Fantasy literature
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
I saw that on Jeffrey Turner’s sig in the alt.usage.english newsgroup. I don’t know if it was original with him, or an unattributed quotation from someone else, but I liked it, so I thought I’d put it here.
Notes from underground 