Genre, Generic is a reading blog founded in 2012 by Kelley Knapp, reader of fiction extraordinare.
This blog offers exegesis of (mostly contemporary) fiction based on the work's title. I wanted to examine the books I read in this manner because naming things - a painting, a poem, a pet, a child - is to announce it, to present it. Naming is an assertive act. It is also, as Le Guin realizes in "She Unnames Them," a sort of imprisonment - anyone with a still-relevant childhood nickname can tell you that. Yet binding to a name allows us to act in language and reality.
Thus naming is a very important business. It's especially interesting now, because what constitutes decorous fiction has just opened up so much within the recent history. Titles can be referential to other works of fiction (1Q84), or wordplayful (The Importance of Being Earnest), or meta (The Name of the Rose), or compellingly lyrical (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit). Or anything else really. Genre, Generic judges a book's worth by how well it is titled.
I believe it is worth knowing that I am a charitable reader. This blog is as much a mental exercise for me as it is a source of aesthetic judgments for anyone passing through.
It's more challenging to describe the merits of a book, than it is to point out its defects. That is my platform.
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