To Open The Sky

The Nature of this Content

There are no pornographic pictures here. The only images are those of the covers of the books, and these can also be found on book-selling sites like Amazon. Unless you were offended by "Seven of Nine", a character on Star Trek Voyager, you won't be offended by the images here.

As for the words, I occasionally describe sexual behavior or characteristics in explicit terms. In many cases, it is impossible to discuss the contents of the books without doing this. Of course, I could simply rate the books, in effect saying "This is a good book" or "This book is a waste." But where's the value in that? I might as well just put up the roster with its numerical ratings and save time for both of us. For that matter, if I did that I wouldn't need this section at all.

Selection of Titles

Like those in the general roster, the titles here were selected during browsing at bookstores. Thus they are, in that sense, randomly selected — but not blindly selected. Based on my inspection at the store, I expected them to contain useful information. Sometimes I was disappointed, but not often.

Reason for Segregating these Books

To put it crudely, the reason is CDA CYA. The most extreme provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 were struck down by the Supreme Court. However, the restrictive spirit that spawned them has not gone away, and politicians continue to introduce bills to protect children from the harms lurking on the Internet.

Are there things that might harm children on the Internet? Yes. Should children be protected against inadvertent exposure to such harmful things? Certainly. I don't believe that anything here falls into the "harmful to children" category.1 Nevertheless, I'm taking some trouble to isolate the material that could conceivably disturb very young or sensitive children, to warn visitors before they enter, and to exclude those who wish to avoid any sexual content whatsoever.2

Garish and forbidding, here it comes...