Overall, though, this one is fundamentally about house and associated genres, along with a generous dose of disco.
Indeed, some novels we now consider classics, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1819) and George Orwell's 1984 19488), contain many of the conventions we associate with genre fiction, albeit with creative twists.
It has a languorous quality not often associated with genre fiction.
In her review of Ian McEwan's new novel, "Saturday" (March 20), Zoe Heller praises McEwan for marrying "literary seriousness and ambition with a pace and momentum more commonly associated with genre fiction".
But calling something "speculative fiction" rather than "science fiction" serves another purpose: it avoids giving a novel (or movie) a label frequently associated with genre fiction -- that is, with lower-quality narratives that more-or-less predictably obey a set of associated conventions.
Atwood is no stranger to novels set in the future and that incorporate elements usually associated with genre fiction: her early and perhaps still best-known novel, The Handmaid's Tale (1985), is set in a future America where women's rights have been almost entirely obliterated.
Hunter's company, Told By An Idiot, is more closely associated with genre-defying devised work than rackety repertory scripts.
Missing are some of the low comedy and standard sexual high jinks -- the cheap soapy thrills -- that we associate with the genre, and which we might get from a show crafted by less gifted people.
Somehow, "Jane Got a Gun" fails to be scuffed by that sense of desperation, just as it forgets to cast an eye on the yawning spaces and enormous skies that we associate with the genre.
It should come as no surprise that hip-hop ruled the U.S. musical landscape this past year, with only a few names that don't typically associate with the genre finding their way onto any list.
