Hello Gentle Reader
Genre fiction is known for its protestation of being ghettoized. Those who currently write in the genre fields of fiction, generally rebuff the dismissive attitude they are handed. They proclaim with the sincerest annunciations of a prophet: that the days of ‘trash,’ are over and behind them. Yes there are still those novels that could be considered modern day ‘penny dreadful(s),’ or ‘pulp fictions,’ – but the area of genre fiction has grown. It has changed. This has been propagated by many authors attempting to rejuvenate the stagnate forms in which they stereotyped, and are expected to write in. According to these authors, the days of archaic language, and mock Shakespearian dialogue has all but dispersed. These authors advertise that these novels can go beyond, the typical themes and plot outlines, which have been laid out for them, by previous fantasy authors and pulp fiction writers in general. Science fiction on one hand must always deal with the stereotype of talking squids in space, and bombshell women with their ray guns, in outfits that are, neither conservative or practical. So does fantasy.
Who could forget, Margaret Atwood’s arguments against her ‘MaddAddam Trilogy,” which comprised of: “Oryx and Crake,” “The Year of the Flood,” and “MaddAddam,” – as well as: “The Handmaids Tale,” of being considered science fiction. Rather Atwood had preferred her work to be stated as “speculative fiction.” Advocates of science fiction were unimpressed by what they had perceived as a snub by an author with more critical approval and respect in the literary world. Margaret Atwood later would retract her statements, and has stated that she can understand why her works have been deemed science fiction, and has even accepted the theory that her works do take the form of ‘soft science fiction.’
Kazuo Ishiguro is known for setting his works in the past. The Booker Prize winning novel “The Remains of the Day,” was quintessentially English, in its depiction of a refined emotionally stunted butler, subjugation to serving and duty, refuses to recognize apparent facts. “Never Let Me Go,” was set in ninety’s; yet in an alternative historical timeline. The novel was the first time Ishiguro’s writing had come under a debate, for the genre in which it decided to have slipped into. The question at the time: what genre is this? Many called it ‘quasi-science fiction,’ whereas others said it was a horror novel. The novel itself though defied conventions, and genre designations. What is apparent though from the novel, is it was written in the wistful language that Ishiguro employees to discuss matters concerning, memory, love, life and death. Yet “Never Let Me Go,” was not the first time in which, Ishiguro had steered away from realism to discuss his literary preoccupations. “The Unconsoled,” was a Kafkaesque insomniac’s living nightmare. The novel is plotted over three days, about a famous pianist’s inability to remember appointments and promises. Lost in a foreign Eastern European cities, dream logic reality, and nightmarish landscape, the pianist grows increasingly frustrated at his lack of control. “The Unconsoled,” was a great leap in style and book for Ishiguro and was not considered successful by readers and reviewers. Many found it to be a five hundred page sprawling labyrinth. Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel “The Buried Giant,” was marked before publication with uncertainty and trepidation. His new novel – the first in ten years; was an immediate departure from each of his previous works. Ishiguro’s novel “is set in a post-Arthurian England. The landscape is covered in a fog, which erodes inhabitant’s memories; but there is more than just people inhabiting this English world. There are ogres and pixies, as well as a slumbering dragon whose breath is the cause of the miasma which causes a continuous state of memory loss.
Upon hearing this, the literary establishment was not entirely sure, what to make of this new novel. Kazuo Ishiguro himself had confessed that he was not entirely sure if his readers will follow him on this new path. Yet the genre community acted in a manner which surprised me. It was a cat on its haunches. It hissed and spit, as if somehow something had intruded its own defined area. Ursula Le Guin, one of the most well known advocates of the genre community was the most vocal critic of Ishiguro’s novel. Le Guin herself had stated the following in a rather strongly worded blog post:
“Familiar folktale and legendary ‘surface elements’ in Mr. Ishiguro’s novel are too obvious to blink away, but since he is a very famous novelist, I am sure reviewers who share his prejudice will never suggest that he has polluted his authorial gravitas with the childish whims of fantasy.
Respect for his readers should assure him that, whatever the book is, they will honestly try to follow him and understand what he was trying to do.
I respect what I think he was trying to do, but for me it didn’t work. It couldn’t work. No writer can successfully use the ‘surface elements’ of a literary genre—far less its profound capacities—for a serious purpose, while despising it to the point of fearing identification with it. I found reading the book painful. It was like watching a man falling from a high wire while he shouts to the audience, “Are they going say I’m a tight-rope walker?”
Ursula Le Guin is a beloved and respected writer, who has turned genre fiction, away from its pulp fiction roots, and taken it to more literary means and measures. She is one of the contemporary greats, and one of its most well known advocates. However, I think personally that Le Guin’s was a bit too reactionary, in her criticism of Ishiguro. Kazuo Ishiguro was not presenting any snobbish attitude towards genre fiction. Rather Ishiguro was aware that he was attempting something new, and people have a tendency not to accept something new. But when it came down to his allegiance in literature – he was more than happy to state that he was on the side of ogres, dragons and pixies.
In Ishiguro’s defense the literary world has melded a lot, and so his new venture should not be difficult; as he only needs to look at contemporary writers and their own experimentation with genre:
David Mitchell, a now solidified literary star, on the British map, has never hid his own love of genre fiction – from Tolkien to Le Guin; and has used science fiction tropes, to tackle some larger issues that concern his own fiction and literary preoccupations. Ishiguro is just now utilizing a rather politically neutral time period, and different landscape to tackle his own themes in his new novel; and as long as people wish to read his work, then they have followed him into a world of haze and mass amnesia. Whether or not it works or does not work, is unknown to me. The literary world landscape is shifting. Genre is given its do's, when it is called for – and that is only thanks to authors like Le Guin, who have advocated for it, and proven that it can be taken more seriously. It is thanks to authors like David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro that show that realism and naturalism – are not the only ways in which to showcase complex human and existential themes. Sometimes a distant future, shows a possibility of the steps we are taking now; other times it takes a surreal world with dream logic to show the despondency of contemporary life; and at times, a fantasy worlds landscape, offers a greater way to understand the mythological concepts of love, memory, life and death.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
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