On Genre Names

In a world where readership is dwindling Librarian Nancy Pearl offers a bright light of story suggestions. Today’s Morning Edition was no different, and featured a book titled Under Heaven by the Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay.

This is a book that is written in something like historical fiction but that, as Pearl describes it, “zigs into fantasy.” Pearl expresses frustration that this book is missed by many readers:

It’s a shame this book will be shelved in the fantasy and science-fiction section of bookstores and libraries, because that inevitably makes it highly unlikely that fans of historical fiction will find it on their own. (That’s a good example of one of the many reasons that I dislike our reliance on genre divisions in describing fiction).

This piqued my interested.

I’m also frequently disappointed by genre divisions because, as I see it, there are many books and writers (myself included) who don’t think in the same boxes as some bookstore or publishing executive.

I wanted to find out more about this book, and so I went to the Morning Edition story website and stumbled on another gem: The call for a new genre.

I only recently realized that many of the works of fiction that I most enjoy are those that push genre boundaries. I especially like fiction that is mostly realistic, but every once in a while zigs confidently into fantasy. We tend to call such works “magical realism” when they’re written by South American or Indian or Latin American writers… But in fact, these great works are being written by authors of all countries. Since the books themselves can be mainstream fiction, mysteries, Westerns or fantasy (or any mixture thereof), I’d love to come up with a one- or two- or possibly three-word label for such works that captures their essence (something other than “unclassifiable”), but so far I’ve drawn a blank. Anyone care to help?

Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone for the first time and they start talking about something that you, yourself, have been thinking about for years? This felt like that. It’s like a “virtual ‘hitting it off.’”

As suggested on the website, I sent Nancy Pearl my suggestion, and I thought I’d post it here as well:

Imaginative Realism

Nancy,

I share your love of fiction that, as you say, “zigs confidently into fantasy,” and I share your discouragement that much of this literature seems to be lost on the shelves.

I’ve been considering this issue for years actually, primarily because I am a writer that feels most comfortable in such a style. Originally, I called this style “fantastical realism” as a nod to the magical realism of greats such as Gabriel Garca Márquez; however, I’ve found that the term “fantastical” is far too close to “fantasy” to create a cognitive separation for readers.

Over the years, I’ve tried to explore what truly defines this style. I’ve come to the conclusion that the unifying characteristic of writing that zigs into, but is not really immersed in, fantasy is that it stretches the imagination not more, but in a different way, than non-fantastical literature. When we read, say, historical fiction, the story places us into that realism. When we read fantasy, the story places us into that mythic universe. But when we read this undefined zig-zag of a story, it places us where? It’s undefined. It stretches our imagination in such a way that we, not the book, must decide whether we are swimming in fantasy or reality- indeed, whether fantasy is reality (or reality is fantasy for the philosophically Kafkian).

Because of this I’ve started thinking of this literature as something more like “imaginative realism.” It’s almost as if these stories express a reality where the imagination is just as real as the physically perceived. Where much literature is limited to the actions and thoughts of the characters, Imaginative Realism encompasses something that other characters, the protagonist, etc. may not be able to perceive. It encompasses something that might be imagination, that might be reality, but most likely bridges the gap in such a way to show us that, sometimes, there is not as sharp a line between these two worlds as we might think.

That’s my vote. Imaginative Realism.

Thank you for you book suggestions, and for this interesting genre naming challenge.

Cheers,
-John Metta

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