Curiosa: O RLY?

[nebroadwe]

My nominee for world's most misleading advertising slogan, seen in the children's department of Borders:

Books are
safe gifts
for kids.

Uh-huh. You just go on thinking that ...

Comments

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I suspect the point there is to say, "Hey, here's a good gift that won't be recalled because the paper has an accidental neurotoxin in it!" Or somesuch nonsense like that.

Oh, I'm pretty sure that's all that's meant. On the other hand, I don't rule out the possibility of deliberate irony on the part of the local staff, whatever corporate HQ and middle marketing management thought they were intending to convey. :-)

I personally can't wait for The Golden Compass to be on the big screen and the whole His Dark Materials controversy to flare up again. There's nothing quite like subversive childrens' literature to get the blood pumping, eh?

It's about time Pullman got his due as the Real Subversive among the theists who care about such things. Maybe they'll leave Rowling alone once they see something truly dedicated to knocking the props out from under their worldview. (Mind you, I don't think it's altogether successful; by the third book I was rolling my eyes at his metaphysics and wishing he'd tone the polemic down to something below deafening. Pratchett's just as subversive, but hugely less shrill.)