“How an ordinary book, a children’s book, is being hyped — every day and every minute — just to get consumers to buy, buy, buy!”

“What book, Old Timer?”

“You know darn well what book. Don’t make me madder than I am. I won’t pronounce the title. It’s already had billions too much publicity. Plus a movie coming out. Can’t anybody but me see the manipulation of the public going on?”

“But is it worth getting into such a lather?”

“We the People are being used! Just to sell books, movie tickets, brand name merchandise. And people who should know better fall for it. Opinion leaders. Alleged advisers on parenting. You’ll see cameras and microphones when the books go on sale — at midnight! This is crowd hysteria, whipped up and commercialized.” …

“So what would you do?”

“Warn the public they’re being used. What’s on sale is only a so-so juvenile fiction — not exactly trash but with plots based on magical escapes, wizardry, never-never stuff. What’s a kid going to learn about the real world from that?”

“But fairy tales have always been big.”

“Sure, classic storytelling. But also Edgar Allen Poe’s tales, and ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ‘Black Beauty,’ ‘Rip Van Winkle.’ And how about the ‘Arabian Nights,’ the ‘Odyssey,’ Jules Verne’s novels, ‘Treasure Island,’ Tolstoy’s short pieces, ‘Ivanhoe.’ I could go on and on, at a fraction of the price. Or at the library, free…

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://tinyurl.com/37h74v