My apologies, Craig. Honestly. I think, perhaps, we're talking past each other. I, also, felt patronized, and that got my back up.

I don't care what it is, I'm going to just sit here a moment and dream of Ariel, silenced forever.

I'm trying to understand what relevance this has on a site devoted to SF&F fandom. Why the free publicity for terrorists? Would you promote a theme park called "Osama-world!" in Tora Bora?

Yeah, kid. I'm for real. I'm sure you're all so very tough and grimdark and all, but, no, thanks, I don't care for MLP. I leave that to my five year old.

I'm aware of the RW history. But fantasy isn't RW history, and different people have different preferences in their fantasy. The argument that fantasy has to be "realistic" to be somehow legitimate is fatuous.

Well, um....enjoy? ;)

Completely agreed. Though the obvious use would have been a Potter closet (which, in our circle, is what any room under a staircase is called) but the Clone Wars gambit is certainly possible. ;)

Does the explicit and implicit rape, and violence against children, ever stop? I tried to read the first book back in the '90s and just found it, while well written, darker than I prefer. However, when I tried to watch the first ep of the HBO series, after hearing such endlessly laudatory press, I felt physically ill.…

Cynical isn't the word I'd use if your first thought is "victimization" rather than "imagination." I can't stand Narnia — never could, even as an eight year old; it's a furry's wet dream wrapped up in Christian apologia. Even so — this room is awesome. Kudos to some creative parents.

Kolchak was one of the primary inspirations for another little show you might have heard of called, let's see, what was it again? Oh yes: "X Files."

Lighten up, Francis.

Many of the REH Conan stories are virulently racist against brown skinned folks. Sometimes, I can grit my teeth, but if the story seems to hinge on that racism, then I've no problem with skipping it. I certainly understand REH's milieu, but sheesh. As another poster said, there are other stories. And I read for…

I remember when the Thomas Covenant books were the Big Thing, and I got the first one from the Sci Fi Book Club. I was thirteen, maybe fourteen at the time, and when I got to the rape scene, I was so repulsed I not only didn't continue reading, I couldn't keep the book in my room, and got rid of it as soon as I could.…

Professor Liao, please write, "I will not ignore the Law of Unintended Consequences" one thousand times on the blackboard.

I read the first book, and disliked it so much, I had no desire to read the rest. Perhaps it is a personal aversion to continual descriptions of extreme violence against and between between children.

You know, it's hard to find any Hunger Games merch to be tacky when the book's success is significantly predicated on its visceral account of children killing children. It glorifies that which it claims to oppose.

I believe this to be a corollary of Rule 34.

There must be something in the air, because the same connection hit me about a week ago, after reading my daughter a MSB book.

Reminds me a bit of the Sokal hoax, but more playful than satirical.

Or perhaps she's just waiting for Captain Jack to give her a lift. And he's tardy, again.