I would have loved to begin this piece by saying that what defines a writer (personality, style, outlook on life, perspective, thought patterns, etc) is the genre chosen by the writer to major on. And at first glance it seems rightly so. A writer that writes thrillers tends to see the uncanny message hidden in even the simplest things. A writer that writes romance tends to see the drama, or the sweetness, in the littlest things.
But the truth is; the same goes for the readers. Writers box themselves by writing a particular genre, thereby boxing the readers also. Readers won’t exalt any other genre above their favorite, and over time, this begins to shape the way they live, much like the writers whose work they consume. Very shortly, we begin to consider life in genres. Some people live for Adventure. Some live for Love (Romance). Some live for Mystery. Some live for Suspense, not knowing what comes next, taking life, and discovering it one step at a time. Some can’t have life without a little Drama. Some can’t have it without Comedy.
I unveil to us all, today, a new genre. And I call it Life. What writers have been able to do is break life into their favorite categories, but truth be told, Life is all genres. Ever ask yourself what summer and winter have in common. I have the answer; they are both seasons. While we feel comfortable as girls sitting in front of the glowing TV screen watching a chick flick, we cannot deny the fact that at one point or the other in our lives we have faced fear. While we as macho men are all about the whistling bullets peeling through the air, and the bar fights, we cannot deny the butterfly swirling in our tummies over that pretty, little damsel we have been trying to build the courage to talk to.
A genre is nothing but a section of life. When we pick a genre as our favorite, we shut our hearts and minds to the others. But in truth, Life is one big genre. In it we have ups and down, just like a rollercoaster. In it we find tragedies. In it we find joy. In it we find terror. In it we find comedy. In it we find war.
In it we find peace.
MiCH OLORUNFEMi 