Re:[2] Sci Fi?

A. Unless we were seriously going to explore the idea of "Prison Planet" as a metaphor, of course its going to be SF in some sense.

Maybe I should have tagged it with the "humor" category. I posted that because it was a blatantly stupid thing to think, and therefore funny that I caught myself thinking it. Kind of like thinking "Hmmm. Ford is really pushing the F-150 into that truck genre." Or, "Wow. This dialogue is really pushing itself into the webpage genre."

B. Genre isn't for marketers. Genre is legitimate framework or window through which to view a story. Every genre has its conventions, and you can play them straight or subvert them.

I would argue that genre is to movies was genus is to animals. The animal doesn't care if it's a grizzly bear, but the biologist cares that it belongs to the genus Ursinae. By the same token, I don't really care what genre we're in, and see it as a construct of critics, analytics and marketers. I've never once met a musician who said "I'm going for AOR mid-tempo with an alternative edge," and I've never met a story that said "I need to be seen as a love story to be appreciated." Quite the opposite, I think the best of any creative categories are the ones that seem to be within one genre or another, and then transcend it.

It's like the old saw about the painter who is walking down the street and meets a critic. The critic says "Hey, I just saw your show, and it's incredible. Your use of chiaroscuro is masterful, and your brush strokes are sublime. You are truly emulating the Dutch Masters." Then the painter walked down the street and met another painter who says "Hey, I just saw your show. What kind of turpentine do you use?"

But in the end, isn't the basic idea of character meets resistance to achieving their desires, and the struggle that ensues what is really important? Or, to put a big meta hat on it, man vs. himself, man vs. man, or man vs. nature is all the genre you need.

Or, what came first: the genre or the story?

Okay--to many ors in the water here....

All that said, there are times when you want to follow genre tropes, and times when you want to avoid them. There are times where I argue that creativity flourishes most in constraint rather than vacuum. And, I'm not at all arguing that genre isn't valuable in context, but in my mind, to start categorizing before you create is to start limiting. Since we will hopefully have experiences of having to do that ("Hey kid. Write me a slasher flick"), I don't think I'll be paying too much attention to it right now. But, if it helps your process, more power yo.

D. Anyway, the point is, when you think "SF" you think of limited boundaries; when I think of "SF", I think of a lack of them. Therefore, SF, to me, really isn't a genre.

Let me clarify. When I think "SF" I don't think limited boundaries, when I think genre I think limited boundaries. Let me state that I love SF, I read and watch SF, and SF is my favorite genre (well, Sci-Fi Horror really). So, I make these statements not to detract from the oeuvre, but to make my point that all genre contains constraint to me. If I start thinking genre too soon, I'll start plotting along genre lines, and measuring against trope, and making sure I hit the genre talking points. If I think Western, I'll start thinking classic Western, but I may want to think Dead Man or that episode of Futurama where they went to Amy's family homestead on Mars. My final point being, I don't want to limit myself so early in the game that I miss an angle that might become the key for us to unlock this monster.