Melding with the Mainstream

There's a new Mind Meld post up at SF Signal, and I'm part of it.

The question this time is:

INTRO: Recent events and discussions once again bring the topic of genre fiction's mainstream respectability to the forefront. So we thought it'd be timely to ask this week's panelists:

Q: In your opinion, does literary science fiction and fantasy have mainstream respect? Why, if at all, does it need mainstream approval? What would such approval mean for genre fiction?

(This is actually the second part of a diptych answering the same question -- in best SFF form, the document got too long and had to be split in half for publication.)

To see my answer -- and those of my fellow Melders Lucius Shepard, Adam Roberts, James Enge, Tim Akers and several others -- go check it out. But you might guess that I didn't have a lot of sympathy for those who whine about not getting literary respect for their wish-fulfillment space operas.