When I was creating my Book Review Index by genre, I looked up the difference between dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. In all these years of reading, these two genres had gotten meshed together in my mind. I also struggled with categorizing some books because they fell into multiple genres and I had to figure out which one meant the most to me.
Today on The Creator’s Roulette, I have Nathan Srith, author of The Big Smoke, a dystopian fiction novel. He is telling us about his exploration of dystopian fiction and what genres overlap with it. Enjoy!
Dystopian fiction – what bloody genre is it!?
The dystopian type story, however popular, is rather difficult to define into one genre. If you look it up online it often falls under the following categories: speculative fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and Alternate History. Very tricky to define.
I’ve always been captivated by end of the world/dystopian stories. My interest has lied more with how a group of people or society get from point A to point B. The historical background of how a dystopian society was formed was more important to me in terms of a creative narrative than the actual story that is taking place in a book or on TV. Of course the story you are seeing unfold is vital to the overall world you are invested in but a big bug bear for me is not knowing how this world came about, even if it’s summarised in a single page, some context is key for my investment in this story.
The Hunger Games is a good example of giving just enough information on the history of the world you are about to delve into. The reader gets a brief idea early on that an unknown event affected the world with only North America seemingly being the only liveable place on earth, eventually leading to a society which was controlled by a select few. It’s not much but it’s something.
My fascination of dystopian storytelling began when I first watched the movie ‘The Warriors’ by Walter Hill. Apart from being a visually compelling movie which was adapted from the book of the same name, it was an exaggerated portrayal of a view of the divide in New York, the divide between class, economic wealth, education and power. It was the first time I had seen a modern day twist on dystopian fiction which included a real life broken city, believable gang warfare and heavy political message which uncovered the writers views of how he believed a society treats those that are considered less than. It was obviously a version of society and people that was ramped up to eleven but the points the storyteller wanted to tell were apparent.
A big pro with dystopian literature and its difficulty in genre definition is that the stories within a dystopian world can be so inclusive of other types of genre and stories.
A Sci-Fi horror about aliens in love, a historical WW2 novel exploring the outcomes of a world where Hitler won the war and a coming of age chick lit comedy about a young woman coming out can all unfold in the backdrop of a dystopian world, the possibilities are endless within this environment as long as the stories are linked to wider notion of the dystopian society.
The ‘What if’ possibilities that are inherently embedded within the dystopian genre make endless storytelling a possibility in which the writer can explore how historical or current day politics can be interpreted by different minds and view points and then dissected to create a new world which has likely become broken due to past mistakes of a certain political or governing body.
Dystopian fiction clearly hits the criteria for a number of genres; the closet being speculative fiction, the one issue this can throw up is from readers who may dismiss the dystopian genre due to not liking that kind of story style. Unfortunately these people are potentially missing out on elements of storytelling that they may really enjoy, although I suppose this could be the case for most readers with other genres, I for one am not a fan of the horror genre but I’m sure I’m limiting myself on some fantastic books due to my stubborn stance, not an attractive quality I know.
So in conclusion, I still don’t really know what genre dystopian fiction falls under.
Do you prefer books with a set genre or do you prefer books with a mix of different genres?
You can connect with Nathan on his website. His book, The Big Smoke, is now available at Amazon.
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