Streams of Literature

If SF is considered as a stream of literature, then the majority of other writing is called mainstream literature. SF likes to grab mainstream success's and claim them as SF successes that have had wider appeal. The huge success of mainstream novels like Brave New World, 1984, On the Beach, and and writers like Vonnegut points to the interaction between the two streams.

SF justifies its existence as a stream of literature. Mainstream contains a number of substreams (mystery, gothic, humour, western, philosophical, etc.) and similarily the same substreams can be found in SF.

Because of its speculative nature, SF can use a far wider range of ideas in a story. Any mainstream category can have its SF equivalent. Aurthur C. Clarke has written a SF western, Isaac Asimov perfected the SF mystery and now has several imitators, Gordon Dickson's Dorsai cycle has a strong military flavour, Philip Jose Farmer introduced alien sex to the genre Larry Niven and Laurence James both have their alternative to James Bond — suitably enhanced by technology, Harry Harrington has introduced various ideas but can be remembered for his excellent SF humour, and Mark Adlard has written about the executives and the management of automated cities of the future.