Subgenre or crossgenre

I quit giving the genre of my writing much thought after I accepted that a definition may be dated and still valid. When asked I answer science fantasy. Think spaceships and wizards in the same story and you're pretty close.

That said, if I land my work with a publisher they're going to stuff it wherever they see fit anyway, and from that day on it is going to belong to whatever genre they decided was the proper one.

Anyway, when I browse the book cases of my favourite book store, which happens to be SF bokhandeln, a local player, I find lots of SF and lots of fantasy, but the true cross genre that once was labelled science fantasy is absent. Or at least absent as far as I am concerned.

You see, when I think science fantasy I think fantasy with strong elements of SF in it. That is what I write and it is also the main reason I don't find it in the shelves. SF with strong elements of fantasy in it is more common. At least if it includes sound and moving pictures. More or less all science fiction TV-series released the last quarter of a century fall solidly in the cross genre called science fantasy.

Zaps one space ship across the screen, blasts one energy gun in the corner, arrives technicians who talk made up techno language in the background and you think you are watching SF. Halfway into any season you have seen gods, wizards, ghosts or whatever you would normally associate with other brands of speculative fiction, but it doesn't registrate as cross genre. We have become so used to this blend that we tend to think of it as natural -- as long as it moves and sounds. I am not so sure about those who exclusively read SF.

As for my linking to a book store here. Either you know the treatment speculative fiction gets in Sweden, and you understand why we need to protect outlets of these genres from extinction, or you don't. If you don't. Think somewhere lower on the ladder than smut. Literary experts here are prone to praise pornography's literary value as long as speculative fiction takes a beating.

Is this a rant? Of course it is.