ext_6238 ([identity profile] coalescent.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] truepenny 2007-07-14 08:29 pm (UTC)

Now, I am not saying that science fiction, fantasy, and horror don't make up a category of literature. They do. But I think it's less a genre (a kind of story) than it is a thing for which there isn't a word, but which I'm going to call a modality.

The best laying-out of this argument I've seen is Farah Mendlesohn's introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction -- well worth seeking out.

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