This...Might Be A Problem

I'm aware that I haven't made an update in quite some time. There's a perfectly good reason for that, and the reason is this: school started. I've been up to my neck in the beginnings of grad school for the past several weeks, and I can't say I'm altogether fond of it. Things didn't improve today when we had our first workshop session. I wrote one of the pieces that was workshopped, and while the class seemed to think highly of it in general, the professor didn't like it near as much.

Her major beef with it was that it was a genre story. Urban fantasy, specifically. She seems to think that the science fiction and fantasy genres are used as crutches by younger writers, especially those who feel insecure enough in their skill that they want to have something stable (like, say, genre conventions) to shore up the weak spots in their storytelling. She thinks my writing is better than that--which I'm afraid I can't exactly say is flattering, per se.

But that's all well and good. Her opinion is just as valid as mine, which in turn is just as valid as that of the next guy in line, particularly if the next guy in line happens to be an unmedicated drunken schizophrenic. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and she just happens to opine that genre writing is "lower class".

The problem of the post title is her assertion that one cannot piece together an MFA thesis with "this kind" of writing--by which I assume she means genre writing. This is a problem because I write nothing else. I'll do some moderately realistic/literary stuff when I'm writing for the stage, but beyond that it's all Weird Shit With Pretty Girls In. We spent a whole class period in this short story course talking about knowing what our material is, what we work best with and what we like to write...and my material is Weird Shit With Pretty Girls In. That's pretty much all it comes down to. And if I can't compose my thesis using those kinds of stories...I guess I'm not going to have a thesis, then.

So it would seem I'm at an impasse. The main thing that baffles me is that this woman, who was on the selection committee for the program, seemed to think that genre writing was not my standard schtick. Even though the story that I offered up as my writing sample was comic fantasy. It had a thief, and a princess, and a tower with a wizard in it! I can't fathom how it could have come off any other way. Aside from which, I included with the application the required letter talking about myself as a writer. Here is a direct quote from it:

I have a distinct leaning towards genre stories, especially fantasy and speculative fiction. I think that it is in the extreme conditions that these genres so often present that the best, most exciting, and most illuminating stories can be found.

...Does that sound like genre writing is not my standard schtick? I'm beginning to think that someone wasn't paying attention when they accepted my application.

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It's like when you're watching a play and someone walks on stage naked. You get used to it eventually--it just becomes another costume--but until then you're just sitting there going, "That guy's naked."