Genre - Part 2
- Leo Marcorin
- Dec 28, 2022
- 9 min read
Hi Again,
This is the second part about Genre.
If you lost the first one, check the link below:
Genres are containers with specific shapes, colors, and materials. In short, "physical limitations". Every Genre has a set of rules, styles, and tropes that the writer must consider by following or breaking them.
Here we will talk about the most important fiction boxes, their rules, and examples of well-written stories.
We already discussed Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, and Tragedy. This second part will discuss Dystopia, Horror, Magical Sagas, Sci-Fi, and Thriller.
So, let's continue right away:
Dystopian (Political)
A Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia (or is it? =P).
While a Utopia is a perfect world where all the citizens are happy and justice is the norm, Dystopia is the opposite: An ugly world full of very bad people controlling every aspect of your life, where the individual has no chance against the system.
Utopia, from Greek (yes, the Greeks again...), means "nowhere place". A place that cannot exist. Dystopia, having the same etymology, has the prefix Dys, which means "Bad" = A Bad place that cannot be.
Both concepts were particularly interesting after the enlightenment when religion lost meaning and nihilism became popular. Many thinkers tried to picture the perfect world, like Adam Smith (Capitalism), Karl Marx (Socialism), the Puritans in England in the 17th century (nationalism), Proudhon (Anarchism)... All of them tried to answer during their time (And political environment) what the perfect world (Utopia) would look like.
The problem with this premise is that "Perfect" doesn't exist. If something is perfect for someone (usually a small privileged group), it is a shit show for most people. That is the core of Dystopia as a genre.
One important aspect of ANY Dystopian story is that there's always a good excuse to do it, and it is always a Crisis. This Crisis will force an extreme authority to power, destabilizing and changing society for its worst possible version. Normally the story will start with the Protagonist already inserted in this world (not necessarily following the crises from the start)
Extremism is the key world here.
This Genre popped up during the 19th century as an answer for the so-called prophets of Utopia. In 1924, Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote "We", kickstarting the Genre. Later came Aldous Huxley with Brave New World, George Orwell with 1984 and Animal Farm in about the same period (the 2 Great wars). These books are cautionary tales related to the shit that was Europe's beginning of the century, from the blind, cruel, and "feel good" capitalism to the Far Left and Right Fascism (communism and Nazism). The end of the war didn't mine Dystopia's popularity, being very relevant today in our troubled times: Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's tale and Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games, among others. One well-known story exploring many forms of Dystopia is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
The common theme of these books is to take a "Perfect World" for a small group of people, put them on steroids, and imagine how it would be for everyone else:
Brave New World: Capitalism, Technology, and Civilized world (no crisis per se, so based on pure "Utopia");
1984: Communism and Fascism (Crisis: Nuclear war);
Hunger Games: Inequality (Crisis: Scarcity);
Handmaid's tale: Christianism (Crisis: Infertility);
Children of Men: Capitalism, Fascism, and Immigration (Crisis: Infertility);
In particular, in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, the writer used only real situations as elements of her story, saying that everything in the book happened at some time and place in History (So, not so much Fiction...). Dystopias are rooted in reality, only that you need to take that reality to extremes, and you are always a small person trying to escape that situation.
Nothing explains better the concept of Dystopia than the TedEd:
In short, to write a Dystopia, you must realize "what" is the perfect world for a few people, then "how" should we get there, and finally "who" pays the bill.
For example:
What: The perfect world should be vegan;
How: We would create the "Meat Police". Everyone that kills or consumes animal-based products would be arrested. If the arrests aren't enough, we would kill a few dissidents to make a point.
Who pays the bill: Everyone who cannot afford Vegan products will die of hunger, for there will not be enough agricultural area to produce the amount of plant-based protein needed for the population.
Note: This is just an example. I am not against Veganism, and I truly believe the world would be much better if everyone would eat less meat. I just took this example to illustrate that even something good for a few could be a nightmare for others. Anything taken to the extreme can easily become a Dystopia.
Horror (Ghost, Gothic, Occult & Supernatural) & Thriller (Crime, Mystery & Detective, Noir, Psychological)
I will be grouping Horror and Thriller because they have basically the same goal: To challenge your Confort Zone.
Horror gets you off by Fear.
Thriller gets you off by Mystery.
In Horror, The writer must ask himself, "What makes people uncomfortable?" Like Comedy, Horror is very particular, for each individual creeps for a different reason:
Some people hate spiders, while others think to be one of the most beautiful insects;
Some people fear ghosts, while others claim to talk and learn from them (religion);
Some people fear being killed, while others like to kill (serial killers).
The Horror for you may be the fun of someone else, so know your audience! That is why, like in comedy, there are so many types of sub-Genre in Horror (Slasher, Supernatural, Ghosts, creeping animals, Gore, Body, Torture Porn...).
In Thrillers, we forget the Fantastic and bring the audience to something more real (Mystery, Crime), making the reader wonder: "What if it was me?"
Watching Horror and Thriller reminds me of that Tool song, Vicarious:
"I need to watch things die
From a good safe distance
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so
Why can't we just admit it?"
This song criticizes the human race and my work (on some level), but it is true: We like to watch Horrific things happening to other people, which is why this Genre Thrives.
Like Action and Adventure, Horror and Thrillers are intertwined.
You need Suspense in Horror tense scenes and mysteries, as well as gruesome Horror scenes, to make a Thriller reverberate.
A few of the tropes can be used in both Genres:
Someone really human as a Hero (not strong, courageous, or special). Having someone like you or me will bring the reader inside the story (Empathy);
The Hero needs to survive 2 parallel situations: The Horror/Mystery and a Personal Conflict (Poverty, relationship, isolation, religion, social issues...);
Side characters (That could die at any moment, including the Hero). I recommend avoiding stereotypes and focusing on tridimensional characters, making your story realistic. You could also use common-to-the-genre characters, such as the Big/Strong Man/Woman, The Comedic Release guy, or the Virgin/Ultimate girl.
Note: These tropes are always expected since they are part of the Genre. Make your story interesting by letting your reader believe the tropes are there to subvert them later in the story.
Below you will see my reading list:
Books: Henry Jame's The Turn of the Screw, Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Peter Straub's Ghost Story, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock, Stieg Larsson's Millenium, Agatha Cristie, Gillian Flynn, Stephen King, RL Stein, ...
Movies & Series: All slashers/Wes Craven movies (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream...), The Silence of the Lambs, The Cabin in the Woods, Hereditary, Midsommer, The Witch, Babadook, The Bone Collector, Haunting of Hill House, Dark (a bit sci-fi, but okay)...
Music: Tool, Iron Maiden...
In summary, Horror and Thriller are very similar but have different focuses. Horror focuses on the fear of the situation, and Thriller on the Mystery. Remember the tropes and know your audience.
Magical Sagas: Fairy Tale, Folk Tale, Legends, Metaphysical, Mythology, Fantasy, Magical Realism, and Visionary;
I can be a voracious RPG player, but my knowledge about Magical Sagas is limited. I like that kind of Genre, but I have no interest in it, you know? I read Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and J.K. Rowling growing up and listened to a lot of Angra and Symphony X, but I wouldn't write beyond an RPG quest.
Magical Sagas are BIG adventures with a magical element, in which the Protagonist usually follows the formula of the Hero's Journey. What I find interesting about this Genre is the world-building, which can be as rich as the writer wants.
Unlike any Genre previously described, Magical Sagas demand huge planning beforehand, not about the Plot, but about the world and characters. Even if you start in a dark village in the middle of nowhere, as soon as your Hero starts, without a rich world full of details and sub-plots, your story will not evolve. Don't come later blaming the writer's block!
This dependency on world-building ends up being the core issue of this Genre. When the writer invests too much time in the world and very little in the Plot, the story and characters will be weak. Who from you remembers who is Merry and who is Pippin?
I need to be very open about this, so sorry if you take offense: Magical Sagas are all the same for me. There's always a little hero who, for some mysterious reason, is the one and has an awesome tutor. He perseveres in the end for a simple reason: The Good always wins. (Yes, John Snow, I am thinking of you).
Every Magical Saga is black and white, even the well-written one. The Lannisters are incestuous bad people, so they deserve to die. The Starks are loyal and beautiful, so they deserve to win. This dichotomy is present in every Magical Saga, the Good vs. the Evil, Black vs. White... You have them on Lord of the Rings, Sons of Ice and Fire, Acacia, Harry Potter, The Witcher, in the Bible, and any other religious text. Even interesting characters (Anti-Hero) that seem to be corrupted at some point in the story end up in the Light by the last page.
The problem with Good vs. Evil is the payoff. The Hero, even though it seems, will never be in great danger. He may lose his father under the Lennister's sword, his Brother and Step-Mother under a Red Wedding. Still, he will always be reborn and sanctified, for he is Good. The end may be bitter, but the Hero always has his reward, while the readers will be left with the feeling of "This again?" or "All of that for this?"
The problem with any Dichotomy is the oversimplification. No one is really Black or White, but a sum of Good and Bad intentions. No one is perfect, for there's no such thing as perfect (Same argument on Dystopia). So this Genre makes us believe that everything in the world has 2 sides, and you can choose either one or the other, never both. That is the root of all conflicts that ever happened, so strong in our political moment today. Remember how powerful Fiction is (check my introduction Article)
Okay! I'll stop bitching about it.
In short, Magical Sagas are characterized by a Dichotomic Universe, rich in details, in which the Hero, under the assistance of an outstanding mentor, will overcome all the challenges and emerge victorious in the end.
Science Fiction
Like Magical Sagas, one can say that Science Fiction is a form of Adventure. You still will have some form of Hero's Journey, yet there is something deeper and dark about Science Fiction: Angst. There's also something about Sci-Fi and Dystopia that works just perfectly.
No other Series better display this Genre than Black Mirror. The episodic form is perfect for exploring different Sci-Fi plots, starting with a simple question: What if...
What if... we could use ancient DNAs to clone extinct species?
In Jurassic Park, we have a cautionary tale of what would happen if we used science unthoughtfully to serve only self-interest (money, for instance). I am talking about Michael Chrichton's book, of course, not that happy s..., directed by one of the most racist and self-interested directors (in my opinion): Steven Spielberg.
In the book, not only the Jurassic Island in Costa Rica is doomed, but the rest of the country for the small creatures escape and hunt the locals (including Children). The whole point of this story is that money and science cannot buy and control nature and that egoist humans always do shit.
What if... we could bring the dead back to life?
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, we see a cautionary tale of what would happen if men had the power to bring the dead back, raising the question: What is the thing you are bringing back, human or monster? We can even expand this story for today: What if we could resurrect the dead? Would they be conscious? Would they be loyal? By not fearing death, would humankind be ethical?
The common theme here is "Cautionary Tale". Science Fiction will ask "What if..." and understand its implications. It is a sort of "Be careful what you wishfor".
To write a Sci-Fi, one must picture the technology or world the story is passing on and try to understand how the flawed human being would deal with the situation. That is why Sci-Fi goes so well with Dystopias (Like H G Wells' the Time Traveller or P. D. James' The Children of Men), Politics (Like Frank Herbert's Dune), and Horror (Like Ridley Scott's Alien).
DISCLAMER: H G Well's The Time Traveller is a bit racist. It didn't age so well.
In short, wonder "what if...", think about the implications, and create a cautionary tale. Technology will evolve to that point inevitably, but what are the consequences of doing so unthoughtfully by self-interest? Mix up Genres, and you will have a masterpiece.
In conclusion, mix up Genres to make your story interesting, or subvert a Genre expectation to surprise your audience. There are no limits in writing.
The most important thing to remember for all of the Genres is: "KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!"
And that's all. See below the summary of the Genres:
Action = Speed, few but impactful words, lots of scene cuts. Question: How to make your reader be part of the scene?
Adventure = Hero's Journey.
Comedy = 3 Steps - Exposition, Expectation, Unexpected.
Drama = Rooted in Reality, Empathy, "Imagine if it was you."
Dystopia = A Crisis that happened, forcing a state of Exception (Extreme). What is the Perfect World, How to get there, and Who pays the bill?
Horror/Thriller = Make the reader uncomfortable, and use mysteries (wisely, not the ones that the butler did in the end).
Magical Sagas = Dichotomy, rich World Building, and the Hero Cycle.
Sci-Fi = A cautionary tale about a "what if..." situation that initially seems a good idea but ends badly. Obviously, it focuses on technologies.
Tragedy = Mythological, extraordinary, and moral lesson
And that's all - Next post, we will talk about the Idea, where it comes from, and how to transform it into a great story.
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