the problem of genre & sffh

I want to talk for a minute about why "genre" is the wrong word for science fiction and fantasy--though not necessarily the wrong word for horror. And how that makes the whole question of genre vis-a-vis sffh so damn complicated.

I'm sure I've said most of this before, probably more than once, so here's a cut tag for those of you who don't want to sit through it again.



Okay. Step 1, a definition: what is a genre?

(Step 1a: "genre" is not the same as "marketing category." "Marketing category" tells