Mainstream And SF III

I am reading Petals On The Wind by Virginia Andrews, the sequel to her Flowers In The Attic. The characters talk for page after page about their relationships but all of these conversations happen in a vacuum. The novel begins in 1960 but the plot is not set against the background of world affairs in that decade, still less against the background of the universe. Maybe I am beginning to understand why someone might prefer sf to mainstream fiction.

Fran Cobden, a fellow sf reader, thought that sf could only be described as "escapism." However, he laughed and did not disagree when I replied that sf deals with mankind's place in the universe and with the challenge of the future which, whatever else it is going to be, will be different from the past because of science and technology. Therefore, I concluded, sf is the most realistic fiction.

Fran remembered with affection David Falkayn's "merry crew" and that van Rijn was "a good guy" because he made profits but not as an arms merchant.