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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nisarg" data-source="post: 1919904" data-attributes="member: 19893">The lack of critical quality standards in the former, and the existence of "fanboys" (again in the former) intent on creating a commercial and cultural environment where said standards cannot occur.This has now evolved to the extent that an author can create a book with all the elements nescessary for science fiction or fantasy and yet  not be classified in that genre by the mere virtue of being written to a higher literary standard.  For example, Margaret Atwood's novels. They are taken seriously by literary critics: some like them, some don't, but they are considered. They are classified as a "fantastic story" or an "allegory using a future dystopia"; anything but actually calling them fantasy or sci fi. Why? Because real fantasy is Robert Jordan and real sci-fi are the star trek books. They aren't real literature and cannot be taken seriously by any serious critic.Is this because sci-fi or fantasy are inherently inferior genres? Not at all. Like I said, some of Atwood's novels ARE sci-fi or fantasy (they just don't tend to be called that).  In other cultures, Russia for example, science fiction was taken seriously since day 1, and writers like Stanislaus Lem were seen as masters of literature.There were (and even still are some) writers of sci-fi or fantasy that had all the talent and skill that, if life was fair, would have made them highly appreciated as writers, and not "just sci-fi writers". Roger Zelazny being a foremost example. Same with Philip K. Dick and many of the other "new wave" movement in sci-fi, which was really a desperate effort to make sci-fi legitimate as a genre. It failed, because just when it looked like it might succeed the fanboyism of sci-fi and fantasy exploded in the late 70s, ruining any hope that sci-fi or fantasy would be seen as serious writing for at least a generation.The problem is that publishers will publish just about any piece of garbage as a science fiction or fantasy novel. The standards are about zero, because the "fans", the readers, make no intellectual demands on the publishers. They'll buy anything.The other phenomenon in modern books that has this same demented attitude is Harlequin Romances. You can write following the same tired old formulas and will absolutely no concern for quality, and you will still sell. Because there is a huge base of fanboy..erm, fanwomen who will buy anything as long as it has a picture of Fabio in a pirate suit on the cover.Science Fiction and Fantasy have degenerated to the level of being seen intellectually in the same field as the Harlequin Romance. And those authors that wish to be taken more seriously than that have to either have been survivors of the "new wave" movement in the 70s (Most of whom are by now dead and dying), or you have to go out of your way to try to explain away all the fantasy or sci-fi elements in your novel to try to argue why your novel should be taken as real literature, and NOT fantasy/scifi.This is the fault of the fans. The guy who posted on this very thread saying that real literature is "boring" and that he doesn't read books (other than sci-fi) or even the news, is a perfect example of the disgrace that has brought down the legitimacy of this style of writing, and will continue to do so in the western world for at least a generation.Pathetic.Nisarg</blockquote>

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