High brow writing, genre fiction and taste

In my last post, I spoke about wanting to write more throwaway stuff. Not throwaway in the sense that it’ll be bad, but rather, in the sense that it will be quick. Less dwelling, more writing.

In the comment section of that post, I put together a small list of pages from which I am hoping to take some prompts and starting points for my writing to come. If you go and have a look at that list, you’ll likely notice a lot of the names on there are genre based. Thorny Thursday, Sci-Friday—etc

Now, including these names did a funny thing to my brain, because for me—and I imagine, a lot of writers—there’s a negative association surrounding genre fiction. When compared to literary fiction, it’s considered low brow. Lower quality somehow, appealing to a different audience. But then I’ve got to ask myself, where do I sit on this spectrum?

I’ve always hated the superior stance people in the literary sphere take a lot of the time. Usually it’s not even the authors themselves, it’s the “well-read” folks who turn up their nose at certain types of writing. And when it is the authors, it often becomes a crippling set of cuffs, because they’re too afraid to write anything that doesn’t fit into their narrow mold of what constitutes as “literature."

And look, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t turn up your nose and a good bulk of the shit that can be found on the shelves of any bookstore—but it should be based on your actual taste and not just a book’s reputation.

For example, I’m reading George Elliot’s Middlemarch at the moment, because I had four different people recommend it within a short space of time. It’s a literary classic, unequivocally “good” writing. I’ve been slow chewing on about ten pages of it per day for the last three months or so.

And look…It’s fine. I’ll definitely finish it, there are stretches of it where I’m intrigued, and I will concede it’s well written. But in all honesty I’m not enjoying it. The realism of these characters, reminds me too much of the lives around me. The concern with reputation, the limited selection of paths that can be taken in career and its preoccupation with social standing.

Yes, this is humanity, yes this literary masterpiece hit more than one nail on the head. But I suppose I personally prefer allegories of humanity rather than a direct representation.
Which brings me back to genre fiction:

I’ve looked at a few of these different pages, romance, knights and medieval themes, and my chest does all the expected things. I imagine my writing devolving into the most formulaic bullshit you can imagine—and I get scared I’m going to taint my abilities, and tar myself with a label.
But then I think about the TV series that have actually held my attention enough to stick around for multiple seasons in recent years. Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones, Top Boy. All of these fit pretty firmly into their relative categories…

And after that I actually try my hand at the writing itself, and I’m immediately reminded, “Oh yea, I don’t like formulaic stuff. I can’t help but try to find and original angle.”

Because that’s the thing. The negative associations we all have come from the most soulless versions of genre fiction. Or worse, they’re assumptions of what a given story might be—but never actually weather tested by reading the work itself.

There are so many opportunities to do interesting things with genre fiction by subverting established tropes. But even if you want to stay inside the lines and lean into conventions, if you are a creative person, nothing is stopping you from creating something incredibly original—shit even deep.
Think Tarantino with his use of Martial Arts films, Period pieces etc. Most of his films shamelessly bend to the tropes of genre, but they all come out looking like Quintin.

And the best versions of genre fiction can be truly great, Cormac Mccarthy did it with Westerns, Ursula Le Guine and Ishiguro with sci- fic, Mario Puzo did it with mobster novels.

So that’s my little self justification for you. Even though, I’m yet to find my footing on where exactly I stand on the genre to literary spectrum, I’m not willing to shut the door on a whole category of writing, out of some idea of class, or the height of their brow.

Because at the end of the day I suspect I’ve got more than a little neanderthal in me.