While reading the small print on the last page of this month's issue of Fables, I saw the funniest thing:
"Subscriptions to this title are offered only to readers who attest they are 18 years of age or older, or with written parental approval to readers under 18 years of age."
This seems so strange to me. Does that meant that, along with the money, you actually have to write a note saying that you're 18? This seems like such a pathetic attempt to avoid potential problems ("You sent this comic to my son? But it sometimes has bad words in it!") as to be utterly ineffectual. What I also found strange about this, is that it seems to disagree somewhat with the front cover of the comic, which reads "suggested for mature readers." So it's okay to read it if you're under 18 (they just don't recommend it?), but don't you dare subscribe to it! Bizarre.
Small print never fails to amuse.
3 comments:
I think there are a few things at work here:
- 1. Covering their legal asses.
- 2. It might have something to do with making sure the person is of a reasonable age to be able to make informed financial decisions.
Also, I don't see the contradiction at all with the "suggested for mature readers". Someone working in a comic shop might question a 10-year old's decision to pick this up - they're just trying to do the same via mail, and you sure can't go off of someone's looks by mail.
What I'm saying is, it all makes sense to me.
This has nothing to do with anything, except that the minute I read it, I knew you would love it.
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INTERVIEWER: Have you read The Da Vinci Code?
ECO: Yes, I am guilty of that too.
INTERVIEWER: That novel seems like a bizarre little offshoot of Foucault’s Pendulum.
ECO: The author, Dan Brown, is a character from Foucault’s Pendulum! I invented him. He shares my characters’ fascinations—the world conspiracy of Rosicrucians, Masons, and Jesuits. The role of the Knights Templar. The hermetic secret. The principle that everything is connected. I suspect Dan Brown might not even exist.
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That is wonderful. Oh Eco, how I love you so!
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