One would hope that the recent LOTR sweep at the Oscars would be a real breakthrough for genre films, particularly science fiction/fantasy, but that is more than likely a vain hope. LOTR swept because it was a particularly exceptional film and an incredible achievement. And the sweep was, more than likely, a way of honoring all three films of the trilogy, a rather bogus way of going about it if you ask me. If they really wanted to honor all three films, then the previous two films would have done better in their Oscar years. The Academy is no more enlightened when it comes to genre films than it has been in the past. Be prepared to go back to the "particular type" of film for Movie of the Year from this moment forward.

What does this have to do with writing?

The Academy reminds me of the literary community which looks down it's long nose at genre. So far, I have found only one M.A. writing program that focuses specifically on genre, and none among the M.F.A. programs. Granted, a writer doesn't need a higher degree to write, but you do need one to teach at college and university level. In a world where genre makes most the money, literary is what we're taught in the universities. Considering a university education is "supposed" to prepare a student for working in the real world, something is wrong with this picture. Preparing students to write literary work in a genre world is not preparing students for working in the real world.

Now, I don't have anything against literary writing. I don't particularly enjoy reading most of it, but I don?t really have anything against it. I do have a problem with a writing community that touts the literary style as the pinnacle of writing while snubbing all other genres.

Yes, I just called literary a genre. Genre, by definition, is a style of art, writing, or other creative endeavor. Literary is one style, fantasy another, mainstream still another. To perceive literary as above or outside genre is to deny the essential meaning of the word. Literary is a genre, and it is no better or worse than any other genre.

Literary snobbery denies the foundations of writing. The first piece I had to read for my English Lit. classes was "Beowulf." "Beowulf" is fantasy. It has monsters, magic, and beings with great powers; all markers of fantasy. The genre "features supernatural, magical, or otherworldly elements" (The Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus 1997; 277). Call "Beowulf" anything else you like, but it is fantasy, as are many other older works that end up in the literary cannon, that ever changing, body of work considered the "best" ever written. Myth and legend, with a healthy dose of religion and generally with "supernatural, magical, or otherworldly elements," tend to make up quite a fair number of the earliest writings. But, really, all writing has a touch of fantasy since all writing comes from the "the free play of creative imagination" (Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online) to some degree. Writing, even nonfiction writing, is creative.

While I have focused primarily on fantasy, both because it is my preferred genre and because it tends to be among the most reviled, every genre has its place in the history of writing. Some genres seem to be past their "prime," relegated to a place in history when they were quite popular and now with only a small market if any market at all, but they've all made their own impact on writing. Most even manage to make an appearance in the anthologies used in English Lit classes. I've seen romance, westerns, drama, historical, mystery, and a number of others in the anthologies used in my classes. The literaries can deny it all they want, but genre has been, and always will be, a part of the writing and reading experience. I have been told by some of my professors that it is the "bad" writing in genre that has given genre its poor reputation in literary circles. This is nothing more than a blind justification of their snobbery as many "bad" literary works have also been published.

When it comes down to it, good writing is good writing regardless of genre, and it is long past time to celebrate good writing (and film) regardless of what category it fits into.