Genre of the week: Realism

Here's a ~new~ genre that popped up relatively recently. Of course, that's what all the writers want you to believe, at least.

Realism is a genre where everything is more down to Earth, so to speak. The endings aren't necessarily happy, the stories can be pretty brutal, and you don't always feel good after reading/watching them. Some good examples would be District 9, Chappie, Gallipoli, among others.

You might have noticed that all of these movies belong to other genres as well, and you'd definitely be right. Realism isn't technically a genre, but there's a group of people who are pushing it to become one, and it's gaining some momentum, so why not talk about it?

I personally think it's more of a writing style than genre, as everything people claim is realism can be fit into another genre. Heck, I didn't even know this existed until I visited a creative writing conference a year and a half ago. I learned about this, and that some realism writers consider some genres to be beneath them, such as sci-fi and fantasy. What do you think?

Nolafus said:

Here's a ~new~ genre that popped up relatively recently. Of course, that's what all the writers want you to believe, at least.
Realism is a genre where everything is more down to Earth, so to speak. What do you think?

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I think considering myself a writer would be pretty pretentious at this point, but I'd like to add my two cents. I completely agree with you, it's a writing style, not a genre. If someone puts a graphic and intentionally realistic content into a narrative it is simply for added effect. Though I get why people want to make it a genre, it is a thing of preference in writing, that doesn't have a category of it's own. I assume that makes it hard to find.

I often hear "realistic fiction" more than realism, which is pretty much the same thing? In either case, yeah I heard how a lot of authors looked down upon the fantasy and science fiction genre, which is very unfortunate. My friend (that I mentioned back in the dystopia thread) sometimes mentioned how she often get bored of writing realism/realistic fiction.

Checking the literary realism wiki article, Mark Twain and John Steinbeck are considered realism authors. I've read Huckleberry Finn and one of the few literature novels I enjoyed. Steinbeck's The Pearl on the other hand I didn't like too much for some reason.

I don't think I really read too much modern realism stories unless you count Tim O' Brien's The Things They Carried. It's a series of short stories of the main character during, before, and after the Vietnam War. The writing makes me heavily invested in the characters, the emotions, and the events that happened.

I haven't heard of the Realism genre before, nor the examples you've mentioned, Nolafus, although I think I grasp the concept of it. I think, based on what you said, that Realism classifies as more of a genre than writing style, 'cause it feels like more of a solitary thing than something that can fit into other genres.

Bay Alexison said:

I often hear "realistic fiction" more than realism, which is pretty much the same thing?

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I thought so too, but apparently they're slightly different. Whoever was explaining it to me lost me at that point, so I don't think I can explain it myself. Although I would imagine your examples would fit as well. Man, now I'm even more confused on what this genre is supposed to include, haha.

Yeah, I too am confused whether or not it overlaps/bears similarities to "realistic fiction". I think it's more of a writing style. If it were to become a genre, it would encompass a gargantuan number of books... I'm not even sure what I've read can fall under "realism" :o

I think realistic fiction attempts to tone down the spectacle and focus on the daily life or normally off-screen qualities of the story in order to make it more approachable. They go to great lengths to make the characters realistic, and attempt to give logical weight to every action, event, or piece of technology on the screen or page. Take District 9. It focuses on the struggles of an everyman to put his life back in order after it gets turned completely upside down. He's not trying to save the world or kill the bad guy, he's just trying to reverse what's happened to him. This is presented in the context of a setting that depicts uncomfortable but relevant social issues like xenophobia and social segregation. We see an alien peeing. We see realistic reactions to torture and murder of aliens. We see people being really, really awful, and they're awful not because they're omgwtfbbqevil, but because they've found themselves in a place of power and they're abusing it terribly.

That's not necessarily an apt description of realism, but I don't necessarily think realism has an apt description. It's hard to quantify things. I mean, is Star Wars science fiction or fantasy? Ultimately there's a spectrum. Where exactly a work falls on the realism scale is up to the creator and the viewer.