Ghettoblasters Killed the Alien Star?

Mark at The Elegant Variation and Maud* have been linking like there's no tomorrow, so go to them for the Real News.
(*She sent a flood of visitors over yesterday when she linked to us. Thanks, Maudie; you do know you have the same effect on increasing traffic at my 'umble blog that a VIP's visit has in Delhi? We're talking wall-to-wall rickshaws and traffic jams here, not to mention elephants backed up trunk-to-tail!)
This article, on the Death of Science Fiction, is stolen from Maud.
"Now science fiction appears on the verge of getting beamed up to the great Enterprise in the sky, with sci-fi writers concerned that they are facing the unique irony of looking at a future where their writing could be a thing of the past."
It's an irritating piece; Rebecca Caldwell makes the classic error of equating good science fiction with good soothsaying fiction. For the last time, this is not what SF is about. It's like reading yet another piece on fantasy written by a reviewer guilt-ridden at the idea that, heavens, she might actually enjoy the stuff.
At Worldcon, where the Hugos were announced yesterday, they're used to it. Wired spoke to Neil Gaiman, who's won his third Hugo:
'There is a long tradition of the science-fiction author disowning his roots when he becomes a popular success,' said Gaiman.
Gaiman suggested that his early, hard-bitten experiences in the comic book business are a source of his dark artistic vision.
'I come from comic books,' said Gaiman. 'If sci-fi is the gutter of literature, comics are the place that the gutter flows into.'"
Anyway. So if SF and fantasy are dead, the novel's writing its last will and testament, and crime fiction can't keep pace with the headlines, what's left? The New York Times has the answer:
"At a time when the National Endowment for the Arts warns that book readership is declining, 'hip-hop lit' is finding a larger audience. There are no hard sales figures on the books because most are self-published and marketed the same way as hip-hop music was a generation ago: out of cars, in the streets, through flyers, in beauty salons and car washes in African-American neighborhoods. But now, as it did with hip-hop, the mainstream is beginning to notice."