My essay "Dipping Their Toes in the Genre Pool: The U.S. Literary Establishment's Need-Hate Relationship with Speculative Fiction" was published in the New York Review of Science Fiction about six months ago and stirred up a minor hornet's nest (for a summary of this angry buzzing, see my original post on the matter).

For those who missed the essay, it has now been reprinted online in Monsters and Critics. I've updated the essay slightly to clarify my earlier points about the U.S. literary establishment. I also added in information about Michael Chabon's essay on Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Chabon's essay had just been published when my own essay was accepted by the NYRSF, so obviously I didn't mention it. But it would be silly not to include such a mention in this reprinting. For those who don't want to wade through the whole essay for one new section, in summary I think Chabon's essay is an excellent examination of McCarthy's book. I also feel it doesn't change my basic argument that the U.S. literary establish has a double standard when it comes to speculative fiction.