And it seems to me that curiosity is an amazing weapon in the industrial espionage arsenal, as is the apparency of having obtained something for nothing -- http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=95556&WT.svl=column1_1...
....
It's letters like this one that make me glad that I don't do a problems page...
I really love your work and I think you're a very talented writer. However, I recently read Good Omens and my girlfriend who happens to be a devout christian caught me reading it (I had to read it while she slept beside me, otherwise bad things could (and did) occur). Yes, I probably should have read it in the bathroom or something. :)
I know this sounds absurd, but do you have any suggestions for getting her back? I love her and I love you. I don't know what to do.
-seymour
Your girlfriend left you because she caught you reading Good Omens next to her in bed? And she left you because she's a "devout Christian"? Had she read Good Omens and not liked it and told you not to read it too, or is it just the sort of book that she'd leave a boyfriend over without actually reading?
I keep trying to understand this one, and just end up with my mind sort of boggling.
I think that any attempt you make to get back together with her is going to have to involve you getting across to her the concept of fiction. It's made-up stories. They don't imperil anybody's immortal soul. Possibly pointing out that there isn't actually a verse of the bible where Jesus slags off funny fiction and explains that people who think that Good Omens is funny will send you straight to hell, then warns that there's a special place in Hell for people who read Harry Potter books too, might work. Or she might just think you were being facetious. Pointing out that Good Omens wound up nominated for a major religious fiction award in 1989, that I once got a fan letter about it from an Anglican bishop, and that most religious people find it, er, funny might also be a good idea -- better still would be getting her to read it too and having a discussion about the ideas in it if you want to have some kind of future together in which you can exchange ideas and communicate without fear.
Failing that, I can't see that life is going to be much fun if you wind up spending the rest of it with someone who forces you to sneak into the bathroom at night to get your secret fix of fictional matter. You can give up reading things by me for the rest of your life (I don't mind, I'll cope) but someone who leaves you because you're reading Good Omens is probably going to want you to give up reading an awful lot of other stuff as well before she'll come back. Good Omens is the equivalent of a lightweight gateway drug to the world of heretical ideas in fictional form. Think of the precautions you'd have to take to make sure you weren't discovered before you'd be able to read Dan Brown, or Preacher...