This made me realize that the reason I don't resonate with suburban malaise novels is they are campus fiction, but with too much homogeneity and not enough of the power differences that create the tensions in all the variations you mention. Closed system, forced interactions, that is the stuff of beautiful friction.
I might be missing the point, but this reminds me a bit of Jane Austen's comment that "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on." That principle can apply to novels with lots of people house-sharing as they make their way into adulthood in the Big City. Creating a world bound together by something specific, whether it's geography, or getting a degree, or how to deal with Henry VIII as he gets more and more mental, lets you see lots of bigger forces so much more clearly. You know who else maybe writes campus novels? Dickens. London is a campus. People arrive on stagecoaches and tumble out of windows and pick their way down its muddy streets, all sharing the challenge of being part of the crazy quilt. (And "Real Life" was brilliant, and I've preordered "The Late Americans.")
I'm semi-embarrassed to admit I did not know campus fiction was a distinct genre until...just this minute. I'm just out here reading books I like? But I see what you mean - the phrase "transcending genre" implies that the genre wasn't enough in the first place. Which, pfft.
I'm with you on this completely. I gather reviewers resort to saying this because they think some of their readers, who would enjoy the book if they gave it a chance, will pass on it out of prejudice/snobbishness, etc., but it seems an easy enough fix if you just said it was at the top of the genre alongside [name of other books previously said to "transcend" the genre but ought to be considered a part of the genre].
thank you for this — campus fiction is my favorite genre of, well, everything, and thinking about office fiction as part of the broader campus fiction genre is useful. this clarifies exactly the chord struck by some of the fiction i most enjoyed last year for campus novel reasons but that don't automatically fit the genre (the ensemble, lessons in chemistry, winter in sokcho, the everlasting, leaving the atocha station, among others). i kept thinking of them together but couldn't name why.
and also thanks for additional thoughtful vocabulary i can apply to my love for the latinist, painting time, and the leigh bardugo yale novels.
agree with everything--life is a campus novel!--and that transcending genre/hybridity is a scam. what is wrong with being *just* anything??? that said, what campus webtoons would you rec? 👀
I love this. As an exercise in..something, I don’t know, having new experiences, I’ve been listening to the weekly new music playlist on Spotify. If something piques my interest I’ll tap through and read a little about the artist, and the one thing that stands out is how many of their statements include claims about “transcending” genre. Aside from the eyerollingness of it all, I wonder if any of the people writing that copy have any real sense of which genres are being transcended in what ways. I suspect not! It’s just the same “I’m not like other girls” business that’s happening in literature, like the only way to be original or interesting is to define yourself against something you more or less openly scorn (but whose existence you then must depend on in order for your claims to cohere). I know brains like to sort and categorize but they are also capable of nuance, and genre offers such a wonderful space to be curious about that and enjoy the pleasures and (delightful) frictions of recognition and surprise.
This was so much fun to read, thank you. It's reassuring to read your posts and know someone else feels this strongly about books without needing other people to agree. I have VERY strong opinions, but I don't want them to actually get in the way of people making things that are different than what I like.
Can’t believe you get accused of “doing harm” simply by having an opinion! And your expansive definition of campus fiction is an eye-opener for me. My first novel, Wild Walt and the Rock Creek Gang, was a campus novel, set in the strange, hidden world of Rock Creek Park in DC. Damn, if I’d realized that sooner might have been able to get an agent. (Several agents were put off that one of main characters is a freed slave, a black man in a novel written by a white man, but that’s a different story).
Campus fiction! An epiphany! One time I tried to write a story inspired by the particular exhaustions and wack perspectives within a school I used to attend. It started as a "write what you know" situation, but the label of campus fiction makes it clearer to me what I was trying to do. I was trying to explore dynamics that rise up in the pressure-cooker of microcosm, that might be diffuse or milder in greater society, but are still very present... right down to how people deal with death or choose each other. Maybe I'll try it again, this clarity is inspiring. Thank you
This is my first time hearing the term "campus novel" and I really appreciated your breakdown. I especially liked when you said: "Genres are fine. They are capacious. They are much more interesting and nuanced and complicated than some people seem to think." A very thought-provoking piece - thank you!
I love how you've talked about the range of the word "campus" and pointed at the en vogue desire for weirdness in fiction, that a work of fiction must be odd and many things to be fully imagined. For me the problem is in the "just", like a thing can't be a thing, it must move between different things, otherwise it's "just" a thing. Hurts my head. Your piece here is wonderful and especially this part: "For some writers, their whole artistic life is a prolonged exercise in being misunderstood. What matters most is that your own conception of yourself and what you’re doing stays within sight and that you can pursue your own interests with intention and urgency and clarity and passion and, yes, sometimes, even happiness." Thank you, again!
This made me realize that the reason I don't resonate with suburban malaise novels is they are campus fiction, but with too much homogeneity and not enough of the power differences that create the tensions in all the variations you mention. Closed system, forced interactions, that is the stuff of beautiful friction.
I might be missing the point, but this reminds me a bit of Jane Austen's comment that "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on." That principle can apply to novels with lots of people house-sharing as they make their way into adulthood in the Big City. Creating a world bound together by something specific, whether it's geography, or getting a degree, or how to deal with Henry VIII as he gets more and more mental, lets you see lots of bigger forces so much more clearly. You know who else maybe writes campus novels? Dickens. London is a campus. People arrive on stagecoaches and tumble out of windows and pick their way down its muddy streets, all sharing the challenge of being part of the crazy quilt. (And "Real Life" was brilliant, and I've preordered "The Late Americans.")
I'm semi-embarrassed to admit I did not know campus fiction was a distinct genre until...just this minute. I'm just out here reading books I like? But I see what you mean - the phrase "transcending genre" implies that the genre wasn't enough in the first place. Which, pfft.
I'm with you on this completely. I gather reviewers resort to saying this because they think some of their readers, who would enjoy the book if they gave it a chance, will pass on it out of prejudice/snobbishness, etc., but it seems an easy enough fix if you just said it was at the top of the genre alongside [name of other books previously said to "transcend" the genre but ought to be considered a part of the genre].
The Bible is a campus novel. I needed that laugh.
thank you for this — campus fiction is my favorite genre of, well, everything, and thinking about office fiction as part of the broader campus fiction genre is useful. this clarifies exactly the chord struck by some of the fiction i most enjoyed last year for campus novel reasons but that don't automatically fit the genre (the ensemble, lessons in chemistry, winter in sokcho, the everlasting, leaving the atocha station, among others). i kept thinking of them together but couldn't name why.
and also thanks for additional thoughtful vocabulary i can apply to my love for the latinist, painting time, and the leigh bardugo yale novels.
agree with everything--life is a campus novel!--and that transcending genre/hybridity is a scam. what is wrong with being *just* anything??? that said, what campus webtoons would you rec? 👀
I, too, love campus fiction. Pre-ordered your book, so you gotta stop sobbing.
I love this. As an exercise in..something, I don’t know, having new experiences, I’ve been listening to the weekly new music playlist on Spotify. If something piques my interest I’ll tap through and read a little about the artist, and the one thing that stands out is how many of their statements include claims about “transcending” genre. Aside from the eyerollingness of it all, I wonder if any of the people writing that copy have any real sense of which genres are being transcended in what ways. I suspect not! It’s just the same “I’m not like other girls” business that’s happening in literature, like the only way to be original or interesting is to define yourself against something you more or less openly scorn (but whose existence you then must depend on in order for your claims to cohere). I know brains like to sort and categorize but they are also capable of nuance, and genre offers such a wonderful space to be curious about that and enjoy the pleasures and (delightful) frictions of recognition and surprise.
This was so much fun to read, thank you. It's reassuring to read your posts and know someone else feels this strongly about books without needing other people to agree. I have VERY strong opinions, but I don't want them to actually get in the way of people making things that are different than what I like.
Can’t believe you get accused of “doing harm” simply by having an opinion! And your expansive definition of campus fiction is an eye-opener for me. My first novel, Wild Walt and the Rock Creek Gang, was a campus novel, set in the strange, hidden world of Rock Creek Park in DC. Damn, if I’d realized that sooner might have been able to get an agent. (Several agents were put off that one of main characters is a freed slave, a black man in a novel written by a white man, but that’s a different story).
Survivor is a campus novel
I've never felt more seen re: hybridity.
Campus fiction! An epiphany! One time I tried to write a story inspired by the particular exhaustions and wack perspectives within a school I used to attend. It started as a "write what you know" situation, but the label of campus fiction makes it clearer to me what I was trying to do. I was trying to explore dynamics that rise up in the pressure-cooker of microcosm, that might be diffuse or milder in greater society, but are still very present... right down to how people deal with death or choose each other. Maybe I'll try it again, this clarity is inspiring. Thank you
This is my first time hearing the term "campus novel" and I really appreciated your breakdown. I especially liked when you said: "Genres are fine. They are capacious. They are much more interesting and nuanced and complicated than some people seem to think." A very thought-provoking piece - thank you!
I love how you've talked about the range of the word "campus" and pointed at the en vogue desire for weirdness in fiction, that a work of fiction must be odd and many things to be fully imagined. For me the problem is in the "just", like a thing can't be a thing, it must move between different things, otherwise it's "just" a thing. Hurts my head. Your piece here is wonderful and especially this part: "For some writers, their whole artistic life is a prolonged exercise in being misunderstood. What matters most is that your own conception of yourself and what you’re doing stays within sight and that you can pursue your own interests with intention and urgency and clarity and passion and, yes, sometimes, even happiness." Thank you, again!