Book Genres

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Book Genres

Post by JimC » Wed May 02, 2018 6:33 am

I suppose that being immersed in zoology in my past academic life, with its emphasis on classification based on (hopefully) objective criteria, I can get a little obsessed with classifying almost anything. I started a thread on fantasy, which made me think about the various genres of fiction, and how they can be classified. Recognising that the boundaries are fairly fuzzy, here are some thoughts about speculative fiction in general. For a start, a classification of such fiction must leave out the standard literary novel, set in a clearly recognisable present (or, for historical fiction, a reasonably accurate past) and involving human characters with no special "powers". Perhaps there are 2 main divisions, each with their own recognisable sub-genres.

1. Science Fiction: Here, the main trope is the impact on the human condition of science and technology. Typically set in the future (near or far), and often involving humans (and non-humans) living beyond the confines of Earth. Sub-genres could include "Space Opera" and "Hard SF", where, however speculative, there is a strong link to present scientific ideas. Another interesting type involves attempts to portray the lives and psychology of intelligent, non-human aliens, with various levels of success.

2. Fantasy: With some notable exceptions, a recurrent theme is to have an imaginary world with fairly minimal technology, often somewhat medieval in structure, with magic and the supernatural firmly embedded in the nature of the universe as portrayed. Typically, in such cases, we have a political structure of Kings and Emperors, with warfare a very frequent part of the content.
In many cases, other intelligent species are involved, some malevolent, some friendly, plus various gods and demons. Occasionally an over-arching creator god exists; a Christian trope that is to be seen in Tolkien's work, for example. However, more often than not, we have multiple gods, reminiscent of Hinduism, Ancient Greece of Asgard...
As I've described in another tread, a relatively recent trope involves the existence of a hidden magical world within our own. A related type is where humans from our world are transported by magic to a fantasy world.
A major theme, perhaps derivative of LOTR, is "The Quest", often undertaken by a small group of young heroes, with support from some sort of wise wizard advisor, to perform actions which will save the world from some version of a Dark Lord...
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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Wed May 02, 2018 8:06 am

The "Quest" type is a very common one in fantasy, by my reckoning. It usually involves going from a place of peace and tranquillity, through increasingly bad places, to finally a place of untrammelled evil and doom! I wonder, was Tolkien the first person to come up with this in fantasy? What about other literature? I'm assuming someone must have done it before.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Wed May 02, 2018 8:08 am

Regarding the classification thing, I'm also obsessed with classifying and labelling everything. I was an ecologist, so similar to you that might have infected me with this mind virus.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by Strontium Dog » Wed May 02, 2018 2:48 pm

pErvinalia wrote:
Wed May 02, 2018 8:06 am
The "Quest" type is a very common one in fantasy, by my reckoning. It usually involves going from a place of peace and tranquillity, through increasingly bad places, to finally a place of untrammelled evil and doom! I wonder, was Tolkien the first person to come up with this in fantasy? What about other literature? I'm assuming someone must have done it before.
I presume this genre traces its lineage back at least as far as Homer's Odyssey, which is the best part of three thousand years old.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Thu May 03, 2018 12:50 am

That's a poem. No one cares about poetry.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by JimC » Thu May 03, 2018 1:21 am

Au contraire, my philistine friend, I care about it very much! In fact, I may start a poetry appreciation thread! I shall wear my best frilly mauve shirt as I rack my brows for inspiration!
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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Thu May 03, 2018 1:38 am

Well, whenever the topic of poetry comes up, I like to mention that my cousin is an award winning poet (he's from Melbourne, what would you expect?). It provides a veneer of literary pretension, despite the fact that I am indeed a philistine.. :hehe:
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Re: Book Genres

Post by laklak » Thu May 03, 2018 1:45 am

When I hear the word "poetry" I reach for my Luger.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Thu May 03, 2018 3:03 am

:hehe:
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Re: Book Genres

Post by JimC » Thu May 03, 2018 3:24 am

People stealing my best lines... :nono:
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Re: Book Genres

Post by laklak » Thu May 03, 2018 3:26 am

All the cool kids are doing it.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Re: Book Genres

Post by JimC » Thu May 03, 2018 3:38 am

Actually, there's a sub-genre of speculative fiction that I find interesting, Alternative History. rEv, you mentioned an example in another thread, Phillip K Dick's "The Man in the High Castle", with the Japs and Germans winning WW2. Harry Turtledove is one of the main authors in this field, with a long-drawn out series about the South managing to hold on for a draw in the Civil War, which then erupted again later at levels of WW1 technology...

Then there's what I call "Technology Effect" fiction, where the premise is on observing the changes wrought on a society (often a fantasy style world) by the advent of technology. Sometimes this is home-grown, but in many cases comes via Earth people being magically transported (or via some dimensional gate) to another world, either with some technologically advanced items, or just with the knowledge in their heads. Frequently, military technology is the main deal...

Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court" was an early example. William R. Forstchen's "The Lost Regiment" series is another, where a ship carrying a regiment of Union soldiers from Maine enters a dimensional gate, into a world where previous groups of humans have emerged to be enslaved (and eaten) by a nasty alien race, superb soldiers, but pre-gun in technology... The best such works tease out the difficulty of doing stuff like smelting steel or making gunpowder from scratch... One story by David Weber in his fantasy series has a US armoured vehicle (a Bradley) being grabbed by a white wizard to help his fight against monstrous demons, who shrug off arrows, but not a stream of 25 mm shells from the Bradley...
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Re: Book Genres

Post by laklak » Thu May 03, 2018 3:41 am

Turtledove's "The Guns of the South" was brilliant, but the series did drag on a bit after that.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by pErvinalia » Thu May 03, 2018 6:00 am

The technology transported through a portal thing reminds me of that movie The Philadelphia Experiment. I was wondering if it was based on a book, but apparently it was inspired by the actual unexplained disappearance of a US navy ship and all it's crew back in 1940's. They were transported into the future (in the movie, that is).

I also read part of a strange book by John Birmingham (author of He Died With a Falafel in His Hand) called War 2.0 or something like that. I honestly don't know what the fuck was going on in it, but some navy ship was teleported somewhere and wound up fused with another ship somewhere else. I pretty much gave up at that point as I couldn't make any sense of what he was describing.
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Re: Book Genres

Post by JimC » Thu May 03, 2018 6:18 am

I have a bit of a thing for military SF, I must admit, as well as military history in general. For a mild-mannered maths teacher, I sure love my brutal warfare...
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