My mom gave me a check for my birthday last night. I anticipated the parental check and asked everybody else for money this year for my birthday. The proceeds thereof got me the collected set of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on DVD. I called my mom tonight to tell her that she bought me the Buffy DVD set for my birthday. There followed a 45-minute-long conversation about this and that after which my mother told me that she hoped I enjoyed "Buffy and the vampires."
My mom is adorable and awesome.
I follow the blogs of several of my favorite authors. One in particular I particularly obsess over. I think she's absolutely amazing, and I readily admit that she's far smarter than I am. She tends to rail on against her writing being categorized, though, and that's always a huge letdown for me.
I'm setting aside and ignoring the morons who defy categorization because they want to establish a false mystique. She's awesome, and beyond that kind of crap. And yes, I'm well aware that there's a stigma against "genre fiction." I still think the attitude is bullshit and disappointing.
We as human beings categorize things. It's part of our nature. It helps us to deal with things intellectually, and it's not going to stop. And it's beneficial to you. If I want to recommend you to a friend, I'm far more likely to be successful if I can relate you to something that they can understand. Categorizing things is a great way to put them in the general ballpark.
Yes. I'm well aware that categories almost always fall short. So is my audience. So they know I'm just giving them the high points.
Yes. I'm well aware that there occasionally erupts something new that doesn't fit an existing genre. Know what we do then? We define a new genre by your work. Know what else? You're probably not actually a new genre.
God, I hate this self-aggrandizing bullshit. Someone called you horror. But you want to be called Weird Fiction. Shut the fuck up and let people convince other people to buy your shit.
Why must people be so self-defeatingly contrary? And yes, I'm also well aware of the irony of that question.
