Relayed through at least two discreet mailing-lists, a thought attributed to “a Croatian writer”:
For years I’ve been frustrated by those claims by non-sf readers that SF is not literature (compare “comics are not art”). Frustrated, because you can’t defend SF as literature w/o accepting the analysis apparatus of literature-cognoscenti and moving to their turf – therefore losing. What I did to calm myself, after a while, was to accept their claim: okay, SF is not a literature.
So, what it is?
A philosophy.
Think about it: SF a) is about ideas and b) it is a continuous dialogue about some hypothetical questions that continues through generations. So is philosophy.
I feel much calmer these days, reading belles lettres to satisfy my aestethics and SF to feed my mind.
(The answer does not apply to “are comics art”, however).