This comes up every once in a while. It used to come up regarding Dungeons & Dragons. Its based in ignorance – leavened with stupidity, perhaps, but basically simple ignorance, as in I dont know whats really going on here, but a very superficial examination tells me something my limited experience can process, without me having to investigate in depth. Heres the part these people are ignorant about: YOU CANT LEARN MAGIC FROM READING A FANTASY STORY. We are NOT going to get into a conversation about Wicca, paganism, Gaia, Earth magic, or anything like that. Those dont apply here. This is about fantasy fiction. Its about people who are made so fearful, it really doesnt occur to them that waving a stick and shouting Wingardium Leviosa will not, under any circumstances except special-effects teams, make that feather rise off the desk. That saying I cast magic missile (I attack the darkness!) and rolling dice will not, under any circumstances except special-effects teams, even appear to attack anyone. In a way, its the oldest scam in the book, and the scammers scam themselves as well: they were exposed to the Bible, and – ignoring the vast social network supporting any religion – they believe that any exposure to any book saying something different will instantly convert other people to IT. You know – like being exposed to Teh Gay (Takei!) will instantly make you, not only gay, but submissive. Because those gays will have their way with you, oh yes they will, and youll be helpless before their rampaging Gayness. Oh myyy. Yeah, a digression. But I hope you get my point: some people simply will not understand. They cant wrap their brains around a thing, and so remain willfully ignorant. Believe me, I would LOVE to chalk all this up to stupidity. Or asininity. But this woman would say shes just trying to protect her children. Shes not. Shes making an ultimately futile effort to hide the real world from her children. Trouble is, theyll have to go out at some point and deal with reality, and fantasy fiction, and LGBT and everything else, as it is, not how their mother or the church or the Bible or the Texas educational system would like to pretend it is. As Leslie says, you cant bubble-wrap the world. And you definitely cant bubble-wrap just the parts you dont understand, or think are icky.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 13:28:48 +0000