I've heard of the concept of Ice-Nine and have been intrigued with it for quite some time now so I took the chance to read Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and I was definitely not disappointed. The entire concept of Ice-Nine, though entirely fictional, is so intriguing.
Ice-Nine is a polymorph of water that has the ability to instantly freeze any body of water or water substance and create more Ice-Nine, like seeds to spread at a rapid pace. This includes oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, and even the human body (say if the Ice-Nine hits the eyeball). And of course, as all good end of the world sci-fiesque stories must go, Ice-Nine freezes the entire world, killing off most of the world.
After reading Cat's Cradle, I did as much research into Ice-Nine as I could because I wanted to know absolutely everything about it (spoiler: there isn't much because it doesn't exist but you do get some interesting reads about the actual melting points and things like that) and I think that's the mark of good literature.
In terms of writing strictly for genre or writing elements of genre in your writings, I think it should be open. The beauty of art is that you can explore different avenues of one thing and (since we're talking about literature) if an author wants to use elements of sci-fi or horror or fantasy in their writings, they should! I suppose the only time that it would be a necessary or important distinction is if you're specifically looking to read something that is strictly genre or if the added genre elements add or take away from whatever you're reading. In my personal opinion., that should be the only time that the distinction matters.
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