hot take: fantasy is becoming more relevant than science fiction because fantasy is so often predicated on an intuitive and human feeling that something is wrong with the world; the kingdom is ill, the special tree is dying, or something that appeals to the emotional life of the people has gone away. We are told however, that there is a way to fix this; that what is lost really can be found again. And it will be REALLY hard, and usually lonely, and will seem nearly impossible, and it's going to hurt like a son of a bitch but there's always hope. This feels truer and realer to people in times like these. Whereas science fiction - even much seemingly dystopian science fiction - tends to be built around the myth of progress which has been co-opted by capitalists and technologists. The future is "inevitable", something coming to force us to change and adapt to service it. Even when dystopian, the path forward is to apply even more of the same, because eventually enough wrongs will make a right. It doesn't play so well to an audience living in techbro nightmare world.