When people used to ask, "Do you like Science Fiction?" I used to be able to say, "Yes." Now I have to say, "I like some of it." It's not a useful genre (not as, anyway) for me any more. I have to filter out the stuff with magic and monsters that gets lumped in with it. To me, a detective story has to have detecting. A mystery has to have mystery. And science fiction has to feature science. I'm even more picky in that I want the science to be plausible, based on known principles and reasonable extrapolations. If someone waves a flammerjator that magically solves a problem, I begin to lose interest.
Still, I don't mind if the genre mutates. It's just a label on a "shelf."
|