“I don’t pay much attention to the distinction between fantasy and science fiction–or between ‘genre’ and ‘mainstream’ for that matter. For me, all fiction is about prizing the logic of metaphors—which is the logic of narratives in general—over reality, which is irreducibly random and senseless.
We spend our entire lives trying to tell stories about ourselves–they’re the essence of memory. It is how we make living in this unfeeling accidental universe tolerable. That we call such a tendency ‘the narrative fallacy’ doesn’t mean it doesn’t also touch upon some aspect of the truth.
Some stories simply literalize their metaphors a bit more explicitly.”
― Ken Liu
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Interviewer: Have you encountered any prejudice against genre fiction?
Carmen Machado: No, I actually get way more flak from certain kinds of genre readers – AKA very traditional genre readers – about how my work is insufficiently genre. I’m really interested in interrogating tropes and engaging with genres and messing with them in a way I find satisfying.