Thanks for responding to my off-the-cuff question (Talk about Planetary for a bit).
I found that I just wanted to try and scrape away all those barnacles to see the thing that charmed and fascinated people right at the start. I still don’t know that I managed that to anyone’s satisfaction, but the act of it seemed to me to reveal a story about the genre itself.
If you don't know that you managed it to anyone's satisfaction you're either stupid or deliberately humble and obtuse. I'm guessing the latter. What you describe is the very reason many people love this work. You scraped away the barnacles and managed to produce something that identified what people love about this stuff. Look, back when I was a kid, I KNEW that Godzilla was a guy in a rubber suit, but it was still cool. The same thinking applies to all popular culture. We KNOW there is a man behind the curtain - we're not stupid. The all powerful OZ is just a sham - we get it. But the illusion he's weaving is kind of cool. That's the part we love. I know I'm never going to be Carson of Venus, Superman, Doc Savage, or Tarzan, Lord of the (Ebola-ridden) Jungle. But the fact that I can imagine those ideals inspires me to be a better person, just a little bit. That's what these stories are all about. When faced with the issue of the day, having these stories in the back of my mind helps me to be just a little better. Given the behavior of many that don't have this kind of value system in this world, I recognize that these stories have brought some good to the world.
So scraping off the barnacles and distilling the essence of what people loved about these stories managed to remind me of why they were interesting and important in the first place. And so I try to be a better person with renewed vigor, thanks to you. You have my gratitude.