me! Me!” 😉
I wish I had something to contribute, but I’m humbled by the awesomeness of these choices.
Mystery: Who?
Thriller: WHAT?
Fantasy: Wow!
And continuing the theme: Western: Whoa!
I suppose m/m, m/f/m, etc. could be: Wham
Oh, I love “Whoa!” for Westerns. 😀
I figured paranormal/urban fantasy would be: bite me!
Action / Romance: BANG
Inspirational Romance: Oh, God!
… I’m waiting to be struck down by lightning
BDSM: Swat!, or Clink!, or possibly, Yessir!
I’m afraid my morning brain wants to use Squelch for m/m, but that’s just wrong 🙂
SBTB: LOL!
Poetry: Rhyme!
Philosophy: Hmmm.
Literature: Zzzzz. (OK, that one’s a joke)
Literary Fiction: emo. Because have you ever read a piece of literary fiction with anything even remotely resembling a HEA?
Verification code: perhaps97. Perhaps 1 in 97 Oprah Book Club books has a HEA.
Kelli has thrown down the gauntlet: “Because have you ever read a piece of literary fiction with anything even remotely resembling a HEA?”
That’s a tough one (had to scan the bookshelves many times), but what about these?
Eveless Eden (Marianne Wiggins) My favorite book of all time, with a crazy-ass heroine and a narrator you can’t help falling in love with even when he goes off the deep end. The happy ending is a surprise.
Jazz (Toni Morrison) Love the ending with the couple together again, snuggling under the covers in their fifties. I like the sound of that. Even Beloved has a hopeful ending?
Case Histories (Kate Atkinson) After the crime is solved, things come together nicely.
@JBHunt: Hmmm. I hadn’t heard of those, to be quite honest. I generally avoid literary fiction though because most of my exposure has been along the lines of Stones from the River, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Rabbit Run.
for non-ho-hum literary fiction, may I recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? charming, witty, quirky, and fun. And an HEA.
I LOVE the Guernsey book!
Cookbooks: MMMMM
Self help: Duh!
@Kelli, that reminds me of the teens at the library the other day. They were telling one of the staff that you can tell when something is teen literary fiction because “the mom dies, AND the dog dies.”
right 89: And they are right to the 89th power, too.
@Kelli: I know what you mean. I had to dig deep for those three HEA’s. That’s one of the reasons I find myself drawn these days to romance rather than literary fiction.