{"id":34518,"date":"2017-10-23T06:30:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T17:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=34518"},"modified":"2017-10-08T17:58:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T04:58:27","slug":"authors-who-kicked-off-a-sub-genre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2017\/10\/23\/authors-who-kicked-off-a-sub-genre\/","title":{"rendered":"Authors Who Kicked Off A (Sub)-Genre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing about Georgette Heyer as I did last Monday (and also on August 28) put me in mind of authors who have effectively kicked off their own genre or subgenre of literature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Georgette Heyer<\/strong> certainly did so, generating the subgenre of the Regency romance<\/strong> via novels such as Friday’s Child<\/em> and Cotillion<\/em>. Her imitators are legion and in almost all cases, can only generate pale–and unsatisfying–shadows of the original (imho).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In June I did a guest post on Five Fabulous worlds of SFF<\/a> for Shaun Duke of Skiffy and Fanty. In it I mentioned that Canadian novelist, William Gibson<\/strong>, had also created his own subgenre, that of Cyberpunk<\/strong> science fiction. Interestingly, Gibson is also credited with kicking off another subgenre, together with Bruce Sterling<\/strong> — that of Steampunk<\/strong>, through their novel The Difference Engine<\/em>. Steampunk is a blend of fantasy and SF. Many other authors have written in both subgenres, particularly Steampunk, with some really great reads as a result.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Some may cite ER Edison’s The Worm Ourubous<\/em>, but while it is unquestionably a forerunner, I would argue that it was JRR Tolkien<\/strong>‘s classic The Lord Of The Rings<\/em> that really kicked off the Epic Fantasy<\/strong> subgenre—in which, of course<\/em>, many very fine authors have written some wonderful series … \ud83d\ude09 And long may it continue, say I!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And then there’s Louisa May Alcott<\/strong>, whose famous novel Little Women<\/em> (which will be 160 years old next year) effectively pioneered what we think of as Young Adult<\/strong> literature. So not just a subgenre in this case, but a whole class of literature. Go Louisa!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Going further back, the contemporary Horror<\/strong> genre is generally traced back to Horace Walpole<\/strong>‘s The Castle of Otranto<\/em> (1764.) However, when it comes to the Monster<\/strong> subgenre, the palm must go to Mary Shelley<\/strong> with the publication of Frankenstein<\/em> in 1818. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Coming a little further forward in time, I also feel that\u00a0George Tompkyns Chesney’s 1871 novella The Battle of Dorking<\/em> deserves a mention, mainly as the beginning of Invasion<\/strong> fiction<\/strong> and as a precursor of contemporary Science Fiction<\/strong>.\u00a0 Subsequent titles in the Invasion subgenre include works as diverse as HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds<\/em> and John Marsden’s\u00a0 Tomorrow When The War Began<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So that’s my initial list—but how about you? Have you any subgenre or genre creators to share? If so, I’d love to learn about them in the comments. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing about Georgette Heyer as I did last Monday (and also on August 28) put me in mind of authors who have effectively kicked off their own genre or subgenre of literature. Georgette Heyer certainly did so, generating the subgenre of the Regency romance via novels such as Friday’s Child and Cotillion. Her imitators are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funstuff","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34518"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34711,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34518\/revisions\/34711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}