7.07.2006
Practical Genres
CBC.ca is featuring an article on talented Canadian short story writer Sandra Sabatini. In the piece, she even dares to discusss the similarity between her own work and Alice Munro's: "with five children, my writing gets done in the evenings, between the children’s homework and activities. I remember reading an interview with Alice Munro, who said the reason she wrote short stories in the beginning was because she had small children and short bursts of time to work. I think that’s been true for me, too." I love the idea of genre-as-practical-solution, rather than come convoluted theoretical nonsense that could only fly in an ultra-urban scenario. According to one "Glenn Willmott," much Canadian fiction has had to subscribe to these practicalities (and is better for it).
Based on my own talent for procrastination and far out-dreaming my productive capacity, I think that the perfect practical genre for me would be the "Imaginary Novel." I've actually written several dozen of these over the years, and I'm sure there are a lot more on their way. In fact, I'm surrounded by such cutting edge writing solutions: my friend Jason, for instance, has recently been honing his "blog invective" skills. There may not be much of a market for them yet, but that's probably just because we're all so cutting edge. Shenanigans, japes, tomfoolery and monkeyshines aside, I think that practical genres are an interesting concept because they so directly link economics with literary production rather than leaving the work up to abstracted signifiers. Ta da!
