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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 6, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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No. Adult or Grown Up has become increasingly code for "Grimdark" or "violent, profane, and depressing." Depth is equated with cynicism and obscenity. If those are your options, might as well stick with the kids stuff.

C.S. Lewis:

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

When I was 12, I'd watch a boring foreign film about Mexican politics and the homoeroticism underlying Latino machismo and not understand 90% of the message, because I'd heard there were tits somewhere in it and I could get the DVD. At 30, telling me a movie has tits in it does not make me want to watch it, I'm indifferent to it. I'm neither offended by a film using nudity and sex to useful effect to talk about the human psyche; nor impressed by a story that throws in an obligatory shot of tits to irrelevant scenes.

Strip out the adolescent delight that self-consciously "adult" fans take in over-the-top violence or obscenity, and a lot of the Adult-Targeted media is trash, with themes less interesting and philosophy shallower than the "kids stuff."