Realism, genre, and that sort of thing
So apparently there's some talk lately in writerly circles about realism vs genre. The latest iteration I've seen--and which prompted me to write this--is in the vein of "YA Realism is a rising trend (that will save us from sparkly vampires)." This is layered with overtones of lauding white guys for "creating" this beneficial trend, which apparently is neither new, nor particularly male.
Some discussion here. Anne Ursu (the writer at that link) has a link in her post to Junot Diaz's recent "MFA vs POC" article, which I also highly recommend.
And because everything is about me, I'm gonna talk about me.
But first, a disclaimer: If you happen to like realism, good for you! You keep reading it. If you write it, good for you again! Keep on writing it. Enjoy the hell out of what you enjoy.
I actually like reading some realism. I'm always surprised by this, but done well--with, you know, actual story and maybe even distinctive, interesting characters who grow and change in the course of the story--it's good stuff.
(I'm not a fan of postmodernist, typically. Hooray for literary experiments, but that's not why I read.)
But back to the point, which is this: I don't like writing realism.
I typically explain this as "If I want to talk about a bunch of upper middle class white people's problems, I can call my friends and talk about our lives."
Back in college, I had a really good writing course where the prof disallowed genre fiction (any genre) with the sensible explanation that genres have special requirements/issues that the course didn't have time to get into. (That boldface is there for a reason. I'll get to it.) So I wrote a lot of realist fiction.
And found that I couldn't. I mean, I couldn't do totally, strictly, realist fiction. It was boring. The closest I got was a story about a guy who was having some problems with his boss...and that story quickly went a bit noir, as the main character was mistaken for his boss and briefly kidnapped by the mobster to whom the boss owed a lot of money. The MC used this knowledge to get his boss to back the hell off and give him a promotion. The MC's job was a sort of generic white-collar office job. I didn't get too specific. It was the kind of job where you don't have to wear a suit every day, but sometimes.
So from a "realist fiction/MFA" kind of view, it was spot on. The basic story was "Guy has problems at work, he gets a little gumption, and improves his situation."
But that middle bit, the thing that changes his perspective and thus the course of the story? A MAFIA DON. Seriously, this is "realism"? Yes, there are mafia dons in the real world, at least more than there are, say, griffins or unicorns or luckbeasts. But honestly, how is this any different from bringing in a dragon, in terms of "highly unlikely thing that forces MC to be brave and come away from the encounter feeling more confident"?
It was about as realist as a John Grisham novel. Not sure if MFA programs would approve of that kind of thing, or if "realism" truly is supposed to be synonymous with "kinda boring slice of life." I'm sure MFA folks would say not.
Which is a long-winded way of saying, I don't know what the fuck realistic fiction is supposed to be. Any fiction I want to write will have at least a bit of danger in it, because dammit, danger is exciting. And whether that danger is "real world" or magical is irrelevant--they're all the same in storytelling terms.
•A boy afraid of getting rejected by his parents if he doesn't do [activity they encourage but he hates]
•A girl afraid of getting rejected by her peers if she doesn't navigate high school politics the right way
•A woman afraid of not getting the job she needs to pay for her father's cancer treatment
•A man tortured by the memory of being unable to save his son from a fire
•A trans-woman who wants to become a model
•A black man who was sent to jail for marijuana possession in the USA and now that he's been released, he wants to get into local politics and try to change the system
All of those are real-world things that could be a story. But in terms of emotional stakes, I don't see them as any different from
•An alien who wants to protect his planet from invading humans
•A young wizard starting out at a wizarding school he previously didn't know existed
•A girl setting out with a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a lion (and a dog) to get a witch's broom so she can go home
•A veteran of a long-term intergalactic war who has PTSD and sees the ghosts of her dead comrades everywhere while she tries to carry on with a civilian life
Ultimately, any grown-up* story worth telling is a story about people doing things that are risky or painful. The better ones involve emotional risk and pain. (Physical risk and pain inevitably leads to emotional risk and pain, at the very least of the "will I think less of myself if I give up" variety.)
So this notion of "realism" being different from any other sort of fiction is just bullshit. It's a constructed artifice, a limiting rule the writer has arbitrarily adopted.
Rather than deal with the worldbuilding needed for SFF, or the physical action usually found in all flavors of CF**, or the specific Romance plot requirement that the MC be pursuing a love interest, a "realism" story decides that those things are off limits.
Sound familiar? Go reread that boldface bit up toward the top.
"Realistic" fiction is just fiction which chooses to tell stories with particular limitations. My presumption is that the writers want to eliminate excess variables because it allows them to focus on other aspects of the story or writing; we can't do everything in every book.
In many ways this is the inverse of SFF, which at its best uses the created unreality specifically so the writer can focus on a particular aspect of the human condition without all the baggage of "the real world" that readers may bring with them.
In both cases, the writers are choosing their particular genre because it has the tools talk about the thing they want to talk about.
*Children's books are a whole 'nother thing
**CF = Crime Fiction. Mysteries, thrillers, etc.