Thoughts on genre. Am currently working my way through the works of Neil Gaiman for the first time, including his short story collections and graphic novels. Reading them in public – on the Tube or in libraries – I feel, despite myself, the shadow of the literary prejudice afforded genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, crime, thriller, mystery) and serious comics. I was shocked to read an arts journalist recommending one graphic novel in their column with the disclaimer that “as we all know, all graphic novels are embarrassing rubbish, but this one is an exception.” A statement of such ignorance, it really should do have done him no favours. But in this country at least (I understand France has a more enlightened attitude), the sentiment is almost default. Which is the real embarrassment.
Funny how graphic novels are even considered a genre as opposed to a medium, whether it’s The Beano, the DC / Marvel superheroes titles, or the likes of ‘Ghost World’. I feel that even mentioning them turns some people off, which is a terrible shame. From the mainstream looking in, any discussion becomes defensive against the perceived snobbery.
Jackets of popular fiction boast a ‘master storyteller’, which is never the sort of phrase that appears on the cover of Booker Prize fare. Dick Francis is a ‘champion storyteller’. Within the genre audience, there’s another kind of snobbery – not knowing enough. You have to be a fan, and have read the whole oeuvre, or nothing.
I love that scene at the beginning of ‘Educating Rita’, where Rita’s essay on Harold Robbins is dismissed by her lecturer. As far as Rita is concerned, she was asked to write an essay on a favourite novel, and did so. But however much thought and work she puts into it, her tutor gently explains, the essay can only be rubbish, because the book itself is rubbish. His task is to show her why this is, why airport fiction isn’t literature. Why there are such things as standards. Why she should read more widely in order to experience the joy of a well-honed sentence.
And though these days there are more university courses that enable students to write serious essays on trashy fiction – such as, say, a dissertation on the craft of popular storytelling which takes in The Da Vinci Code, it’s no good without reference to a wider knowledge of the classics.
All reading in any area must be a point of departure rather than a final destination. It’s one of the reasons I call this more of a diary than a blog, because I want readers to turn off the computer and do something else – books, magazines, DVDs, gardening, snogging – not direct them elsewhere on the Web. I equate that with in-breeding.
Actually, that’s recalling another Educating Rita scene, right at the beginning. The lecturer (played by Michael Caine in the film) stops his own English class with his normal students, out of his own personal despair:
“Look out the window. It’s a lovely day. You’re all young. Why don’t you go outside or something? Why don’t you all go off and make love (his voice cracks) … or something?”
He’s really talking about himself, of course, but I like the sentiment. It’s fine to have an anorak; as long as you take it off from time to time. Or you won’t feel the benefit. Get off Facebook for a bit and go frolic in the park. Read the genre fiction AND the Booker Prize winners. Don’t dismiss an entire genre or medium unless you really have read a good portion of the better examples. It’s all about balance.
