This puts my world asunder.

Well, "anything positive" surely includes his bank balance.

I totally get that and I think best-sellerese is a good basic descriptive. Of course it has to be followed up with something like - suspense, romance, triumph over trauma, family relations, coming of age..., but it gets the point across.

Oh come on, Michael Crichton is clearly science fiction. Bad science fiction, but still science fiction. I refuse to accept that 1984 is not scienc fiction because it "transcends the genre". As a matter of consistency, I refuse to accept that Crichton is not science fiction because he is a horrible writer or because is "tone" is mainstream. Scence Fiction is a category. I go back and forth on whether it is just a marketing category (which section of the bookstore the volume is shelved in) or a meaningful literary category, but at any rate a category. Quality of the writing has zero to do with whether, once published, a book is in that category. And for the most part neither does tone. I don't think there has been a writing tone that has not been used in Science Fiction. I can pretty much say the same of mystery and horror. I suspect the same argument could be made in other genre categories.

You can have my ass, connie, just not my book.

May I use this as a tag, Heather? I'll include the 10Comm ref if you want to make sure that people don't start thinking you're making offers you don't intend.

I refuse to accept that Crichton is not science fiction because he is a horrible writer or because is "tone" is mainstream.

Go back and read my post again. I'm not arguing that point.

Ginger will soon come by. We will have a moment together where we will imagine the number of discussions we have heard -- or participated in -- that have tried to define science fiction. The number will soon grow large enough that giggling will ensue.

"Giggling Ginger"

Damn good band name.

OK - fair enough Jessica - you were talking your particular mental bookstore. Set off a reflex from some really old arguments.

JZ is reading Moby Dick in the other room and just laughed out loud.

Previously she was reading an Alan Moore era Swamp Thing TPB and gasping at plot turns: "Oh! Oh no! Oh no!"

JZ is reading Moby Dick in the other room and just laughed out loud.

She just got to "The Squeezing of the Sperm," didn't she?

Let me see if I can find some quotes from my American Lit prof:

"It's the original Lord of the Rings."

"Like any good white Christian with a dark person in front of him, he starts to scream."

"There are no women here. This is the 19th century."

"We're gonna talk about sperm anyway...You're supposed to laugh, every time I say that."

Student: "You can take it as a replacement for the sex act, if you really want to go there."
Dr. Aranda: "Yes, right, we do want to go there."

"The fancy word for knowledge is 'epistemology.' [starts writing, stops] I can't even spell it; that's how fancy it is."

"Yeah, he's a freaky whale."

Dr. Aranda rocks.