Creativity: Transcending Genre

Creativity can find its expression not just in fantasy or science fiction. Imaginative approaches make for remarkable works of conventional fiction—literary fiction or whatever we chose to call it. Taking a standard form and giving it a creative twist is an operation of enduring masterpieces. It also can make for powerful literature, as we shall see in our example for today’s blog.

When I list my ten favorite novels—or the ten novels that have changed my viewpoint and are embedded in my memory as moving and profound, and as exemplars of fictional craft—One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) usually gets the #1 spot.. As you might glean from the title and the author’s name, it is a Russian novel (but a short one, about 150 pages). Written in 1962, it helped bring about the fall of the repressive Soviet Union. 

We could go into a lot of detail about the novel, but what I want to focus on is its creative innovation. This novel emerged out of the great mass of Russian literature to become an international bestseller because of its creative approach to the genre—the fiction category it fits into.

That category is political literature. I detest political literature. Political novels, stories, and poems resemble listening to an evangelist who is trying to convert you. The authors in political novels preach. Like most preachers, they offer simple analyses of complex issues, valorize their side in the debate, and vilify the opposition. Political fiction is, for this reason, boring and predictable (politically oriented poetry is even worse).

A second genre category the novel fits in is the prison novel. Ivan Denisovich is an inmate in a Siberian prison camp for political dissidents.

Here is where it gets creative.

The author does not paint a dire, shocking, disheartening picture of prisoners toiling in the subzero landscape of the gulag work camp—well, not exactly. They are working in freezing cold in a desolate place and have no rights and are oppressed. But the novel is . . .  funny, hopeful, winsome, and charming. How can a novel about prisoners in a detention camp in northern Russia be charming? This is what Solzhenitsyn’s creative art managed to do. 

Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 The point of view character is Ivan Denisovich (that would be John Denison in English). He is your typical, average Russian dude—blue collar, uneducated, but possessing the simple good average Joes often possess. This is Solzhenitsyn’s first creative marvel. Rather than creating a suffering, bitter, cynical prisoner who rails against the political forces depriving him of liberty, he presents a patient, humble, shrewd, adroit man with the wisdom of a peasant who capably navigates the treacherous currents of prison camp life. Ivan is the Artful Dodger of the gulag. He does well—as well as one can do in such an environment. This unexpected protagonist who breaks out of the typical character mold for this sort of novel is compelling and fascinating. One approaches the text expecting a litany of despair. Instead, the reader falls in love with a funny, bright, man, simple but remarkable in his insight and ability.

Next, Solzhenitsyn makes the novel an allegory and yet keeps it tone modern and realistic. Ivan is an Everyman character; and, as in medieval allegory, there are lots of allegorical figures:  Buinovsky, the Captain; Turin, the Squad Leader; Tzezar, the Artist; Alyosha, the Baptist; Fetikov, the Jackal (or the Scavenger); Gopchik, the Kid. All have been imprisoned on false charges, just as Ivan Denisovich has. Allegorical figures in medieval literature are wooden and one-dimensional. These characters, however, are human and real. This is another of the book’s creative surprises.

Lastly, Solzhenitsyn creatively interdicts expectation by transforming the book from what one assumes will be a grim, dreary text about oppression and brutality into something else. Don’t get me wrong. It is about oppression and brutality, but his creative approach changes it over to a celebration of the human spirit. The system has broken none of these characters. The human spirit is stronger than the oppressive forces that would crush it. Evil is stupid, clumsy, and unimaginative; good is innovative, sly, and triumphant. The human spirit is strong. In the end, it will win.

And it did win! One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich called worldwide attention to the crimes of Soviet regime. In the 1980s, that government collapsed. The Soviet Union became Russia once more. Solzhenitsyn’s book, many contend, was instrumental in bringing this collapse about by exposing the nature of the government ruling Russia at that time. 

Scene from a film version of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Creativity is powerful.

I’ll have more on this, and on literary fiction that pitched creative curve balls, in my next blog.

I'd love to have you look at the books I have written for your enjoyment.

Order a copy of The Prophetess or Strange Brew.

If you're into more traditional fantasy, pick up a copy of my full-length fantasy novel, The Sorceress of the Northern Seas.

More to come on creativity.