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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 2344588" data-attributes="member: 5171">I can sorta see both sides. I don't disagree that SF can do those things, and that it's possible that some of those things are things that SF is built specifically to do. On the other hand, you can also do those things in novels that couldn't be considered SF. You could write a historical fiction novel about a guy exploring the rainforests of South America, and you could get into a study of the sense of wonder (seeing new places), the notions of humanity (dealing with natives and coming to terms with own issues), the genie in a bottle (cutting down rainforests and losing naturally healing plants to get lumber, or illness spreading through the native population because of the explorer's actions), and so forth. It wouldn't be an SF novel, but several SF critics would try to adopt it as such simply because it fit the parameters.Which is why I tend to roll my eyes at literary critics, generally speaking. If you can get some guy exploring South America into the SF section while keeping Christopher Moore's zombie-making angels, man-eating demons, sexy vampires, talking fruit bats, and love-needin' sea serpents in the LitFic section, you've gone clearly into silliness and would be better served by just writing "Stuff we think has value" and "Entertainment Drivel" on the bookshelves.At least then, I'd be able to stay in the entertainment-drivel area. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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