I read a lot of fantasy literature. Now, to me… that means I read books with swords, sorcery and Orcs. I read about empires overthrown by the power of dragons and unbridled Chaos. Elves and trolls. You know the score. Anyway. If I told someone else I read fantasy books, would they think the same thing? I don’t know.
So, if I said I had a fantasy calendar hung in my house, what would you think then? More spell-wielding wizards and frightening wraiths? Or some soft porn? Is ‘fantasy literature’ the stuff that seems to appear most regularly in WH Smiths situated in motorway service stations? The reading matter with ladies in lingerie on the front cover, or a touch of leather?
Where am I going with this – except for skirting around the whole matter of perception and the degrees of understanding hampered my personal tastes and interests? Well, my wife does a lot of good works – helps with charities stores, supports animal welfare concerns, that sort of thing. And, she offloads the things we don’t need any more through the Freecycle Network. Well, she advertised a Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell fantasy calendar on Freecycle Stockport (suitable for cutting up into prints for the connoisseur of fantasy) – and one of the over-zealous moderators banned the offer on the basis that he (or she, I’m not sure!) thought fantasy meant soft porn – of the Page 3 variety.
That’s where I was going before.
And, what I have to ask is – where does the mind of this moderator dwell that his first reaction to the words ‘fantasy calendar’ leans immediately into the realms of soft porn?
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