Menadue

It is interesting that Margaret Atwood’s rejection of the label ‘science fiction’ for her novels is actually at odds with the general perception of readers, an indicator that regardless of the position of an author on the nature of their work, it is the public who define it – even when bookshops put it on shelves in other categories. An example of this can be seen in the comments on this Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/14/margaret-atwood-road-to-ustopia

Something that is very clear in the works of Ursula K. LeGuin – which serve predominantly as commentary on issues of a recognisably human nature discussed in non-real settings…

As a matter of interest, the first major work of digital literary criticism was based on analysis of the works of Jane Austen – Computation into criticism: a study of Jane Austen’s novels and an experiment in method (1987) – ground breaking for its time.

American Family (shot in 1971, aired in 1973) might be considered to be the first ‘reality’ TV show, so the genre is actually quite old. The first ‘big brother’ type show, certainly in the UK, was The Living Soap, filmed by the BBC in Manchester in 1993 and featuring a student house. The Living Soap featured many of the editorial techniques that are familiar now – telephone voting and ‘the diary room’ concept. It’s interesting to consider how the genre has both retained historic features and changed over time – although the changes seem to be relatively minimal.