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Originally Posted by ATDrake
Writers who strike it rich/get literary acclaim by writing what's essentially a genre fiction book and then promptly try to deny that no-no-no-no *their* work was *never* meant to be part of said genre and they're shocked, *shocked!* that you could even *think* that make me laugh (and lose respect, but mostly laugh).
I don't know if Susanna Clarke ever made it to the bestseller lists in Canada, but she does get mostly filed in Fantasy in the libraries around here (those large enough to have separate genre sections for the hardcovers, that is).
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She certainly made it to the best seller lists in the US, and won the 2005 Hugo Award. I don't recall hearing that she ever
denied it was a genre work.
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I do think that fantasy is becoming more mainstreamed overall, what with all the popular movies based upon fantasy classics (Lord of the Rings) and the books becoming movies and TV (HP, Twilight, Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood, and apparently a series based on Terry Goodkind's books) and thus perhaps becoming perceived as more socially admittable for public reading outside the teen years, one hopes.
The public perception of SF, on the other hand, seems to still be stuck in a kind of Star Wars-y space ship battles and laser blasters and aliens with funny prosthetics mode. And I don't think the rename of the "SyFy" Channel helps make it look like anything other than for illiterates, sad to say.
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And it's an interesting observation. Out and out fantasy seems far more acceptable for the mass market than SF based on technological advances. The immense market for vampire fiction is an example.
I've certainly met people who read and enjoy fantasy but don't care for SF. It doesn't scratch their particular itch.
I suspect part of it might be the safety of distance: we
know fantasy
can't happen, so even the most terrifying stories are safely on the other side of a wall separating real life from the story. The throngs of girls getting vicarious thrills from Twilight can keep the imaginings safely in the realm of fantasy, where they can be enjoyed without risk.
Fiction based on advances in science and technology doesn't have that remove. At least the nearer term stuff
could happen, and might even
be happening.
I read both genres, and don't see a hard dividing line between them. There's a gray area where they overlap, and books where you can cheerfully argue about which category they should be placed in.
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Dennis