[jalisco555]

The whole idea that literature can only be about normal folks living normal lives amongst crushing normalness is very, very new. Literature used to almost always be about the fantastic. I think Gene Wolfe (a Catholic sci-fi/fantasy author who uses Catholic imagery in his writing) has an essay about this, and why the folks who teach that real “literature” can only be mundane are just a recent and sickening abberation.

This is reflected to a great extent in the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. No genre writers (and certainly no science fiction), no children's writers, just Literature with a capital L.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

This is reflected to a great extent in the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. No genre writers (and certainly no science fiction), no children's writers, just Literature with a capital L.

That's actually not so true anymore. The movement called "magical realism" has become far more popular and critically recognized in the past 15 years (think Umberto Eco, et al.). These books could be considered fantasy, but written in the style of a realist novel. This movement might make speculative fiction (the "academic" term for Scifi) much more critically acceptable in the near future...