Hi there, Arthur Lizie asked about a good definition of film genre. I think that I have a good one. My definition is a corollary of Charles Sanders Peirce's pragmatistic maxim that goes something like Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearing, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object. It then follows that when we try to decide how to classify certain films to certain categories - or genres - we must only look at the "practical consequences" of a certain film. And then all the films that have similar effects belong to the same category or genre. It's as simple as that. And besides of the clarity of this idea we can get rid of all those obscure, ridicilous, and theoretically unsound "tautological" definitions of genre. I also think that my definition of genre has a very firm theoretical ground that Lizie finds missing in the current babbling. I'm trying to put together an article about this subject and I'd appreciate any comments and thoughts you may have. Juhana Stedt, Univ of Turku [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]