Literary Genres : Margaret Atwood

For this week's reading I choose Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

I found that this was different from other science fiction works, though it was set in a post apocalyptic setting. It seemed to still stay in the realm of what could exist rather than expanding out into the vast unknown. With that, I do think that there is a different between writing and fitting into a genre and genre writing. After looking more into Atwood, I discovered that she does not even want to be considered in the science fiction realm. She declared herself as more of an “adventure romance” writer rather than sci- fi, simply because she doesn’t want to bring to life things that don’t exist. I personally don’t think the distinction matters between genre and literary genre if these books are being read for pleasure. I suppose that if this book (or any others) were being considered for a curriculum that it would matter more, but there are plenty of books that aren't literary specific that are much better for learning minds. Not to mention more interesting, not only in content but for young readers in general. This book was more interesting to me than others, but it is not the type of story I enjoy.