The local library is way too literal...
Oct. 12th, 2008 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOmaha and I took the kids to the library this weekend. While they looked for new books and paying off fines, I wandered into the "science fiction" section to see what they had and what was new. The "what's new" rack at the front of the library is always packed with extruded fantasy, chick lit, paranormal romance and the occasional "modern literature" or, more rarely, "ethnic romance." Those seem to be what the crowd wants these days.
The SF section is "in the back," behind the section labeled just "Fiction," and as I wandered through the fiction section I passed right by Charles Stross and Neal Stephenson. Apparently, they don't write "science fiction." In the back, through, I found two more Stross books in the "science fiction" section.
Apparently in my library, "fantasy" is "fiction," but if it's In Space, it's "science fiction." At least, that seems to be the gist of their decision-making process. Since Stephenson's stuff is all set on Earth, it's "fiction." Ditto for Stross's Merchant's War series (which Stross once described as "science fiction, where the science is economics").
The SF section is "in the back," behind the section labeled just "Fiction," and as I wandered through the fiction section I passed right by Charles Stross and Neal Stephenson. Apparently, they don't write "science fiction." In the back, through, I found two more Stross books in the "science fiction" section.
Apparently in my library, "fantasy" is "fiction," but if it's In Space, it's "science fiction." At least, that seems to be the gist of their decision-making process. Since Stephenson's stuff is all set on Earth, it's "fiction." Ditto for Stross's Merchant's War series (which Stross once described as "science fiction, where the science is economics").
