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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4787453" data-attributes="member: 40961">Pay more attention to the humanities.What? The problem isn't with having definitions or boundaries. Its with mistaking debates over the exact location of those boundaries with debates over the quality of material on either side. The usual "boundary policing that totally misses the point" argument in the realm of speculative fiction is when someone tries to precisely define science fiction, defines it as inherently involving social criticism and analysis in an imaginary environment, and tries to claim that a significant portion of what we call science fiction really is really fantasy, and a significant portion of what we call fantasy really is science fiction, all the while insinuating that science fiction is somehow better.  So you get credit for coming up with a new one, I guess.Has it occurred to you that this tactic might be viewed as dishonest and manipulative? Or to put it another way, had I responded using the same tactic, perhaps by broadsiding you with a tirade about how fantasy is really the voyage into new realms of the imaginary, and someone like yourself simply isn't psychologically prepared or capable of understanding newer fantasy because your voyage has long since sailed? You might find that offensive. And if I defended it by saying that I didn't really mean it, I was just throwing it out there to start a discussion, do you think that would satisfy you or just sound like a smarmy attempt at justifying blatant instigation?</blockquote>

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