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Note 1. Cream of the Art SF: Literature of Ideas Just as I make the case that much of world literature through history is part of the "literature of ideas" (which includes modern science fiction and science/technical thrillers), in that same vein the most artistic, poetic, and thoughtful (intellectual) SF is DarkSF, a term I have coined to mean the best or the 'Dark Chocolate' of SF (and imaginative literature and film in general). It is not about being gruesome, scary, or cruel, but about having that supreme poetic and artistic patina or talent topping off a superbly executed story or film. If I have created one work approaching this ideal, I would be ecstatic. I'll be happy to just claim that my DarkSF works introduce us to an old and wonderful vintage in a new bottle (DarkSF). Case in point: one can argue all day whether Don Siegel's 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers is simply entertainment, or a film of major ideas during Joe McCarthy's reign of error and Cold War paranoia; I submit that a work can be both under the SF or SFFH umbrellas. In fact, most of literature's 'great works' were resounding commercial successes in their day, which I think makes arguments about commercial versus literary fiction specious. I'm going to write a lot more about these themes, but for now let's stick with my premise that DarkSF is the Dark Chocolate of SF (and by extension, of world literature including the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as significant elements in sacred literatures).
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