Quote:
Originally Posted by carandol
One of the weirdest new genres I've seen recently was in our local branch of WHSmiths, who now have an entire section (in between Biography and Cookery), of Tragic Life Stories.
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There is something truly antic about just
where WHSmith shelved that new genre.
But it's been argued for years now that there is no longer such as thing as "mainstream fiction" -- only an increasing number of popular genres -- and I think that may be the case.
Simply in SF/Fantasy, I've watched Alternate History become almost a full-fledged genre of its own, with a good argument to be made that some of it isn't really SF, as it has none of the tropes: simply an underlying assumption that things happened differently than the history we know.
Paranormal romance is a new one, and Harlequin's Luna Books imprint is devoted to fantasy/romance crossovers, where the romance is a secondary element.
And the vampire novel and spinoffs are arguably a separate genre as well, with Laurel K. Hamilton leading that pack. (A friend who is a writer and former editor divides the stages in Hamilton's career by her personal life: she divorced "slow and steady" husband, and married a younger guy who is seriously into kink, and the books produced since then have born a lot stronger resemblance to straight-up porn than romance...)
One thing I get from it is an interesting comment on who the readers are. Lots of folks are still reading, but the audience seems to be skewing more toward women. Most of the above stuff save alternate history is aimed squarely at a female readership.
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Dennis