Mix and Mash
by jamesenge on Oct.16, 2009, under James Enge and Matthew Sturges
The first sf book I ever read was Asimov’s Mysteries, and he makes a point in the introduction of that book of showing how sf can be crossed with anything–mysteries, romances, westerns, adventure stories (etc). He took this as a sign of sf’s versatility, but I take it as a sign of how fluid genre can be. Is Alien a monster movie or a science fiction movie? Clearly both, I’d say.
Steampunk is another crossbred genre–at least it mixes science fiction and historical fiction, and it shows signs of merging across all sorts of genre lines. I’m not sure how much steam is left in the punk anymore, but personally I’m enjoying it while it lasts, and am very much looking forward to reading Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker and George Mann’s work.
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Jon Foster, cover for Cherie Priest's "Dreadful Skin"
Likewise, Cherie Priest’s Dreadful Skin has a wonderful novelette about a deadly duel between a werewolf and a renegade Irish nun on a riverboat in the Mississippi, shortly after the Civil War. I’m not exactly sure how many genres are mixed in this story, but I thought it was great. (I had mixed feelings about the other stories in the book, but not because of mixed genres.) And Karl Schroeder’s Sun of Suns, which came out a few years ago but which I just read last summer, is this crazy blend of low-tech piratical adventure and high-concept postsingularity worldmaking.
Most cross-genre’d and most reviled of all fantasy genres is my personal favorite, sword-and-sorcery. Robert E. Howard is generally credited with inventing it in the 1930s, taking elements of historical fiction (like his hero Harold Lamb), eldritch horror (like his mentor and friend H.P. Lovecraft) and heroic fantasy (like Eddison) and fusing them in the white-hot darkness of his heart. (He was by no means forward thinking on matters of race or gender, but he could write like crazy, and the best of his stories are still well worth reading. )
Fritz Leiber and others (including Kuttner and Moore, writing separately and together) took up his mantle, adding elements of antiheroic comedy to the mix. When Jack Vance started writing his Dying Earth stories he added in elements of science fiction as well. In the 60s and 70s, Zelazny starts writing these wild S&S epics dense with mythology and literary references. He even shows his face in The Hand of Oberon, explaining to his hero (and the reader) that he is “writing a philosophical romance, shot through with elements of horror and morbidity.” That took some moxie, but Zelazny could pull it off.
I think (if I had one-tenth of Zelazny’s moxie or writing chops) that’s what I’d like to write: philosophical romances shot through with elements of horror and morbidity. The chances of this odd genre hitting the big time commercially seem slim, but you never know.
Philoromhorrmorbpunk. It has a sort of ring to it. (Ringworm, possibly.)
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October 16th, 2009 on 10:00 am
Oh, I like this line: “Robert E. Howard is generally credited with inventing it in the 1930s, taking elements of historical fiction (like his hero Harold Lamb), eldritch horror (like his mentor and friend H.P. Lovecraft) and heroic fantasy (like Eddison) and fusing them in the white-hot darkness of his heart.”
October 16th, 2009 on 10:11 am
You had me, right up until you redefined Zelazny’s wonderful work as philoromhorrmorbpunk. I am tired unto death with any literary movement with the word ‘punk’ appended to it. Zelazny seldom wrote punks. I’d say never, but there is Damnation Ally.
I occasionally try my hand at Zelaznyesque fiction, sans required moxie, but with nary a punk involved.
I’m enjoying these discussions. Lou is dead right about the REH line. It’s lovely. Do please carry on.
October 16th, 2009 on 10:13 am
Or Damnation Alley, if English is your preferred lingo.
October 16th, 2009 on 10:51 am
Good post. I especially enjoyed Hand of Oberon, which ends on perhaps the finest cliffhanger I have ever read. No other book ever inspired me quite as much as that one to race for the next volume. I quite literally dived to the other side of the room to grab the final book in the series. I was young then; I wonder how well it would hold up for a 41-year-old who doesn’t dive for books without stretching first?
October 16th, 2009 on 11:07 am
I’m still putting my thoughts on this in order, for a longer post elsewhere (this is a long-running–but friendly–argument that Sturges and I have been having for some time now), but I wanted to chime in and say that I agree with much of what Enge says here.
One thing I’d add at this point is that I look at genre as functioning like gene pools. Remaining within the confines of one genre for too long leads to the serious risk of inbreeding, and producing anemic works with all sorts of congenital problems, barely fit to survive. (Does this make a tenth-generation xerox of Tolkein on par with hemophiliac European royals? You might say it does, and I wouldn’t argue with you if you did.)
Crossing genre boundaries expands that gene pool, producing fit fiction with all sorts of interesting new traits. In time, the hybrids most fit to survive might even emerge as full-blown genres in their own right.
The “mash-up” that Sturges decries, the PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and such like, are just the most obvious types of crossbreeding, and like the offspring of a horse and a donkey are mules fit for one generation, but not healthy enough to sustain offspring of their own. Which isn’t to say that mules don’t have their uses, from time to time, but you wouldn’t want them to be the only members of your breeding pool.
October 16th, 2009 on 11:16 am
Well, you had to go and be all thoughtful and measured in your response, didn’t you? I fire a shot across the bow and all I get is diplomacy. Damn you, Enge!
October 16th, 2009 on 4:17 pm
One of the mashups I’ve been seeing lately is setting a fantasy world in the relics of a more technologically advanced culture. It’s been around for a while, but I’ve been noticing it with a lot more frequency (most of it could just be my reading habits). James Maxey’s Bitterwood was pretty bvious about it, as was Fred Saberhagen’s Swords Series (though that was never in doubt, as the Swords stories were direct, if detached, sequels to some of his earlier SF).
There are even hints - a lot more subtle, though - in R. Scott Bakker’s new cycle.
Not to interrupt the discussion or anything.
I just like to write stuff.
October 16th, 2009 on 6:07 pm
Hey Bill: The “-punk” thing was ironic. All new genres have to have the -”punk” suffix now, the same way all scandals had to end in “-gate” for 20 or 30 years after Watergate. If I ever get this genre seriously of the ground, I’ll probably call it “philorohorrmorbmance” which is much more euphonious.
Hey Chris: That’s a useful metaphor, I think–although “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies” (and its ilk) don’t strike me as being as durable as a mule (from what I know of mules).
Hey Howard: I’m going to go all “Old Man Enge” on you here. When I finished “Hand of Oberon” I had the same impulse… but I couldn’t dive across the room because “The Courts of Chaos” hadn’t been published yet.
I have to admit, “Courts of Chaos” is my least favorite of the Corwin novels. Some good stuff in there, but the first four Amber novels are golden for me in a way that none of the later ones are.
Hey Matt: If it helps to know, I typed the whole message with my nose while shaking both fists in inarticulate rage. As far as I remember, I mean.
Hey Adam: Hadn’t thought about those. Saberhagen in particular really did like to cross genres–e.g. “The Holmes-Dracula File” (which was actually a pretty good mashup).
October 17th, 2009 on 12:44 am
Yeah, I got that the “punk” thing was ironic. I think it was always intended ironically. It’s still annoying, and still belittles the material. But that’s just my opinion of which I am in the solid minority. Feel free to ignore my crankiness in this matter. I also chafe at ‘pimp’ (once again always used ironically) as a synonym for ’sell’ or ‘market’, or even ‘enthuse about’.
And I agree that Courts of Chaos didn’t end well. As much as I am a fan of Zelazny’s characters and most of his story construction, I find that he often doesn’t end stories well. The brilliant Lord of Light’s final battle was dull, as was the final fifth, or so, of Roadmarks, and so on with too many other examples. This encourages me though. The man was human.
Even better than the Holmes Dracula File was Saberhagen’s Dominion, where Merlin enters the picture to deal with Drac, among others.
April 12th, 2011 on 10:33 pm
I do trust all of the ideas you have offered in your post. They are really convincing and can certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are too brief for beginners. May you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
October 14th, 2011 on 3:26 pm
I will not understand until the end of what exactly is written here, because I don’t know English so well. It is possible to write it more clearly?