Pages

Monday, November 24, 2014

Week Thirteen: Writing Assignment


As this course comes to a close, we start exploring speculative fiction. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is a perfect example of this not-genre genre. Speculative fiction is not bound by a singular genre, instead it pulls and shares from many aspects of other fiction. In this particular case, Oryx and Crake shares many of its elements with science fiction. Atwood herself even addresses the fact that even though a lot of Oryx and Crake shares science fiction attributes, Atwood says it's speculative fiction because this novel hasn't addressed "anything that wasn't been produced at the time." It's seems like we've stumbled upon a similar problem that we faced during Cyberpunk. Although Neuromancer was very indicative of that genre, it didn't reveal anything that wasn't already being explored in real time. All of the technologies in Oryx and Crake, the genetic modifications, the organ farming, etc. are all being developed now. However, not being pigeonholed into a genre is sometimes a really good time. 
Genre is a very important distinction. However, genre can sometimes turn off a reader who has had a bad experience with that category before. The way you experience a novel can be highly affected by what genre it's in. Therefore, when you read something without putting it into a genre, you can read it for what it is. The reader isn't necessarily hung up on whether or not they are reading science fiction or fantasy. Because of this they are more free to pay attention to what is happening on the pages. When we read a book in class under a specific genre, I already assume something about the work before I begin to read it. Especially when it's a genre that I don't necessarily care for. All that is going through my mind is that I am not looking forward to reading the space opera book. Without a specific distinction of what I am getting into, I can potentially like the story better. And in this case, I did. I began to really read the story and I got into it.


No comments:

Post a Comment