Whereby any book that is considered "literature" (e.g. The Road) or is popular (e.g. Jurassic Park) is not considered to be science fiction.
This applies to "comic books" as well. In Ebert's best films of 2008 roundup, Roger says The Dark Knight "leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy". I don't think so. Christopher Nolan seemed to finally get the franchise to the point of reflecting the best of its origins (to my surprise and delight, starting with Batman Begins) rather than eclipsing them.
Ebert also calls Wall-E "[t]he best science-fiction movie in years", despite having awarded 2007's Children of Men 4-stars vs. 3.5 for the gentle Pixar flick. Either he likes Wall-E better or does not consider Children of Men to be scifi. I'm guessing the latter, what with no robots or spacetravel.
2 comments:
Legendary SF critic Dave Langford has been documenting this phenomenon for longer than I've been alive (see Ansible issues ad infinitum under "As Others See Us")
Nice link. I like the sampler.
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