What the Heck is A Genrenaut?

Astronaut. Argonaut. The first term, coined in the 19th century, became an American household word in the 1960s; the second belongs to ancient Greek mythology. Both conjure visions of exploration, adventure, heroes, and quests. Indeed, in Greek, "naut" means sailor; "astro" means star. Astronaut = star sailor.

Think of a genrenaut as a genre sailor, the author-explorer-adventurer who travels beyond the pre-existing, presumed borders of literary endeavor. No flat worlds for this hero. Like Jason and the argonoauts of old, the genrenaut seeks a golden fleece, but it's a fleece embroidered with characters and story lines, and woven with words. Like Neil Armstrong, the genrenaut takes steps big and small, some that stretch beyond the moon.

Mystery. History. Thriller. Romance. Fantasy. Horror. Sci Fi. Dystopian. Chic Lit. Young Adult. New Adult. Steam Punk. Commercial, upmarket, and literary fiction. And more. Getting dizzy? Genres are like slots in a mail room. Listen to some critics, writing instructors, agents, even other writers; they'll tell you their truth: shove a story in the wrong slot, it's likely to end up in the trash. People who love mysteries don't want to read sci-fi. Sci-fi freaks won't fall in love with a romance. The historical must never mate with a thriller, lest their offspring become thrysteries (poor, pitiful, literary lepers).

In ancient Greece and Rome, comedies and tragedies didn't mix; same deal in the France of Moliere. But along came Shakespeare, who had the gall (or guts) to write histories, comedies, tragedies, and what scholars call "the problem plays"(those, like All's Well That Ends Well or Troilus and Cressida, that don't fit into a single slot). 

More recently, there have been, and still are, multiple genrenauts to choose from: Margaret Atwood (her Handmaid's Tale was a jump from her literary reputation); Stephen King, a master of horror, mystery, and fantasy; Philip Roth, who wrote Goodbye, Columbus as well as The Plot Against America; and J. K. Rowling (she writes magically for children and mysteriously for adults). What do these authors have in common beside their genre-jumping. They're all successful, famous. They all sell a lot of books.

Nonetheless, the leap from genre to genre can be scary. Sticking to a single genre keeps a particular audience pleased. It also aids tremendously in selling books and building a reputation. Want a mystery? We have a section for that. Need a young adult novel? No problem. Want a good or a great book? That's more difficult. They're all over the store, maybe right next to a so-so or a tome that'll lose you on page two. Does Huck Finn belong in the children's section or the shelf for all ages? Is Gulliver's Travels (as it's been represented onscreen) a fantasy for children or a sophisticated and brilliant satire on human nature? Can it be both? Absolutely.

The bottom line on genre? It's a helpful tool when teaching literature and writing, helping students to understand what makes an audience laugh, what brings sad tears or chills of terror. A useful tool for selling books and finding them in store or library. But while you want a good screwdriver (not the drink) and hammer when building a house, they don't achieve much without someone who's good at using them. And it's hard to be top notch with a tool until you've used it for a while; difficult to know what genre, genres or mixes of them a writer is good at without a decent display of evidence. Just so, it's hard for readers to know what they love most, despite the best of shelving and cataloguing, if they've tasted only one flavor.

The much younger me liked action movies and sports. But when one of my teachers took our class to see an off-Broadway play, the curtain opened on a new world. A few years later, a wise and beautiful woman who was charitable enough to date me loved the ballet. Men in tights? Yuck, I thought. Until I saw the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov leaping with a hang time I wouldn't see again until Michael Jordan.

So, if you'll bear with me, I'll do what I love--write the best stories I can in whatever genre suits the tale and the characters in it. Hopefully that works for you too, tights or not.