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Originally Posted by Joe
I think Iachimba means something like "cinematic" or "over-the-top", whereas I think I would ordinarily use "genre" just to specify the kind of story being told. To me it makes sense to say that there are genres that are "realistic", "mundane," "low-powered," "slice-of-life," or whatever.
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I often see "genre" used to mean distinctive categories of fiction that have some sort of special appeal. Thus for example science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero adventure, but also mystery, Western, spy stories, romance, and even pornography. It doesn't seem to be used for things that bookstores would put on the "general fiction" shelves, which includes such varied categories as historical fiction, naturalistic fiction, and slice of life. I'm perfectly willing to say that those are also genres, and indeed that every work of fiction has a genre (though some are sui generis!); but if someone says "genre" as a distinctive category I assume they mean the special interest classes of fiction.
Of course, to confuse things, there are works with fantastic elements that are not considered to be "genre." Hermann Hesse, William S. Burroughs, and Doris Lessing all wrote such works.