Since we're fighting anecdote-based universal censorship decisions
with more anecdotes, here's mine: My son and his friends used to
watch 1-2 'slasher' movies (they prefered the genre name
'slice-and-dice') every afternoon after school, when they weren't
making up extremely violent Dungeons & Dragons adventures. One of my
son's friends is now teaching in Namibia for the Peace Corps, and
another is getting a masters degree in philosophy. But the most
horrible outcome is my son's - he has become a Buddhist, and torments
me every time I swat a mosquito! I wish I had totally prohibited
violent videos during his adolescence - I could now kill as many bugs
as I want to with impunity.
Stephen Brophy
Cambridge, Mass.
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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite