“Recession-era escapism makes sci-fi and fantasy publishing strongholds”

Re: that Bookseller article, It’s always bemusing to see people in publishing & the media trying to rationalize the attraction of literary forms about which they are totally ignorant. Sir Terry Pratchett has been a best-selling writer for years and years, and his latest, “Snuff”, is hardly what most people would consider an escape from unpleasant reality – it’s about racism, economic exploitation, slavery, hate crimes, multiculturalism vs assimilation, the role of law in society, and institutional corruption. The media, I’ve noticed, persisted in calling Pratchett a “Cult fantasy writer”, even when he was topping a list of UK all-time best-selling books. Some in the media really have an extraordinary persistence in trying to shoehorn writers into genre ghettos so that they can dismiss them without ever making any attempt to read or understand what the writers are writing.