The Wall Street Journal Bookshelf’s Tom Shippey reviews As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (Oxford Uni Press, 2012)…

“Mr. Saler counterpunches vigorously against the whole edifice of literary snobbery [against SF, fantasy and the weird]. What he has to say is so self-evidently right that the fact he has to say it makes one wonder how the critical profession has managed, for so long, to cultivate such a large blind spot. His book should be essential reading in every graduate school of the humanities. But it’s much more fun than that recommendation suggests.”