It seems to me--and I'd be interested in your thoughts on this, Caitlin--that genre fiction is slowly, and perhaps surely, becoming recognized as legitimate.

Honestly, I just don't know. Partly, it's because I make such an effort not to think genres. I can point to any number of bestselling "genre" novels, from sf to "horror" to fantasy to mystery to westerns and etc. But there are still very definitely "genre" ghettoes, so far as publishers and reviewers are concerned.