James at Speculative Horizons raises an excellent point: Why do readers tolerate "fantasy authors who, when asked what other genre writers theyread/admire, give a reply along the lines of: 'Oh, well...I don't really read fantasy, you see.'" Specifically, James harps on fantasy author David Bilsborough for having this attitude and claims that author Steven Erikson has also noticed it among his fellow writers.

Personally, I'd expand this rant to not just include genre writers--as I mentioned in an essay last year, mainstream literary novelists have been appropriating genre tropes and themes for years. You can bet these authors have the same attitude to genre writings as James talks about. But it's one thing to have intellectual snobs looking down their noses at the genre. To have this attitude come from people within the genre ... ouch.