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1. UNIT 6 Genre Fiction Click the mouse button or press the space bar to continue

2. UNIT MENU Unit Menu Introducing the Unit Genre Focus: Genre Fiction Literary Analysis Model: The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin Wrap-Up

3. INTRODUCTION Genre fiction is a flexible term used to group works of fiction that have similar characters, plots, or settings. Bookstores and libraries often shelve some of their fiction by genre categories—for example, romance, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Different from myths and folktales, genre fiction does not emerge from the oral traditions of cultures, nor is it usually rooted in history. Mysteries are often set in the present, fantasies in an indeterminate past or a distorted present, and science fiction in a distant future. This unit includes genres that reveal the unlimited potential of the human imagination.

4. INTRODUCTION The Extraordinary and Fantastic Imagine a world where extraordinary things happen. Imagine traveling to distant galaxies or living in a world where dreams become real. The fantasy and science fiction stories in Part 1 will expand your imagination. As you read these tales, ask yourself: What makes these stories so appealing?

5. INTRODUCTION The Uncanny and Mysterious Trying to figure out the ending is part of the fun of reading mysteries. The mysteries in Part 2 offer devious schemes, clever criminals, and much that is uncanny and mysterious. As you read these mysteries, ask yourself: What clues do I have now? What do they suggest about how the story will end?

7. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION What are science fiction, modern fables, and mystery? This unit includes four kinds of genre fiction: science fiction, fantasy, modern fable, and mystery. Writers of these kinds of fiction use all of the techniques of good storytelling. The writers create unusual settings and characters, intriguing plot patterns, and use vivid descriptions to draw readers into imagined worlds or investigations. Often, writers of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery create characters who appear in subsequent works, where the story develops further. In this way, genre fiction writers create series.

8. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Types of Genre Fiction Science Fiction Science fiction is fiction that deals with the impact of science and technology—real or imagined—on society and individuals. Sometimes occurring in the future, science fiction commonly portrays space travel, exploration of the planets, and future societies or scientific and technological advances.

9. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Types of Genre Fiction Fantasy Fantasy is a highly imaginative type of fiction, usually set in an unfamiliar world or a distant, heroic past. Fantasy stories may include people, but they often include gnomes, elves, or other fantastical beings or supernatural forces. The use of magic is common in fantasy stories.

10. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Types of Genre Fiction Fable A fable is a brief, usually simple story intended to teach a lesson about human behavior or to give advice about how to behave. Themes in fables are often stated directly. Modern fables also focus on themes relating to human behavior, with little development of individual characters.

11. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Types of Genre Fiction Mystery The genre of mystery includes a variety of types, all of which follow a standard plot pattern. Spy stories are often mysteries, as are tales of danger or adventure. A detective story usually follows a standard plot pattern—a crime is committed and a detective searches for clues that lead him or her to the criminal. Any story that relies on the unknown or the terrifying can be considered a mystery.

12. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Style and Tone Style, Voice, and Diction The expressive qualities that distinguish an author’s work, including word choice, sentence structure, and figures of speech, contribute to style. Voice, an author’s distinctive use of language to convey the author’s or narrator’s personality to the reader, is determined by elements of style. Diction, the writer’s choice of words, is an important element in the writer’s voice or style.

13. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Style and Tone Attitude Tone is the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject. Tone is conveyed through elements such as word choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and figures of speech. A writer’s tone may be sympathetic, objective, serious, ironic, sad, bitter, or humorous.

14. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Style and Tone Imagery and Description Imagery refers to descriptive language that appeals to the senses. Authors carefully select details, creating “word pictures” that evoke an emotional response. Imagery can create new worlds for the reader or present a fresh perspective on this world. Description is a detailed portrayal of a person, place, thing, or event. Good description is especially important in genre fiction to help the reader imagine unfamiliar times and places.

15. GENRE FOCUS: GENRE FICTION Style and Tone Sensory Details Authors use evocative words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—in order to create effective images.

17. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Literary Element Analyzing Genre What makes “The Happy Man’s Shirt” a modern fable? Answer:It is one author’s modern retelling of an old folktale that has the main purpose of expressing a moral judgment related to current attitudes toward happiness.

18. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Literary Element Analyzing Genre What elements of fantasy does the story have? Answer:Its setting is an imaginary land.

19. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Evaluating Author’s Purpose What is the moral of the fable? Answer:Happiness does not depend on external possessions but on a state of mind.

20. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Analyzing Style and Tone What patterns in Calvino’s style do you notice, and what effects do they have? Answer:Calvino uses repetition as the king continues to ask if people are happy; this technique builds suspense. The use of dialogue throughout adds drama and immediacy.

21. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Analyzing Style and Tone What is Calvino’s tone toward his characters? Answer:He uses an objective tone, which allows readers to identify with the characters.

22. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Analyzing Style and Tone What is the effect of ending of the story with “The happy man wore no shirt”? Answer:The simple, direct statement is surprising and makes the reader think.

23. The Happy Man’s Shirt retold by Italo Calvino translated by George Martin LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Check Evaluating Would you say that Calvino’s stylistic choices were successful in “The Happy Man’s Shirt”? Explain your answer. Answer:You will probably agree that Calvino’s style is successful, that his choices create a unified and memorable work of fiction. You may cite the appeal of the story’s structure, dialogue, word choice, and imagery.

25. WRAP–UP Elements of Genre Fiction • Imagery • Imagery paints “word pictures” in the reader’s imagination. • Sensory • Sensory details appeal to the reader’s five senses. • Voice • Voice tells the reader about the author’s or narrator’s personality.

26. WRAP–UP Elements of Genre Fiction • Tone • Tone communicates the author’s or narrator’s attitude toward the audience or the subject matter. • Diction • Diction refers to the words the author chooses. • Style • Style refers to all the choices the author makes and includes voice, diction, and tone.

27. WRAP–UP Guide to Reading Genre Fiction • Identify the genre category. • Evaluate your enjoyment as you read. • Pay attention to characters, settings, plot development, and themes, as you do with other genres of fiction. • Evaluate the consistency with which the author creates the imaginary world. • Notice elements of the author’s style.

29. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description How does a fantasy or science fiction writer help you experience events and scenes that are imaginary? The writer might use imagery to create “word pictures” that evoke an emotional response. Or the writer might use sensory details, or evocative words or phrases that appeal to your senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.

30. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Read the excerpt from Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” on page 1118 of your textbook. Notice how specific the details are in Bradbury’s description of an advertisement for a service that transports people back in time. When writers vividly describe places, things, people, and events, readers can imagine them as if they were real.

31. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Figurative Language Figurative Language is language that uses figures of speech, or expressions that are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level. Figurative language includes simile, metaphor, and personification.

32. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Figurative Language Simile A figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things is a simile. Similes can make descriptions understandable to readers. In the passage on the next slide, notice how the writer uses a simile to describe a fictitious place, known as the Dead Place.

33. How shall I tell what I saw? The towers are not all broken—here and there one still stands, like a great tree in a forest, and the birds nest high. —Stephen Vincent Benét, from “By the Waters of Babylon” LITERARY FOCUS

34. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Figurative Language Metaphor A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things is a metaphor. A metaphor suggests an underlying similarity between the two things compared. Unlike a simile, it does not use like or as. Notice how this metaphor gives a sense of the direction of time travel in the story:

35. Time was a film run backward. —Ray Bradbury, from “A Sound of Thunder” LITERARY FOCUS

36. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Figurative Language Personification A figure of speech that gives human qualities to an animal, an object, a force of nature, or an idea is personification. Writers use personification to explain, expand, and create vivid images.

37. The fluorescent light flickers sullenly, a / pause. But you command. It grabs / each face and holds it up / by the hair for you, mask after mask. —Denise Levertov, from “People at Night” LITERARY FOCUS

38. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Description Figurative Language Imagery Good descriptive writing uses imagery—language that appeals to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Imagery helps to create an emotional response in the reader. An example is on the next slide.

39. But the giant squid is real, growing up to lengths of at least 60 feet, with eyes the size of dinner plates and a tangle of tentacles lined with long rows of sucker pads. —William J. Broad, from “One Legend Found, Many Still to Go” LITERARY FOCUS

40. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Style and Tone Tone and the author’s style contribute strongly to the appeal of many mysteries. Writers may adopt a detached, no-nonsense tone or create a sense of danger or foreboding.

41. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Style and Tone Style Style is the distinctive way that an author uses language and the expressive qualities to distinguish his or her work. Word choice, the length and arrangement of sentences, the use of figurative language and imagery, and dialogue all contribute to an author’s style. In the passage from “The Witness for the Prosecution” below, Christie uses relatively short sentences and few modifiers.

42. Indeed, as a solicitor, Mr. Mayherne’s reputation stood very high. His voice, when he spoke to his client, was dry but not unsympathetic. “I must impress upon you again that you are in very grave danger, and that the utmost frankness is necessary.” Leonard Vole, who had been staring in a dazed fashion at the blank wall in front of him, transferred his glance to the solicitor. LITERARY FOCUS

43. “I know,” he said hopelessly. “You keep telling me so. But I can’t seem to realize yet that I’m charged with murder—murder. And such a dastardly crime too.” —Agatha Christie, from “The Witness for the Prosecution” LITERARY FOCUS

44. “The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency.” —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” LITERARY FOCUS Notice the longer, more complex sentences in the example below.

45. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Style and Tone Diction An important element of an author’s style or voice is diction, a writer’s choice of words. Good writers choose their words carefully to convey a particular meaning or feeling. Look for unusual word choices in the passage on the next slide, in which Jimmy Valentine is being released from prison.

46. “[Jimmy] had on a suit of the villainously fitting, readymade clothes and a pair of the stiff, squeaky shoes that the state furnishes to its discharged compulsory guests.” —O. Henry, from “A Retrieved Reformation” LITERARY FOCUS

47. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Style and Tone Figurative Language Language or expressions that are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level are called figurative language. Figurative language includes figures of speech such as metaphor and simile. Here, a detective employs metaphor and simile to comment on a crime scene where a safe has been robbed.

48. “That’s Dandy Jim Valentine’s autograph. He’s resumed business. Look at that combination knob—jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather.” —O. Henry, from “A Retrieved Reformation” LITERARY FOCUS

49. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Style and Tone Suspense Suspense is a feeling of curiosity, uncertainty, or dread about what is going to happen next. In this example from “The Witness for the Prosecution,” a lawyer introduces an incriminating fact, contributing to the suspense:

50. “Are you not aware, Mr. Vole, that Miss French left a will under which you are the principal beneficiary?” LITERARY FOCUS