Age Quote by Charles Stross
“There's a long-standing (50 year old) flame war within the field over whether it's "sci-fi" or "SF".SF has traditionally been looked down on by the literary establishment because, to be honest, much early SF was execrably badly written - but these days the significance of the pigeon hole is fading; we have serious mainstream authors writing stuff that is I-can't-believe-it's-not-SF, and SF authors breaking into the mainstream. If you view them as tags that point to shelves in bricks-and-mortar bookshops, how long are these genre categories going to survive in the age of the internet?”
About This Quote
Source Essay: "The Future of SF", 2018
Genre labels like "sci‑fi" are losing relevance as stories cross boundaries and the internet reshapes discovery.
In simple terms: Genre labels are fading.
Key Takeaway
Embrace cross‑genre reading.
Themes
genre
literature
technology
culture
change
Mood
analytical
curious
Type
observational
critical
When to use this quote
- bookstores
- online platforms
- author branding
- library classification
Key Concepts
genre theory
digital media
cultural evolution
Questions to Reflect On
- Will genre ever be obsolete?
- How does genre affect marketing?
A Different Perspective
Some readers still rely on genre for discovery.
![“[Science fiction is] out in the mainstream now. You can tell by the way mainstream literary authors pillage SF while denying they're writing it!” quote by Terry Pratchett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/379/terry-pratchett-19_books_science-fiction-is-out-in-the-mainstream_2648583.jpg)
![“Science fiction [is] the kind of writing that prepares us for the necessary mutations brought about in society from an ever changing technological world and as a result. The mainstream hasn’t excluded SF; the mainstream has excluded itself. No one told Jules Verne he was a science fiction writer…” quote by Walter Mosley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f7a/walter-mosley-2810_20th-century_science-fiction-is-the-kind-of-writing-t_2215841.jpg)
