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Originally Posted by montsnmags
Dennis, would you also acknowledge the possibility, though, that sometimes it's worthwhile classifying stuff after the fact, when, let's say, the "steampunk" existed in such form prior to the work of whichever author is labeled as having pioneered it (and, I guess also, it should be noted that the "pioneer" didn't actively try to write steampunk when the term didn't exist - s/he just became the "first" steampunk novelist)?
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I don't think we can
help classifying stuff after the fact, as we realize new definitions can be applied to existing works. I just try to keep timeframes and intents in mind.
For instance, while Jules Verne is widely considered an early SF author today, the genre didn't exist as such when he was writing.
He thought he was writing adventure stories for boys. (And he was careful to keep the science consistent with what was known at the time, and limited himself to one scientific device per story. The closest he got to modern SF was the nebulous and undescribed electrical power source for the submarine Nautilus on _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea_) Calling his work SF happened well after he was gone, and I've sometimes wondered what his reaction to the classification would be.
Along similar lines, the late John Brunner's works like _The Shockwave Rider_ were called proto-cyberpunk by the promoters of that movement. John just laughed and pointed further back at some Fred Pohl/Cyril Kornbluth collaborations.
Going back farther, we have the New Wave that coalesced around the Michael Moorcock edited New Worlds magazine in the 60's, and new wavers claimed things like Roger Zelazny's _Creatures of Light and Darkness_ as an example. Roger was amused. He did it as an experiment, tossing in every radical writing technique he could think of, saw it as a literary joke, and was startled when it was taken seriously.
Any new movement seems to try to retro-actively claim some existing works as its own to help give it legitimacy. The claims often become whimsical.
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Incidentally, I've been enjoying your posts, with your detailed opinions on and references to books and authors you like/dislike or that just are related to whatever the current topic of conversation is. You've been giving me googling pleasure and some notations of future additions to the TBR-file/pile. Good show, fellow! (though I also curse you - I really don't need any more TBR additions  )
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You're welcome, I suppose.
I understand about the TBR pile. The nice thing about ebooks is that the unread stack won't hurt you if it falls over on you. My TBR stack of hardcovers would be another matter.
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Dennis