Science Fiction, and the Problem(atic) of Seriousness

This article argues that sf’s discursive cultures have a particular concern with the quality of seriousness: of its texts, authors, readers, fans, and the wider genre itself. First distinguishing this perceived quality of seriousness, I argue that it is a metaconcern of sf—a problematic—visible in arguments around the genre’s functions as, for example, estranging, inuring or oracular, or through its connection to science. I posit that the quality of seriousness sprang up as an alternative to literariness—long denied to the genre—and that this seriousness/literariness dialectic still defines the discursive object we call sf.