In this story the author made a distinction between various genres of fiction- ‘a sports story’, ‘a Western story’, ‘a jungle story’, and science fiction by mentioning that “Science fiction is a literary universe of no mean size because science fiction is what it is, not through its content but through its background.” The author distinctly portrays the characteristics present in each type of fiction which showcases their difference from one another. A ‘sports story’ necessarily has an athletic or competitive activity as an integral part of its content. A ‘Western story’ essentially centers around the life of a cowboy go the American West whereas a ‘jungle story’ usually centers around the dangers of a forested tropical wilderness. Science fiction usually has the components of interplanetary travel and extraterrestrial creatures as part of its plot. But what really distinguishes it from the other genres of fiction is its background whereas the other genres are differentiated on the basis of content. He further argues that if the content of any of the other genres is placed against a background of a society distinctly different from ours, then that becomes science fiction.