Genre Fiction vs Literary Fiction

Hello world! Today we will be diving into a rather unspoken conflict among us all. That is: Genre Fiction vs Literary Fiction.


People read different types of books. That's a known fact. However, fiction books can be classified as either a genre fiction book or a literary fiction book. Genre Fiction are books that can generally be classified under a simple genre (i.e. horror, fantasy, sci-fi, ect). Literary fiction books are ones that aren't so easily classified under these. Some well known examples are the Sherlock Holmes series for genre fiction and The Catcher in the Rye for literary fiction. Now to summarize what the online community feels about this, many genre fans find literary books to be boring and the people who read them only doing so to be pretentious. Literary fans tend to think that genre books are written poorly and do not deserve any merit. Now obviously I'm taking the extremes of both sides here but you can probably see where either side is coming from. Genre fans will think "There's no way anyone actually enjoyed Great Expectations and anyone who reads it is just trying to look smart" and literary fans will think "How can some people even compare books like Eragon and the Hunger Games with books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and the Kite Runner?" Once again, keep in mind that I'm taking the extremes of both parties.

Now consider, what is your all time favourite (It's not spelled wrong, I'm Canadian | Je suis canadien) book? Where do you think your allegiances lie? For the intent of keeping this post as bias free as I can, I will not reveal my preference.

So what's the purpose of this post you ask? Well, I am hoping to clear up any stirring conflicts and help establish a clear definition for each and draw a border.

The major difference between genre fiction and literary fiction is that genre books have the intent of entertaining you. They are meant to whisk you away to this other world where you can escape reality and enjoy this world you are in now. Literary fiction on the other hand has the intent of sending a message, and idea, or sharing the author's feelings about the world. The book is used as a medium by the author to express something in the same way a painter would or a director. Now here's where it gets tricky, there is tons of overlap. Who's to say that a book can't be entertaining while still having a deeper message? The Catcher in the Rye is a great example of this overlap. You could read the book as a regular coming of age book and enjoy Holden's journey or you could read it and have it change your outlook on life. Both of these are achievable from the same book so what category does it fall under?

When things cross over like this, you should evaluate, what did you take away from this book more, entertainment or a message? And if you still can't make up your mind, screw it, it's probably a great book no matter it's category. Or just get a second opinion if you want to publicly voice your opinion.

Now that we've established some sort of distinguishment, let's address the major argument from either party.

First up, genre fiction fans who think literary fiction is pretentious. If you're a genre fiction fan who does not share this view, please continue reading because I do have some points that could benefit us all. The first thing we have to understand is that different people read books for different reasons. Some read as a source of entertainment much like tv or video games while others read to educate themselves about life and learn about other people's journeys through life and what they have learned. Both are valid reasons to read and in today's day and age where reading books is becoming less and less frequent, we shouldn't discourage anyone from from reading. Please understand that literary readers read so called pretentious books because it is a way of learning about the world that we are in. It's cool if you want to invest in learning about Middle-Earth but reading literary books is a way to learn about our world and honestly, it helps us avoid past mistakes and make more evaluated decisions in our own lives. Remember, that does not mean literary readers don't read for fun, it just means that they would rather explore their own world rather than another one.

Next, literary fans who disregard genre fiction as well written books. The reason so many literary fans feel this way is because there are simply more genre books than literary. This is because good and bad writers alike are able to publish genre books while literary writers cannot. Think about it this way, if a literary book is written in a subpar way, no one would read it and it would never get published. On the other hand, if a genre book is written subpar, it could still get published simply because the story is that captivating. Usually, these are the types of books that get marketed towards kids (*cough Magic Tree House *cough). Because of this, there are many genre books that well, are written poorly. That isn't to say that all genre books are written like this, just some are and still are able to get published. This is where literary fans think that genre books are not fine pieces of writing. Is there a valid cause of this misconception, yes, but that doesn't negate the misconception. There are definitely some genre fiction books that are still written well such as Ender's Game, and the Game of Thrones series. Another argument that literary fans use to show that genre fiction is not as good is that the majority of critically acclaimed or used for academic analysis books are literary. Simply put, there are a lot of books out there and it is easy to group all genre fiction together. Because of this, the process for choosing books for review and academic analysis often only selects from a pool of literary books. In summary, just because many genre fiction books are able to "get away" with being written poorly does not mean that they all are.

Whew, what a long entry we have today. If you're still reading, I would like to commend you. I have one last *brief point and if you're still with us, comment below your thoughts and I will 100% respond to you! This argument between genre and literary fiction is simply people with different appreciations and preferences arguing. The question boils down to, would you like to take a journey through an entertaining story or would you like to experience someone else's views and thoughts through life. Since the argument is quite universal, do you think that this border exists in other forms of art? Let's take movies for example, there are people who only like the watch explosion filled action movies (i.e. Fast Five) and Jennifer Aniston Rom-Coms as an entertaining escape from reality and there are others who watch classics (i.e. Dead Poet's Society) in hopes that they will learn something about life and often, themselves. Sound familiar?

That's enough from me now, leave your comments below (and I'll reply to all of them as a thanks for reading through this hunky piece), subscribe through email on the right side, and as always,

I'll catch y'alls next time.

Game Thoughts - Thomas Was Alone

Hey everybody. Today, I'm bringing you my thoughts on the indie platformer game: "Thomas Was Alone". Now, I know what you're thinking, isn't this supposed to be on movies? Well, this game is quite special because it is more than just a game you play for the mechanics, but a game that is truly a piece of art. Now let's begin. (Oh if you wanted some background music, here is the soundtrack. Click to listen while you read).

Thomas Was Alone was released in 2012, originally intended to be a flash web game. Now, it is available on Steam, mobile devices, and Playstation. With a first glance, it appears to be a budget run of the mill platformer. However, it looks simple because it is intended as a minimalist game. One look at the title screen shows that if the developers wanted, the game could have cool next-gen graphics, but instead, they willingly chose to have the game the way it is. Why? Because this game tells a story and sends a message that in one way or another will resonate with every one of us. I know this is probably the cheesiest thing you've ever read but you have to believe me here. If you play this game, please take a solid portion of time to play it, don't play it one level at a time on the toilet or something. The ambiance feel of the game's strange world mixed with the music is something so special and requires immense tweaking to get just right. And did they get it right? 100% yes. The atmosphere of the world makes you feel alone and tranquil, in a good way and a bad way. It's the type of feeling that compels you to go for a bike ride through downtown at 2am because why not.

An Ambient Setting

Clean Cut Menu

The game focuses on these block characters which all have their own unique abilities. Some can jump higher while some are smaller and can get into special places. Using them together, you solve puzzles that one would not be able to by itself. Each level starts with a narration by Danny Wallace describing the block's interactions. These little snippets are so fantastic that over time, you start to associate personalities with each of the blocks. It's truly something special when a game can make you call these block things by name and emotionally invest yourselves in them because they represent very real characters that all of us interact with or maybe are. They are all some sort of metaphor of a type of person, some fitting into some archetypes. There's the outcast, jock, but then there's more complicated characters. Over time, a story is formed. The interesting thing here is that it's not just some crappy story thrown into a video game but it's a story told through the medium of video games. The story is about friendship through all odds and how you don't always have to be alone. It's truly beautiful, there's conflicts both external and internal and then there's character development. All in all, it's about a group of strangers alone who come together and navigate an ever so punishing world to find where they fit in life. And they're just a bunch of blocks.

Once you finish this game, you feel this real connection with each and every member of the gang. It's one of the few games that I felt has made a profound impact on me as a person. And if you're still reading this, go and play - no experience the game now. You won't regret it.

Interacting with Others

Hey everybody, this post may contain some opinions that are unpopular so please try to keep an open mind while reading.

This past summer I've been dragged into the hit CBS reality show, Big Brother (as I am every year). The premise of the show is simple. There are 16 strangers that are locked away into a house, having no interaction with the outside world (no internet, books, phones) and each week, they vote to evict one of them until there is one left. The remaining HouseGuest (as they're called) wins $500,000. Now there are a lot of other things that go into the game so it isn't mindless voting. There are opportunities to win power throughout the week and the game becomes very political as a result. In order to win, HouseGuests end up becoming very deceiving, paranoid, and sneaky. Ever since I've started becoming sucked in, I started to notice these traits in everyday life.

Now before we go any further, I want to stress that the interactions that I'm discussing here aren't ones with people that you're close with but with acquaintances/strangers. If you're in school, I'm talking about the people you know but don't really interact with. The types of people where when you're talking to them, you are constantly restraining yourself from speaking freely because you worry about your appearance or image. There are some moments where I feel as if I'm just reading lines and acting out this "conversation" act with people. You know, the common "Hey how are you doing? I'm doing great, and you? Yeah me too". To me, conversation should be a time to get to know one another but it's become more and more common for a conversation to be a test if you can "fit in". If you're still confused on what I'm saying, consider this scenario. You're at a grocery store and someone's roudy kid (aged 9-12) comes up and spills juice all over you. The mother runs up and says something like "Oh so sorry about that". It is almost an unwritten rule that you pretend that it's no big deal even if it really is. Some kid just did something stupid and you're just supposed to say "Oh it's no big deal ma'am, I'm totally okay with this. I'm happy for this to happen everyday".

Why is it like this? Is it people becoming more sensitive or is it a courtesy thing? It's already pushing the boundaries to decline someone's advice because they will likely get offended or something. I feel like I'm playing Big Brother 24/7 where I have to watch what I say and I make decisions purely to further a friendship or improve my image. I don't even want to get into peer editing in English Class. I can barely even give honest opinions, much less expand on it.

Now my opinion on what people (and you) should do.

1. Don't judge people based off small things said. There's a common phrase which is "actions speak louder than words". If someone who acts kindly towards you accidentally slips out a contrasting opinion to yours, don't get mad at them for having a different opinion or view. If they have made efforts to comfort or make you happy, understand that they truly care about how they appear to you and there's no reason to hold that against them.

2. Think twice before you speak. While it may appear that I am trying to get people to be more willing to take "negative" opinions, also know that unless necessary, there's really no need to constantly vent out your true thoughts. It is human nature to feel uncomfortable if someone is vastly different than you, there's no changing that. So if there's no need, you really shouldn't be bringing up controversial topics with people out of the blue. That being said, when it matters, make sure to voice your opinion.


*NOTE TO READERS:

Sorry everybody for another substantial hiatus, the school year has started and I've been busy. Another thing, I understand that this piece was rather poorly written with thoughts everywhere, I wrote this one over the course of several weeks so that's why my thoughts are not as well collected as they usually are. As the regular schedule of school settles in, I will find time to continue this blog because it is honestly very fulfilling to work on. So I have a couple of drafts still that are pretty close to being finished so expect a Movie Thoughts soon. Thanks y'all!

Preserving a Moment

Hey all, sorry AGAIN for the absence. My family and I are currently on vacation in South Korea. Today's topic comes from something that I've encountered a lot while on vacation. And that is people desperately trying to save a moment for later and losing it in the process. That probably makes no sense so as per usual, I'll do a random line break and start a new paragraph where I go into detail.

When experiencing things that one has never before, it is almost customary these days to take a picture. If one has never seen snow, it can be assumed that when that particular individual does see snow, they will take a selfie with the snow in the background or whatever. I myself am an avid photographer so I can appreciate and understand this. However, there are some instances where this "preserving" of a moment should not take priority over actually experiencing it. Yesterday, I went to a banquet and at the end of the meal, there was a traditional Korean dance performance. There were many people in the room so it was already quite hard to see everything that was going on. That's when I noticed that the reason I couldn't see anything was because around 40% of the attendees were standing on their chairs with their cameras raised over their head recording the performance. The filmers all arched their head back to the point where it looked painful just see that they were getting a nice shot. These people where so intently focused on their recording they didn't even blink an eye when the highlight of the performance happened because they didn't even notice. I mean, if you're going to have the option of watching the performance first hand or watching a shaky recording of it, why would you choose the latter? I see this happening way too often, soon enough you'll see people going to a concert with friends only to record it! I mean who does tha-- oh wait. At the same time however, if you can record something while not distracting yourself and others, go for it. I mean, why not? I'm never going to be 100% against or for something because it is a rarity for things in life to work that way. (just contradicted myself there by saying never). There's always a happy medium. My main problem is with people that are so worried about losing a moment that they focus so hard on preserving it that they lose it entirely. If you're not totally confused on what my advice is to you and where I stand on this matter, just take this for a summary:

Take each moment in life as it comes and if it is something truly special, you will remember it better than any picture or video can.  

Movie Thoughts - Guardians of the Galaxy

Hey all, I'm thinking of starting a new "series" ish thing. One of my personal interests is media. Whether it's tv, movies, or music, I love it all. Well, then again, it's pretty hard to find someone who isn't interested in either of the three. Anyways, I thought it would be fun if I talked about my thoughts on movies that I've watched recently. So if you would be interested in reading that kind of stuff, please comment below. Oh, and also comment whether you want the thoughts to include spoilers or not.

To start off this potential series, I am going to be giving you my thoughts on the new Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. I chose this movie because it is not plot driven at all so I can do a spoiler free-ish review while still talking about certain points in the movie. And that bring me to the first thing that I really enjoyed about this movie. The characters.

Guardians of the Galaxy does a fantastic job indulging the audience into all the characters and their respective backgrounds. Although Groot (big tree thing) doesn't really talk in the movie, you still learn his character and for some reason, find a connection with him. This is where I found Avengers fell apart a little. Aside from Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, I honestly was not interested in the rest of the gang and couldn't care less about them. I don't know if it's the goofy mood of the movie or something else, but you will truly care about these characters and be invested in their storylines. Without giving away too much, the five main characters all have their own identifiable personalities with quirks. Pretty much after watching the movie, I could write you a line from the movie and you could identify the speaker just by the content of the words. This is one you may know before watching the movie. "I am Groot" Wanna guess who says that one?



The next thing I want to discuss is the very unique approach to a superhero movie that we see in Guardians of the Galaxy. Unlike other sci-fi/fantasy superhero/fighting - esque movies that we see a lot today (Star Wars, Superman, Thor, Star Trek, Green Lantern), this movie takes itself as a enjoyable fun comedy that will make you laugh rather than feel too tense. Don't get me wrong, I love a thrilling and thought provoking action movie as much as anyone else (Dark Knight right? Whoop whoop) but aside from more modern day action movies such as Kick-Ass, Guardians of the Galaxy is the first movie I've watched where the sci-fi thing is taken as a joke. One of my favourite scenes is in the trailer where StarLord (AKA Peter Quill) is caught by this guy and he tries to sound cool by saying he is also known as STARLORD in which the other guy is unaware of the name. It probably isn't funny in words but click here to actually watch it (I already sent it to the right scene, I gotcho back homie). It was pretty refreshing to see a movie question the ridiculousness of some sci fi names (I'm looking at you Khan). All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy serves as a nice break from the oh so common dark movies that we see a lot of now.

Who?

Finally, I want to discuss the actual plot. I already said how the movie isn't plot driven. That pretty much means that the majority of the movie is the characters interacting with each other and developing their personalities rather than it consisting of this crazy journey (which does happen). I'm not saying that the entire movie takes place in one room or anything because there is a pretty big adventure across the galaxy but that isn't the main thing that stuck out to me in the movie. The first thing I said to my friends (who were watching it with me) after the lights turned on wasn't "Wow what a chase" but one of the jokes one of the characters said that was my favourite. I heard that there is a sequel planned already so I'm expecting that one to focus more on plot. All in all, the plot is not the main gem from this movie but that's okay because it is the origin story of the group.

To conclude, Guardians of the Galaxy is a character-centric comedy superhero movie that was an enjoyable and fun ride throughout all 2 hours and 2 minutes. It is unique because it breaks away from the popular dark hero origin story that although is good, requires a break from time to time. If you're looking for a good time, Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a movie for you.

Make sure to comment below on which movie you want me to talk about next and I'll catch you guys next time!

A Rather Alarming Story/PSA

I've been gone again haven't I? Well, last week, my family and I went to New York State to stay at a cottage. Interestingly, we stayed not too far away from the place that Tony Stewart killed a man during a race. We were going to go watch the race originally but we ended up not going. Anyways, that gives you an idea of where we were staying. So after coming back from the cottage, I was ready to re immerse myself into the digital world like all people do after sometime away from it all. And then something alarming happened.

I had decided to start by checking Facebook to catch up with my friends and such. It was a pretty typical day on Facebook with the constant scrolling with the occasional funny picture or so. I should probably introduce two characters here before continuing. I will change the names here for privacy reasons. Person A, or "Adam" and Person B, or "Bobby". If you have read my introduction a while back, you would know that I spent around 2 years as an international student. While there, I met people from around the world. I met Adam and Bobby during this time but Adam and Bobby had never interacted with each other. Years have passed and Adam and Bobby are several countries away from each other yet they have become "friends" with each other on Facebook by adding all their suggested friends.

So while browsing Facebook, I see a picture that Adam posted with him and his friends. That's when I notice an overlay over the picture, saying: "Would you like to tag Bobby"? That was really strange to me because how and why did Adam write that without knowing Bobby? Hovering over the yes-no of the suggestion showed me that they had boxed out one of the people in Adam's picture as Bobby. Now this was obviously not actually Bobby but someone who looked strikingly similar to him. That's when I realized that Facebook analyzed everyone in Adam's picture and when I viewed it, they compared the analyzed faces to our mutual friends. Since one of the people in Adam's picture looked like Bobby, they thought that Bobby was the person in Adam's photo and thought to do me a favour by letting me tag Bobby with a simple click. This may seem like a cool feature that Facebook has implemented but is it really?

What does this event show Facebook knows already? This means that Facebook knows what all of its users look like based off of analyzing and recording all tagged photos. It knows how we look to the point that it can identify a user in a picture almost perfectly.

What does this implicate in the future? This technology is quite powerful and it will definitely be used in the future. There are good and bad things that can come from this. In terms of "good", there are a lot of cool services that can be made a reality. One that I thought of off the top of my head is shopping. For example, if you wanted to see how a certain jacket looks on you, this technology could possibly generate a model/image of you in the jacket so you can see if you want it. On the otherhand, if Facebook sells this information (like it does with a lot of other user info), ads could become a little creepy/annoying if a picture of you in the Bahamas pops up in every page saying "LIVE YOUR DREAMS" or something like that. Another useful service Facebook could make is and identification service. If a someone robs a bank and it's on security tape, the service (if sophisticated enough) could help identify the robber. It's like something straight out of modern day spy movies. But like the shopping service, there may be some sort of ethical line being crossed if this becomes a reality. The main cons I see with this service being more prominent in the future is the loss of privacy and anonymity. People are already complaining about how their IP is always being tracked and the whatnot but if your facial details and physical measurements are being recorded, is it that much of a stretch? I personally think that recognizing faces is not that much of a stretch from recording where you are and your interests (like Facebook already does) but ethically, this discussion should have never happened. Ever since Snowden, it's a well known fact that online privacy is no longer a thing. Simply by opening any webpage, someone somewhere can find out where you are. This should not have ever happened (ethically speaking) but there is too much potential for business with the technology so it happened. The same thing applies to facial recognition. We can get the cool services that I listed above but with it, we're giving away another part our ever diminishing online privacy. And with that, I leave you to make up your decision whether or not facial recognition is crossing the border.

TL;DR Don't get Facebook


For More Info on Tagging Suggestions that Facebook implemented in 2013, click here.

My Backyard

My backyard, a place of solace, a home for many. While my backyard is among dozens of others, it is a favourite location for countless creatures. Why is this significant to me?

Panorama during a chilly fall morning

There is something about wild animals that I envy. I tend to believe that it is their contrasting lifestyle to humans. While humans are typically guaranteed life and protection from natural dangers, wild animals live free. While they can do whatever they wish whenever, there is still the constant struggle for life. The struggle that humans have forgotten about long ago. Every day (especially for smaller creatures such as rabbits, squirrels, ect) could be their last so they must constantly focus on staying alive. Whether that is gathering food in anticipation of a cold and long winter or getting ready to run when a twig snaps, life always hangs in the balance. Though they may live shorter in the wild than in captivity, wild animals live fast and fierce. They don't sit around stressing about something that may or may not happen in a couple of months, they take every second of their lives as a reward for their previous actions. So when a rabbit comes in my backyard with his friend to play tag, eat, and sleep, I know that out of all the places he could be, the dozens of other backyards he could go, he chose my backyard. Most people concern themselves with how green the grass is and how well bloomed the tulips are. I don't worry about that because I know the rabbit could be anywhere but he still chooses to come to my backyard.

And for me, that is enough to say that my backyard is the best.

Here are some pictures of the animals enjoying the backyard: