Next verse, same as the first ...

[truepenny]

The evidence of the latest Ansible indicates that the mainstream is feeling threatened by genre fiction again (still).

I'd like to write something thoughtful and chewy about this trend, but I can't. I'm just baffled by it. And the most completely mystifying bit, to me, is the lengths mainstream reviewers will go to in order to disassociate books they admire from genres they scorn. Wouldn't it be easier just to admit that a genre is not defined by the lowest common denominator?

I know I oughtn't to try to apply common sense to this, but sometimes I just can't help myself.