Literary Speculation

I read The Distance of the Moon for this week’s assignment. The author of the work did not seem particularly bothered to remain in one genre or another, as if they just wanted to write something and see where it went. There are elements of fantasy, like the way everything floats through the air if it is close enough to the moon. The description of all of the marine life swirling around in the moon’s gravity was probably my favourite part of the story. There was an interesting mix of scientific ideas in the story as well, such as the moon slowly moving away from the earth as well as the moon’s effect on the tides. However, I would not consider this story to be science fiction. If I had to put it into a genre, I would put it into fantasy because of the bending of reality and juxtapositions of ideas that make the imagery of the story whimsical. Even the romantic parts of the story do not push it into the romance genre, as they feel more like contemplations on the human experience of attraction. I also thought that this story could be a modern mythology for the man, or woman, in the moon, since the captain’s wife stays on the moon and eventually becomes part of the moon in order to become what the deaf cousin loves the most.

The culmination of the elements of genre used, the imagery that is created, and the conclusion of the story that I interpreted lead me to think that this is more of a literary work than a genre work. The distinction is important only because I think that an author should make specific decisions and choices in order to make their work fit into a particular genre. Even if you want to challenge or twist or play with a certain genre you have to be conscious of what elements go into that that genre, and you have to make specific choices in order to achieve your goal for the text. In the case of The Distance of the Moon and other works that are similar, I think the author just had an idea that they wanted to express, and they used whatever tools and ideas that they had in order to do so. My experience of the text is a little different now that I’ve thought about it in reference to these questions. I’ve had to consider all of its elements a little more deeply, even though I did think about them as I read the story.