> Finally, he seems to draw a pretty hard boundary between literary and “genre” fiction that I’m not sure always exists
The litfic people would never agree with this, but litfic is also a genre. It has its tropes, and especially it has its snobbery. I think part of its decline may be exactly that: the social circle which values litfic for exclusionary snob value was always small, but now it has been eclipsed. Apart from specific fandoms like Joyce; the Joyceans are closest to SF fans in the way their fandom operates. They even have conventions.
The litfic people would never agree with this, but litfic is also a genre. It has its tropes, and especially it has its snobbery. I think part of its decline may be exactly that: the social circle which values litfic for exclusionary snob value was always small, but now it has been eclipsed. Apart from specific fandoms like Joyce; the Joyceans are closest to SF fans in the way their fandom operates. They even have conventions.