I've found that there are an overwhelming amount of people who do not respect science fiction. I was, in fact, laughed at (no bullshit) for saying that I liked to read science fiction.
I remember talking to one of my professors in school, and I was shocked when he told me that SF and Fantasy are not respected as genres, by and large, by the academic community. This seems absolutely ridiculous to me for many reasons, not the least of which is that the genre called "Magical Realism" or "Slipstream" (of which Jorge Luis Borges reigns supreme and Haruki Murakami figures promenently) is legitimate in academia. This is fine, but I feel as though it is a branch of SF, just like Steampunk and Cyberpunk.
Main point being, books like The Lord of the Rings and Dune and authors like Philip K. Dick and Philip Pullman are thrown to the wayside with incredible speed. There is a large difference between not liking SF and laughing at it. I, as a fan, have issues with it: it's phenonmenally difficult to write SF well, to write it in a compelling manner such that your reader does not drop it for either lack of ability to understand all of the new information being thrown at them, or simple disinterest. To write SF well, one needs to create a universe, and that is NOTHING to scoff at. Look at the biographies of Tolkien and Frank Herbert, and from there it's easy a fraction of the work put into these worlds.
One point, though it is not fair to make as much as it is worth considering, is that good SF is more difficult to write than good regular fiction, whatever that means. One has to create a world that is potentially based on the one we inhabit, and make new languages, hierarchies, never before thought of systems of operation (including, but not limited to, computers, lifestyles, occupations, etc.)... essentially a whole new everything, and very few people understand this.
Imagination at its finest, I believe, is embodied in creation. And what better way to showcase it, than writing a new place to exist and function?
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I noticed this as well when I first got to college, though it came in the form of advice: "Do not submit writing that can be termed science fiction/fantasy." Apparently the Creative Writing Department didn't look too friendly upon in. Because of this, I wasn't too surprised when I discovered that some professors had the same mindset in the Literature Department. I was disheartened by this back then, in my the beginning of my freshman year. However, this is not so much the case anymore.
To be fair, I've been giving the fantasy genre a lot of consideration the past few weeks. I can honestly say that it was my first love, but most certainly not the only place I've remained. I've cheated with other genres frequently, and am not as ashamed of it as I thought I would be. This is mostly because I find that there I just something lacking from fantasy writing sometimes that I can only find in other genres, and in a more than positive fashion. I can't help but think that sometimes it comes down to some of the writers/writing that is out there. Now, I won't comment specifically on the writers who you've mentioned, but I do think that sometimes the reputation that fantasy/science fiction gets is just as equally from its creators as its readers. The writers/editors just aren't producing/controlling what needs to be out there.
In talking to my professor about a book once, he asked me what the packaging of it was. Meaning, what was the commercial label that was given to the book. You know, the thing that's normally on the back cover, top left: "Fiction/Literature"; "Spirituality/New Age", "Fantasy/Science Fiction". Sometimes, whatever we package the book under, it doesn't really fit under there and as you point out, can have any many fantasy details as we want it to if we're willing to acknowledge it. However, as pompous as it may sound, I think sometimes that it may be a mark of how good something is when it refuses to be easily categorized.
- SpiderProphet
PS In a philosophy course during my senior year, my professor used His Dark Materials in order to illustrate a point, in addition to The Left Hand of Darkness the year before.
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