LNH: Legion of Net.Heroes Vol.2 #23

[Lalo Martins]

Also spracht Tarq (Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:38:04 +0000):
> Just to throw in some two cents here, but I wouldn't actually say that
> 'musical' was a genre -- rather a mixing of two or three media (music,
> dance and theatre/film, depending on the case). While many musicals are
> comedic ('Crazy for You'), others are really rather tragic ('West Side
> Story'), and others still are open to interpretation; 'Someone's Son'
> would be my preferred example, though 'The Sound of Music' is probably
> better known.

I'm with Tarq on this one.  I'd add that Sci-Fi isn't a genre either, and 
then we could extend the list with super-heroes, westerns, war stories, 
and probably more.

I guess more useful would be to describe works in a multi-dimensional 
way.  Something like:

Story genre: drama, horror, mystery, action, humour, etc

Narrative/setting devices: sci-fi, magic, western, war, super-hero, etc

Medium focus: acting, music, dance, martial arts, what I call "non-human 
performance" (car chase, aircraft or spacecraft dogfights or piloting 
stunts, etc), imagery, and why not, sex

And of course, on any of those dimensions, one given work may "tick" on 
more than one choice.  In fact, the best sci-fi (in my opinion) always 
does that; to go with easy examples, B5 uses sci-fi and war story 
devices, while Serenity uses sci-fi and western.

best,
                                               Lalo Martins
-- 
      So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
       then they seem improbable, and then, when we
       summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
                           -----
                  http://lalomartins.info/
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