Of outerspace and faerie

[fictional]

You know, having just recently written a rather good (even if the professor did not agree) essay on the boundaries between Fantasy & SF - I wonder why I'm still feeling so bemused on the subject.
I was looking at Farah Mendlesohn's blog - (kidlit & SF for the interested at http://farah-sf.blogspot.com/ ) and her SF questionaire which I would love to be able to fill out - (extra special procrastinatey goodness) and then I was thinking - I can't really think of any kidlit SF books I've read, even though I *know* I must have read a good many. If one were to ask me, I would say that SF is, in fact, one of my primary genres of choice. But do I actually *like* it?
Off of the top of my head: SF books that are desert island books, ones that I feel I couldn't live without having read - we have:

Julian May's Pleiocene Exile series & Galactic Milieu (involves elves!!)
Ursula Le Guin: Left Hand of Darkness (Might as well have been utopian fiction)
Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash (Er...does cyberpunk really count?)
Anne McCaffrey: Dragonflight (Er...dragons? but they are on a different planet, and genetically engineered)
Madeleine L'Engle: Time Quartet, Arm of the Starfish, Young Unicorns (Don't know quite what to say, but these just never felt SF-y to me - but do involve time travel, lasers, and Limb regenerative neuro'science')
Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (But, again.)
Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game
Frank Herbert: Dune
George Gamow: Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland

Whereas if I were to name fantasy novels - I don't think the list would fit in one LJ entry. I'm not sure what that says. I feel oddly ashamed.

Comments

[patashoqua.livejournal.com]

Ashamed? But all the best ones blur the line. (Just started The Unborn King! Squee!)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Squee indeed. But I guess the shame comes from some internalized thing about how SF is 'real'er and more valid. And maybe even harder, and less accessible. And I've always had a thing about clubs that I couldn't get into. Which is pathetic, but true nevertheless.

[patashoqua.livejournal.com]

Err, Non-Born, that is.