Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is set during a nuclear winter. Two survivors walk south, breathing toxic air, seeking out the continent’s last canned food while ducking bands of flesh-eaters.

Describe it as "post-apocalyptic," as most critics did, or as a masterpiece of dystopian literature. Just don’t call McCarthy’s novel "science fiction."

Even when clearly appropriate, film studios and publishers avoid the phrase "science fiction." So do the novelists, film directors and editors in their employ. McCarthy’s book, which is about to become a blockbuster — Oprah Winfrey will tout it on an upcoming TV show as part of her book club — is just another example of how the powers that be dodge the term, especially when it applies to "serious" fiction or cinema.

You won’t find the words "science fiction" in Random House’s bio of Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author China Miéville. Instead, he’s called the "edgiest mythmaker of the day." Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep? It’s classified as comedy, drama, romance and fantasy, but not sci-fi, at Amazon.com.

Even Battlestar Galactica, the flagship show of (hello!) the Sci Fi Channel, keeps a distance. "It’s fleshed-out reality," explains executive producer Ronald D. Moore in the sci-fi mag SFX. "It’s not in the science-fiction genre."

The nose-thumbing is nothing new. In the ’50s, Robert Heinlein dismissed the term, opting for "speculative fiction." (What fiction isn’t?)

But today, one might imagine that the term could gain traction. Our lives are entangled with everyday gadgetry Heinlein could only have dreamed of. The impact of science on culture — climate change, stem-cell research, the internet — is the subject of continuous debate. Writers including McCarthy and Margaret Atwood (another despiser of the term "sci-fi") and filmmakers like Gondry, Richard Linklater and Darren Aronofsky have explored the terrain of traditional sci-fi.

Plus, the term itself — isolated from its pulpy origins, the fanboy confabs and the endless sniping over its definition — remains an evocative one. Science fiction: stories that engage with science.

Chris Barsanti, a critic who dared to reference The Road in terms of sci-fi literature, said the phrase "science fiction" summons images of "space battles, aliens, mad scientists, time travel and the like ... fantasy with testosterone." So publishers, wary of putting their book into an "artistic ghetto," twist themselves into knots to avoid using the label.

In the face of its shrinking reputation, some institutions are attempting to legitimize science fiction. In 2004, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen opened Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gives grants to those who incorporate scientific subject matter into their fictional works.

The University of Kansas and the University of California at Riverside have substantial sci-fi collections. And the University of Liverpool offers a master’s degree in science-fiction studies and publishes the scholarly journal Foundation.

"There’s been a vast increase in the popularity of science fiction: big special effects movies, TV, games," says Andy Sawyer, head of Liverpool’s sci-fi department. "But you rarely see it in the best-seller charts, unless it’s dropped the name ’science fiction.’"

Dune
One of the greates ’sci-fi’ novels of time; an intertwining of ecological science and fundamentalist religion in a world where people have been bred throug the centuries (creating new races if you will) to exaggerate/increase specific analyitical or intuitive traits. Children of Men
An absolutely fantastic Scifi film, post-apocalyptica the slow way. The story is compelling particularly because it paints such a believable image of a near future in absolute disarray. It’s unquestionably science-fiction, but everyone is politely trying to ignore that fact because there were no little green men. Serenity
Great Movie, Based on or a finish to one of the best TV series of all time, Firefly. Simply Superb. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Operating in the same realm as many Philip K. Dick stories, Eternal Sunshine uses a sci-fi premise, intentional technological memory modification, to fuel a story that explores the human spirit, the nature of memory and experience, relationships, love, etc.

It looks like there is confusion about the purpose of these submission. Who would deny that Dark City or Ender’s Game are science fiction? Gattaca
Quite possibly the only truly SF movie to come out in years - having no fantasy elements -and making one of the bravest and boldest social commentaries ever seen on the screen! Hyperion
A modern retelling of the Canterbury Tales set against the backdrop of a far future alien civilization. 7 travellers journey across the surface of the planet Hyperion to reach the Valley of the Time Tombs, a place moving backwards through time and guarded by the enigmatic Shrike. Teleportation, organic ships, theology, non-linear time, varied sentient alien species, dystopian themes and more make this one of (if not the) best science fiction books ever written. Gattaca
A film about the endless potential of the human spirit. The hero is a normal-born, a "degenerate" who strives to achieve the impossible - become an astronaut and escape a world dominated by an upper class of the genetically-engineered. Unable to breach the walls of genetic discrimination, keeping him from taking all but the most menial of jobs, he fakes his identity by borrowing DNA material from another. He all but succeeds, foiled by a murder he did not commit. A definite gem, this one. Ringworld
Larry Niven’s whole "Known Space" Oeuvre is awesome, but I’m particularly fond of this one for blasting me out of my Asimov/Heinlein/Wells ghetto. Possibly the only writer to successfully walk the line between golden-age and new wave sf, he is also a born raconteur. Sensawunda indeed ! Martian Cronicles
War angst, race and gender politics, immigration issues on Mars. Evergreen topics! The Forever War-Joe Haldeman
A Great book about war, And the soldiers who are forced to fight it. Seems more topical than ever. Time Enough For Love
Robert A. Heinlein’s novel about life and hope. The oldest living human reminisces about his life, and is persuaded to postpone his planned suicide by being given the opportunity to experience something "new".