Thomas M. Disch's "The Embarrassments of Science Fiction," argues that "science fiction should be accounted, and can best be understood as, a branch of children's literature"
Delany notes that this essay "first appeared at a time when science fiction scholarship was first getting itself together, so to speak, and when scholarly writing about the topic had reached a density where an attitude of celebration could reasonably be taken for granted. Disch felt there were still many self-evident generic flaws that it would be fatal to lose sight of. However much I was a part of the celebration, I still feel, fundamentally, he was right."