That's just "crap."

To be perfectly, err, un-sanitizingly, honest.

With the load of drivel that is coming out of Hollywood these days (you can go to almost any other movie house today and find better films, both in quality and content), this is just a whining song that is being sung by a dying breed.

The truth is that Hollywood is obsessed with evangelizing a philosophy and a lifestyle that most of the world doesn't lead or want; they are hurt emotionally by those who tell them they are cutthroat dionysian plurists, and hurt physically when those same people do not purchase their grossly made films. For many people, they would be embarrassed (or feel like they should be embarrassed) even showing one of those films to their mother.

Note I am not saying all people, just most or many. The fact that we own films that we may find internally objectionable is due to the fact that Hollywood is inculturated among us, and the only way to avoid such escapades is to either run off to another country, or become an cultural isolationist.

Hollywood needs to lay off people's right to protect themselves and their family from what so much of the world considers poison. It's not right or fair that in order to function in a society as a stable human being, one must both own a television and witness the death of humanity. I know people will disagree with that last statement, but many people, not only here in America, but in other countries (I can name five or six big countries that have had heated discussions about the lewdness of Hollywood films leaking into their society) believe that this kind of film-making is lecherous.

I am not positing to create a scenario of censorship, nor am I saying that we cannot have freedom of expression, so don't jump on me for that. I am only saying that with the current system that exists in America with the media and the need of media (or assumed need; you can argue against this but it is an undercurrent in our American philosophy that if one is not connected with the media they are out of sync) it is not fair to force people to be fed dirt.

Ahem.

Creatively, expressed, artistic dirt. With exquisite little swirls of color, and fancy flying special effects.

But it comes out the same. "Crap."

When were you in 11th grade?

The novel also has significant roots in The Epic of Gesar, Journey to the West (Xi You Ji), and classic American road novels like On the Road, Catcher in the Rye, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Most of those books are epics, so this book when finished is going to be very large, but how big, I can't say yet because I haven't started writing it yet and I'm not sure. The novel will also be Surreal, with landscapes and characters morphing and changing, rather than a static world.

So to answer your question, I'm not sure if it is possible, but I'm hoping so. I might be setting my sights a little too far ahead. We'll see.

I have enormous respect for Easterly. Two years ago I read his book, "The Elusive Quest for Growth," and my thinking about social reform and economic policies was drastically changed, and I recommend that book to everyone I know who is interested in the subject.

Sach's approach to dealing with poverty seems (I will give him the benefit of the doubt for being an intelligent man) irresponsible and in general, assuming that man in power has a greater capacity to do good than evil. I do not agree with Sachs, and much of his book angered me that he would write such, pardon the term, drivel. I initially bought the book because of his influence he apparently has with it. Similar to Amartya Sen's book, "Development as Freedom," which in my opinion, is totally oblivious to the issue of intra-cultural concerns regarding even the concept of freedom as being a western concept. Both Sachs and Sen seem to be in the same camp, of believing that a unilateral power in the UN to make change in relieving debt, controlling the population of African babies through the use of birth control, and increasing the power of UN intervention on a worldwide scale, is going to bring positive change. To me, this seems juvenile, as if we decided to ignore historical fact and dwell on balmy idealism.

I always enjoy Easterly, and especially appreciated the link to his argument, so thank you. I used Sachs Differential Diagnosis for this particular list because it seems to me to be a good world-building technique. If one were to fill in the blanks from the diagnosis during the process of creating a world, many questions would be answered that might not normally have come up, revealing a much deeper civilization and a very interesting place to visit. Although it could be said that Sachs is writing from a bias, and therefore his diagnosis is tainted, I think good can come out of it.

100 reads! Woo hoo!

What do you see as narrow and conservative about saving sex for marriage?

I hope it is useful to writers who need some inspiration.