Re: [HOE] Urban Renewal cover

["B.D. Flory" <bflory@frontiernet.net>]

| <possible spoilers, but I'll be vague>
| 
| Take the picture, and drop the age of the chick by about 10-12 years or
so, 
| and you have a scene directly from one of the nightmares.

I'm being a little less vague, so...











| A possibility - (I have no direct information on this) is that there was
an 
| mistake over the definition of "young girl" when the artwork was ordered 
| and there wasn't time enough to get a correction done in order to get the

| book out by GenCon.

I assume you're referring to the Pet Semetary nightmare, yes? If so, I can
see your point.  However, I don't recall any point in the adventure where
she's specifically depicted as "naked".  Skimming through, I do find  a
reference to "naked feet", but that's it.
If that is in fact the intent, the cover is somewhat forgivable, strictly
on the naked woman count.  It would probably be a mistake, however, to show
a naked 12 year old... ;P

| Why not give it a few more books to see what happens before crying foul?

I'll admit my initial post was a little...vehement.  But to be quite
honest, I'd really rather not see PEG make a habit of stuff like this.  The
earlier something is said, the better.

Honestly, I'd have a problem with PEG if they went PC, as well.  See, thus
far, they've done a wonderful job of balancing a certain amount of
necessary Political Corectness (ie, Slavery is out in the Weird West), but
not sacrificing the believability or internal consistency of the story and
setting to that purpose.  Take the fact that there are no women soldiers in
the Weird West, for example.  Sure, they had pretty good reasons for
opening up generally male-dominated roles to women.  Roles such as Sheriff,
Buffalo Hunter, etc.  That said, it would have been an extremely difficult
thing to introduce female soldiers in a believable fashion, so they nixed
it.  Another great example is the use of the term Indian in the Weird West
books- hell, even in some HoE books.  Could it possibly offend someone?
Probably.  But the fact is, the term was used in 1877.  If a Union soldier
from 1877 suddenly spouted Native American, or American Indian, that would
do a pretty good job of unhitching *my* suspenders of disbelief.

It's a fine line, and Kudos go to PEG for walking it as well as they have. 
I'd just like to see them stay on the line, rather than fall to one side
like they seem to have for the UR cover.

B. D. Flory

"There are four types of homicide: felonious, culpable, justifiable, and
praiseworthy."
                                                   -Oscar Wilde