Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hey, y'all Welcome to my mini lecture on genre.
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I am super excited to transition into this next phase of our english 101 course.
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We are going to be listening to a
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true crime nonfiction podcast together called cereal.
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And first we need to consider what genre serial falls into.
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And when I say genre,
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I'm referring to a particular style of writing or artwork or
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media that shares a set of characteristics that are recognizable.
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So consider some of these really common genres like core romance or comedy.
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You know when you're watching a comedy, right,
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the movie is funny or at least it's trying to be funny.
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Hopefully you are laughing and you know when you're watching
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a horror movie because well if you're like me,
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you're hiding behind a blanket with your eyes squeezed shut.
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So that's what a genre is a particular type of
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writing or media with characteristics that we can recognize.
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Now let's consider the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
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So while fiction is created from the imagination.
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Take, for example, Haruki Murakami's short stories,
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we can't assume that any of Murakami's stories are based on real life.
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Though many authors do clean inspiration from the world around them.
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Nonfiction, however, is based on real people, real events,
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real stories that occurred in the real world.
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Keyword real, in other words, fictional work does not claim to be true.
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While nonfiction does claim to be true and based in reality as we understand it.
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So that distinction between fiction and nonfiction is really important.
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As we begin listening to season one of the serial podcast,
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which is a nonfiction investigative documentary
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that has split into multiple episodes.
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It's nonfiction that still tells a story.
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So it's based in narrative but it's a
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story about real people and that's the difference.
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That's the key
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serial also falls into the true crime genre.
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The narrator is examining a crime
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that's taken place in the real world.
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The murder of Haman Lee is real.
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Adnan Syed's imprisonment is real.
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Sarah.
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Our narrator is also real and honest as she attempts to investigate this
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crime from so many different angles while still trying to maintain her objective
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um perspective
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and true crime is super popular in our society.
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We see true crime podcast series, books, netflix,
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netflix documentaries like making a murderer or the jinx and as a culture,
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we are fascinated by true crime.
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But the true crime genre is also really controversial.
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Sarah and her cereal team are trying to tell
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this story and talk about this murder case in
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a way that honors the fact that everybody is
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a real person and everything happened to real people.
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They're really walking a fine line between honest investigation and exploitation
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because that's something the serial team has
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been occasionally accused of sensationalizing a murder.
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So keep this genre shift in mind as you continue with your cereal listening journey.
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These are real people. A murder actually took place until next time. Keep list