摘要：While browsing through a back-issue of The Economistrecently, I came across an article whichsuggests the imminent death of the science-fiction genre in Hollywood. It suggests that this is an almostinevitable consequence of the appearance of self-mockery or parody in the genre, and draws parallelswith the death of the Western which, it states, came about for the same reasons. There are, it is true,clear signs that science-fiction is finding it hard to take itself completely seriously at the moment - thearticle mentions the films "Men in Black" and "Mars Attacks", and in the realm of books, we mightperhaps use the immense success of Pratchett's novels as evidence that readers now seek a self-recognition of the genre's shortcuts and clich¨¦s, which they themselves spotted long ago.If the conclusions of the article are correct and self-sufficient, we might expect them to apply to all"popular" genres, including the French "roman policier" as a prime candidate. Here is a category ofwriting long regarded as fundamentally "unserious". As Jean Pons saysIt's railway station literature, they say, popular books, tuppenny works. They tell stories to be readto kill time, fairy stories to put you to sleep in the evening, in spite of the bad dreams they sparkoff
