h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>Mermaids are viscious sea monsters who lure sailors to their deaths and then feed on the bloated corpses. Of all people Yael I'd have thought you'd dislike creatures like that.<<

Oh, come on TB, don't you start that. Those are different legends. The sirens of the Classical mythology are not exactly the same as Andersen's mermaids. Even though his story does mention that they used to lure sailors off their boats to drown in the ocean - he just makes the Little Mermaid (I don't think she had a name in the story, and definitely not Ariel; that's Shakespeare) different than the rest of her sisters.
The Disney version is of course just another version of a legend, but it's a sugar-coated, merchandised-to-death version, and that's why I don't like it.

Jenny, there's a whole lot of good reading, can you at least give me a general direction? What kind of stories do you like?

OI!!!

Excuse me, _I_ will be needing those, and you stay away from him!

*Thumps TB on the head with a dictionary*

Actually many of the oldest legends of mermaids link closely to those of the Siren. In fact they are accasionaly called by the same name.

I know, that's what I was talking about.

Nice try, TB.

Actually, no, that was kinda sad.

Fine, *gets out a big knife* I'll cut them off and give them to you

Why do you always have to solve your argument using violence?


*Picks a bigger dictionary and thumps TB on the head with it*

Because in RL I am a pacifist and so can't actually do so..

*Edges closer to NC*

This is so great!
I start fighting, and you get punished for it!

Hey, T.B. ... you ... umm...

You look like a Leprechaun! Ha!

Listen, you stay away from him, if you don't want things to get nasty.




You don't want me to cry, do you?

(I was talking to TB, of course)

(But actually, you behave too, Dan. Fighting isn't nice. )

Aww. He started it.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the phantom zone.

Don't you go anywhere.

I'll not cut his bits off if he apologises for being disrispectful to The Great Author (horror).

Firstoff, I wasn't being disrispectful. I was being disrespectful.
Totally different.

Anyway, I heartily disagree that Lovecraft is a great author, by any definition.

...come to think of it, I wasn't even disrespectful.
I'm just enforcing the rules.

That's the library rules. You had a chance to vote on them, but never showed up, so we enacted them without you.

I'll do an Alexandria on the place if that rule isn't changed!

Hmm...

That is an interesting issue.

I guess TB does have a right to read whichever books he chooses, even if they are disagreeable (I refuse to take part in the actual argument because I've never read any of those books).
I don't think Dan should apologise for his views, though.

Well, I'm not contributing a single of the library budget to buying any of that drivel.

If he wants to donate any books for library use, I guess he can go ahead.

But this'll just start a landslide of rubbish.

Next thing we know, people will be wanting to read Joyce in here...

Darling, we can't have the library suited to one specific literary taste. We need to serve all members of the MotMV.

Book donations would be nice though. We didn't exactly have a budget in... well, ever.