问答题 What is the point of telling you about this second book? Well, it all hinges on the dates involved. The latter story was written in the early 1960s, whereas the Goosebumps series dates from the 1990s. (46) This makes the point rather dear: The sands have shifted radically in 30 years. A "debunking" book like this is no longer fashionable. Who today wants to read about anything as thought-provoking and "uncool" as debunking? Where once a movie was commonplace? (47) The "magical realism" movement, where natural and supernatural events happily converge, has become enormously influential in serious literature, as well. Movie and television viewers and readers of serious literature are given the tacit message that me line between the natural and supernatural is blurry, and perhaps even nonexistent.
Not surprisingly, concomitant with these high--and pap--culture trends comes a profoundly disturbing collective shift in attitude. (48) The general public no longer views science, let alone the ultimate truths of the universe, with a sense of awe and mystery, but instead considers it conservative and mundane, "trapped" in logical thinking. It is as if the shackles of rigidity have been removed when "open-minded" attitudes are conveyed on television, in books, in movies about ESP, UFQ, or any of a thousand other varieties of alleged paranormal phenomena. (49) The great danger, in my estimation, is not so much that vast numbers of children and adults will get sucked wholesale into truly goofy belief systems, but that they will be misled into accepting the implicit message that science is boring, conservative, dose-minded, devoid of mystery, and a negative force in society. Again, this message is not overt, but tacit, perhaps not even consciously intended. Yet it is precisely this subliminality that makes it so insidious and dangerous.
I have no quick fixes. I do not know how to quickly and easily repair decades of damage. I do not even fully understand why the sands have shifted so radically. (50) All I can do is look on in sadness and worry about the future of rational inquiry, bemoaning the loss of awe toward genuine mysteries that our society was once lucky enough to possess.