Random picture + literary concerns

[eleneariel]

My favorite poem I keep it on a card tucked into the corner of my dresser mirror.

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What do you say to someone who accuses you of reading fantasy--indeed, fiction of any sort--to "escape" from reality? Someone who thinks reality and reality only is the stuff of life, and any foray into something not reality shows a 1) weakness of character or 2) lack of stomach to face the real world?

This hasn't happened recently, but every so often someone will make an offhand comment insinuating that because they only read non-fiction, they have a better handle on life than I do. I'd like to have some stock answers prepared besides the snotty ones that seem to slip out about how narrow the circle of their mind is, etc.

Imagination isn't evil, folks.

(This brought on by reading "Usher II", from Bradbury's Martian Chronicles.)