Escapism in Genre Fiction
Escapism in genre fiction is one of those issues that can saw a united people into jagged halves. Just like abortion, bald Natalie Portman and Twilight, you’re either for it or you’re against it.
The literary (read high hifalutin) camp insists that genre fiction is the literary equivalent of a Happy Meal with a side of escapism and genre writers and readers snarl about genre fiction being the only haven from the depressing nature of life and literary fiction.
I’ve mulled this one over quite a bit and I think the literary folks might be right…about the wrong thing. The main attraction to genre fiction is the escapist factor but I present to you that escapism is actually a great and necessary facet of the reading experience.
Readers expect to escape every single time they pick up a novel, be it a literary novel or a bodice ripper. Stories draw readers into a different world in so many ways. A play-it-safe reader may revels in the thrill of a vampire nibbling on the protagonist’s nipple while a more adventurous reader soaks in the predictable patterns of suburbia (forgive the amateur psychobabble). Even when a suburbian soccer mom picks up a novel about the suburbs, she escapes into the minds and hearts of other people, into the sweaty heat of other situations.
I find this to be true of my own reading. Growing up, I read strictly genre fiction (Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele) and I credit those books for lodging the love of reading within me. Even though I mostly read literary fiction now, I fully expect to escape when I read Goethe’s The Sufferings of Young Werther in the same manner I escape when I read the latest Nora Roberts.
It turns out then, that we literary writers must pay attention to and embrace escapism in our stories. Even when we are are writing less than pleasant stories, we should aim to whisk the reader away from their everyday lives. I am not entirely sure how to do this without sacrificing unique/unorthodox literary characteristics (plot, style, voice) down to the lowest common denominator that the masses (used with fondest affection) love, but I believe it is worth the effort.
If escapism is a great thing then genre fiction is just fine and dandy right? Nosiree. The problem with genre fiction is not escapism but WHERE readers are escaping to.
Romance novels are perhaps the worst offenders here because the escape destination (happy ending) is always the same for every novel in the genre (a fact that romance writers are strangely proud of). Love and relationships do not always end well and to say that the happy ending represents escape for all readers is to assume that all readers are unhappy/bored in their daily lives. I am picking on romance here (because I am lazy and heartbroken) but the same goes for detective stories, save-the-world thrillers and many other genres.
Why can’t more romance novels end with the heroine deciding to stay alone or choosing the villain? Why can’t more detective stories end with the detective as the criminal? What about westerns with cowboys who hate horses (and don’t ride them after an epiphany)? Sure all these are much harder to make plausible in a story and must be handled carefully, but that is the great power and burden that comes with being a writer…suck it up.
For the record, I was very into bald Natalie Portman.
What do you think of escapism in fiction? Do you want your romance/thriller/detective stories to end the same way every time?
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I thought bald Natalie Portman was gorgeous. If you’re beautiful without hair, then wow. I say “wow” too much on your blog.
I don’t read romance, but I get the happy ending thing. I like them. I see a lot of depressing stuff in my day job, so yeah, I think I deserve a happy ending in my books now and then!
Lydia,
Yeah she was beautiful.
You (and anyone else who works in a hospital) get a pass on happy endings lol. I am not sure why I harp on this a lot, i just this feeling that it is dishonest and harmful. I try to put my finger on that feeling in these posts, but I never quite manage it. Perhaps it’s not that the stories always have a happy ending but that the happy ending is always the same? IDK if it would be satisfying to a reader if the MC decided to stay single at the end of a book.
Thanks for stopping by.
I am totally with you. I mostly read literary fiction, it’s what I love the most. But I have no problem reading some Twilight, or Harry Potter and Dan Brown when the mood takes me. It is nice to be able to read something easy and entertaining.
Howdy Becky,
It is pretty nice, there are days when I get off from work and I can barely turn pages on the novel I’m reading. Those days are not the days to tackle the typical literary novel. Thanks for stopping by!
I think this is a well-writen article and applaud the author’s fresh perspective on a tired – and personally, tiring – issue. Nevertheless, I think that the entire idea of “genre fiction” is a lazy oversimplification. Sure, there ARE fantasy novels and mystery novels and legal thrillers but *sigh* that label does ot determine their artistic merit, and so we can invoke the old names of Vonnegut and Heinlein and Conan Doyle and so on. These are just the way these books are grouped at a bookstore or library because some people are into them almost exclusively. Based upon themes and volumes produced, there could just as easily be “Books about Professors”, “Misogynistic Dinosaurs of Lit” and “MFA Lyrical Realism”, and “Magical Realism (South American Lit!)”, but we don’t consider these genre fiction, but there are people who pretty much read only that stuff. Like the good author said, you can escape in anything (plenty of people read technical manuals, self-help and memoirs to get away) and you can genre-fy anything, but only the latter seems to be a problem.
@Weatherwriting,
I agree. “Genre fiction” is an oversimplification in the same way “literary fiction” is an oversimplification. In an ideal world, every novel would have attributes from both groups (and some novels do). What I try to do with these posts (see an earlier post titled Why Is Literary Fiction So Unpopular) is to nudge both groups towards the middle ground.
Thanks for stopping by!