Poor Bryan Cranston. They're never going to let him grow his hair back :(

Sorry, but your analogy is off. Monetizing fan fiction is like an artist drawing the Mona Lisa in their own style, or painting a new landscape in the style of Monet's water lilies and selling it as their own work. This is a longstanding and totally acceptable practice.

Huh. I think selling a work in the Classic Literature and Fiction section is an argument *for* letting people write legal fan fiction based on it. That means said work is part of our cultural heritage, and should be loved, deconstructed, remixed, and examined at length. I think riffing on an author's ideas by writing…

Very true. See Dr. Emilio Lizardo's reply to my last post for an outline of a possible solution.

That's a really excellent point. I hadn't considered the consumerism/marketing angle, but it makes a lot of sense.

The two ugliest humans ever aren't hurting anybody by sleeping with each other. Unlike you, who are bashing people's private lives in a public space.

That's a really excellent point. I hadn't considered the consumerism/marketing angle, but it makes a lot of sense.

To clarify – I don't think happiness isn't a worthwhile pursuit. But I have to disagree that it's the only worthwhile pursuit. That's the assumption I'd like to question here.

True, it's a subjective opinion, and America is not a monoculture. But! I would point to several items of evidence in popular media to support my position. Take a look at the New York Times bestseller list – the "miscellaneous" section is dominated by books that offer advice on how to be happier. Or the next time…

And presumably you're then grossed out by the thought of this straight couple having sex, and you need to go tell everyone that these strangers are disgusting in a public forum, yes?

As long as you're an equal-opportunity perv.

Jennifer Hale FTW!

Yeah, that'd be nice. But if clueless marketing execs think that's what they need to do to sell cool science careers to little girls, I say let 'em. One fight at a time and all that.

I love that this is real. I love it so much.

So whenever you see a straight couple on the street, you automatically imagine them having sex too, right? And whenever someone mentions their boyfriend or girlfriend in casual conversation, you immediately imagine that person in their bedroom fucking? And presumably, whenever you're served a bacon sandwich an image…

Third-wave feminism means everyone gets to be free from gender-role bullshit. Yaay! Any party in any relationship can take the initiative.

Yeah, me too.

Right, but the fact that they would do the study in the first place suggests the concept of happiness has some intrinsic cultural value. The researchers could have picked any emotion, but they chose that one.

Yes, this gets at what I was asking about. Raising a family or maintaining a marriage is hard work – it's only likely to result in happiness some of the time. So does that make doing it successfully less worthwhile than being personally happy?

Excuse the double post.