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Abstract
I advocate the genre of SF as the new path upon which literary endeavor moves towards the sublime, or the realization of an ultimate truth in the universe. I aver that SF is a rational, even expected, descendent of an extant literary history, and manifests humankinds inherent desire for transcendence in a culture dependent upon technoscience. I establish a framework for defining the SF genre, for the purposes of clarity, followed by a suggestion for critical analysis. My primary source is the work of Alastair Reynolds, who situates his Revelation Space trilogy in the far-distant reaches of the galaxy and several centuries in the future of humankinds space-faring civilization, and thereby demonstrates the paradigm of humanitys search for something greater than itself. I will cite examples of this yearning from traditional literature to support the concept of an historical arc of thought that ultimately manifests in the literature of SF.