An author among my mutuals recently made a comment on Twitter with which I disagreed, and only too late, after expressing my disagreement, I realized I was diving back into the endless debate over what defines a genre.
So, here is the original comment from Misha Burnett:
Setting is not story.
I love SF/F Mysteries. Unfortunately, too many times the Mystery part revolves around the SF/F part.
That’s not necessary, and it makes for predictable and dull mysteries.
— Misha Burnett is wising up the rubes. (@MishaBurnett) February 19, 2021
And this was my reply:
Hard disagree. If your sf setting is not important to your story, why do you have an sf setting?
This is the opposite of C.S. Lewis’s complaint that science fiction was degenerating into mere gangster stories set in space. https://t.co/BHSnPaxbSf
— Deus ex Magical Girl (@DGDDavidson) February 20, 2021
My further discussion on this subject follows after the break:
Continue reading “‘Gangsters in Space,’ or, What even Is Science Fiction?”