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

Wasn't sure where else to put this, so I've made a journal entry for anyone who might still be subscribed.

A woman was on Radio 2 this afternoon, talking about her campaign to get rid of books with unhappy endings (burning them was suggested, though not quite in the spirit of dictatorships of yore). Anyway, while she was putting across her point about children needing to be protected she mentioned incidentally that Santa Claus wasn't real, which inevitably demanded a retraction from the presenter, after a volley of complaints of her having destroyed the illusions of the children of thousands of listeners; "guess how happy my day's going to end".

But what was her motivation for wanting to do away with "unhappy" endings? And how would you define "unhappy" anyway- isn't it a bit subjective? I'm sure my definition of "unhappy" is quite different from hers.

never mind the 'unhappy endings'
I am more conerned with book burning or ideation of book burning.
Aspera

That's funny... or strange... or both!

It's the books with happy endings that give people unrealistic expectations of what life will bring them. I've met people like that... they feel cheated, because life isn't all roses and cake!

I've always thought children have no problem with unhappy endings. I really liked the collected Grimm Fairy Tales - very few happy endings in that particular book. And when they were happy, it was because the witch had a horrible death.

The personal characteristic of which I'm most proud:

Even at my ever-advancing age, I'm *still* not old enough to listen to Radio 2.

Ooh, I have journalmonkeys! Nice to see you again Jen

The books that stoked her up the most (the burning suggestion was apparently only really a comic aside) were Lemony Snicket, but covered a whole range of works with little childeren health & safety issues. I wanted to tell her how much joie de vivre I got from the book which began with the destruction of the planet. Oh, and Bobo's Star, a story I remember about a kid with a grow-your-own black hole that went out of control. Great days! She reminded me of Kyle's mum in the South Park movie to some degree.

I only listen to Radio 2 at work as it's my boss Jan's preference (although I admit I had the choice not to last week, she wasn't there). It's sometimes a laugh when it isn't mildly soporific - or form noon till 2 when Jeremy Vine invites people to get uptight and phone in about what an outrage all this sort of thing really is, and a damningindictmentofthesocietywerelivingintoday.