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META-GENRE

                                                    September 20, 2012
   All genre inevitably
   devolves to self-reference.      
                                    (or evolves?)
   The genre itself is something
   that all of the genre-fans
   know and care about.

   Many examples of the genre will
   eventually be created that include
   many self-referential elements               John Dickson Carr's
   ("Murder at the Mystery Convention!")        "The Three Coffins" (1935)
                                                closes with a long
   And *some* works will eventually be          lecture discussing the
   created that drop all genre elements         ways "locked rooms"
   *except* for the increasingly common         are handled in mystery
   self-references.                             novels.

   It then becomes ambiguous as to whether
   these meta-generic works are actually
   members of the genre: it's a matter of
   definition.  If you need spaceships and
   rayguns to be "science fiction", then
   works about people who like to fantasize
   about spaceships and rayguns aren't
   necessarily "science fiction".

   But if the genre is thought of in terms of
   it's audience rather than it's ostensible
   subject matter, (perhaps: as a "marketing
   category"), then if the work in question is
   designed to be of interest to people who
   are interested in spaceships and rayguns,
   then it's solidly inside the category.

                        BAKUMAN


                                         LUCKY_MIRROR


            DHALGREN















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