Genre Fiction

I like what I guess is called in some circles 'genre fiction'. Obviously that's a pretty big statement, and I'll qualify it in a second, but first let's board the definition train.

Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works (novels, short stories) written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
-"Genre fiction", Wikipedia.

Thanks, Wikipedia. Thanks for making me sound like a massive idiot.

Ok, so this is going to be a pretty difficult struggle upwards from the depths of criticism. I'm not sure I can properly defend my tastes, but frankly I'll be happy if I can see daylight by the end of this.

So let's say I make a horror movie. Obviously I want to get rich, so I want as many people as possible to see the film. Therefore I make clear in all the trailers, posters, interviews, marketing etc that this is a horror movie, and will rigidly stick to every trope necessary. If there is a Platonic form for horror movies, then mine will be as close as metaphysically possible. Then all the horror fans will see it, because we all know that fans of everything hate innovation or change.

That's the standard narrative to genre fiction. That probably goes on, sure, but my interest is for different reasons. My point - my constant refrain, actually - is that the conventions of a genre are nothing more than a convenience. Let's use detective fiction as an example. If a new detective show starts on television, and you want all your friends to watch it, you aren't going to say that a crime took place. Or that, at the end, the crime gets solved. Your friends will know that.

In genre fiction, the plot is the least of our concern. Let's be clear, there's good and bad genre fiction, as in every other classification. But not having to worry about a plot, or even a setting, because the audience have your back, means that the writer can do fun things with the characters, or the world itself. Genre fiction is a development of the old romances. The characters bear no resemblance to the characters of 'realism', which are horrific, twisted creatures who do not belong outside of stories. Instead, they are real in the way that the people we meet every day are real - they are exaggerations, two-dimensional figures projected on the screens of our mind.

In a detective show, you know that a murder will take place and that a murder will be solved. A sci-fi show will probably question the nature of life, or humanity. Fantasy will, I don't know, say that magic is cool or something. Your audience know all that - they're comfortable with it, so you can spend time creating characters who are either not clichés, or who are clichés and revel in it. You can create a world which works like clockwork in the background of stories which might not do a single innovative thing. A story is a vehicle for getting a world into the open.